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5. Youth, Peasants, and Political Violence: Ayacucho, 1980–1983
- University of Wisconsin Press
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113 5 Youth, Peas ants, and Po lit i cal Vi o lence Ay a cu cho, 1980–1983 On 17 May 1980, in the com mu nity of Chus chi (Ay a cu cho), the Com mu nist Party of Peru–Shin ing Path (Sen dero Lu mi noso) launched its self-proclaimed “people’s war.” At the time, Sen dero was ba si cally a re gional party, with very small groups out side of its prin ci pal base, the De part ment of Ay a cu cho. This base largely con sisted of uni ver sity pro fes sors and stu dents, and school teach ers (based through out the rural pri mary and sec on dary school system). In other writ ings, I have sought to ex plain how the en coun ter between in tel lec tu als and young stu dents in the Uni ver si dad Na cional de San Cristóbal de Hu amanga (UNSCH, Ay a cu cho) oc curred, and its ev o lu tion dur ing the 1970s (De gre gori 1985a, 1989a, 1990). Al though Shin ing Path began to send ca dres to rural zones dur ing 1977–78, by 1980 the or gan iza tion was far from hav ing a sig nifi cant pres ence among the pea santry, even that of Ay a cu cho. How ever, when the armed forces en tered and took political-military con trol of the De part ment of Ay a cu cho shortly after Christ mas 1982, Sen dero had al ready achieved the “semi lib er a tion” of ap prox i mately 80 per cent of rural areas in the north ern prov inces of Ay a cu cho, and was pre pared to lay siege on Hu amanga, the de part men tal cap i tal. How was it pos sible to ex pand the “people’s war” so greatly in barely two and a half years? This text seeks to begin to an swer this ques tion, as well as to an a lyze peas ant re sponses to the pres ence of Shin ing Path, re sponses that largely marked the lim its of Sendero’s ad vance. I draw on tes ti mo nies gath ered from peas ants, small mer chants, pro fes sors, and sec on dary school stu dents who lived through that ex pe ri ence in ap prox i mately a dozen com mu nities in the 114 Yo u t h , P e a s a n t s , a n d P o l i t i c a l V i o l e n c e prov inces of Can gallo, Vilcashuamán, Sucre, Hu an ca san cos, Hu anta, and La Mar. Two of my in for mants were, for a time, Shin ing Path mil i tants. The vi o lence in the re gion im peded the system atic col lec tion of tes ti mo nies. Some I have gath ered per son ally, oth ers via col leagues and friends in Ay a cu cho. The in ter view ees do not con sti tute a rep re sen ta tive sam ple, and they an swered ques tions only to the ex tent they chose, or were able, to do so. Given these lim i ta tions, and the fact this is a first read ing of the tes ti mo nies, my claims here should be taken as hypoth e ses that will con tinue to be tested. Prior to mov ing into the main themes, I note two points: (1) The weak ties Shin ing Path had with or ga nized sec tors and, in par tic u lar, the pea santry around 1980 were due to a se ries of re ver sals the party suf fered dur ing the 1970s within di verse so cial or gan iza tions where it had pre vi ously ex er cised in flu ence, and to its in ca pac ity to es tab lish a sig nifi cant pres ence in new or gan iza tions that were emerg ing dur ing the sec ond half of that decade (De gre gori 1985b). How ever, these weak ties were also the con se quence of an op tion that Sen dero had been de vel op ing for sev eral...