GUERRILLA FRONT ACTIVE IN PERU
LIMA -- In the first part of March, the oligarchy's daily papers reported some news that was partly accurate. It dealt with the existence of a revolutionary center in the zone of La Convencién, located in a strategic place called "Mesa Pelada"™ in the district of Echarate.
The truth is that this zone, known among the revolutionists as Illary Chasca ("Estrella del Amanecer" ), is held by the first real guerrilla group .to appear in the country. It has taken the name of "Guerrilla Pachacutec."
It is composed of some dozens of men, most of them peasant, student and workers! leaders, headed by Luis de la Puente Uceda, general secretary of the MIR * [Movimiento de Tzquierda Revolucionario -~- Left Revolutionary Movement].
A 38-year-old lawyer, Luis de la Puente is a well-known leader of the revolutionary movement who left the APRA [Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana] when it became an ally of the oligarchy and a faithful servant of imperialism.
For. about a year, Luis .de la Puente and the leaders collaborating with him have been in this zone, organizing a revolutionary ~ base which. now has strong influence throughout La Convencién and the adjoining areas like Lares, Ocobamba, Lucumayo, Urubamba and even the departments of Puno and Apurimac. In this center of revolutionary work, peasant union leaders receive political as well as military training. =
The development of the organization was made possible thanks to the support of the peasants in the area, They have had enough of promises to solve the agrarian problem. They have learned through direct experience that a genuine agrarian reform -oan be accomplished
only by: the peasants themselves. Having experienced continual police violence, the perversion of justice, the farce of Popular Co~ operation and the colonial nature of the infamous Peace Corps, they understand clearly that armed struggle, beginning with guerrilla . fighters, is the only road to definitively eradicating the exploitation and misery which are constantly growing | worse in the highlands of the country.
Some months ago one of the hacendados [big landholders] of the region reported the continual transit of men and equipment toward the zone, The Guardia Civil, the PIP [Policfa de Investigaciones Peruanas], and the Servicia de Inteligencia then. launched investigations. On two occasions they sent patrols to reconnoiter, but they did not discover a trace of the revolutionists. The topography of the zone is wild and covered with vegetation, permitting those who know it to hide out, change location and cover up their tracks in this region where even the paths are difficult to follow.
Despite the previous failures, a company of the Guardia Civil is again trying to penetrate the "Tliary Chasca." About one hundred men of the Cuerpos Especiales [Special Bodies] of the Guardia Civil are engaged in this operation. They are carrying the most modern equipment in anticipation of any kind of emergency.
During their investigations in the area, the repressive forces subjected the inhabitants to all kinds of pressure, including prison and torture, in their efforts to compel the peasants to help them liquidate the revolutionary group. But the peasants refused to be intimidated, They have suffered brutal police repression on previous occasions and still remember with bitterness the massacre at the Chaullay bridge in which dozens of peasants were murdered and their bodies thrown into the river, (It is still not known how many were killed on that fateful afternoon in December 1962.) Participation in union struggles by the peasants of La Convencién still means prison sentences, continual attacks, requisitions and police persecution, .
Many of the leaders sought by the police are now part of the Guerrilla Pachacutec. The main collaborators of Luis de la Puente, they are intimately linked with the peasantry of the valley who recognize them as the men who have sacrificed everything for the liberation of their brothers. . Because of all this, the Guerrilla Pachacutec can count on the solidarity, the sympathy and hopes of thousands of peasants in the region. —
The police have converted ‘the whole area into a military zone. The Cuzco-Huadquina-Quillabamba road is closely guarded as are all possible routes leading to the Mesa Pelada. The objective is to encircle the zone and at the same time launch a main attack force and liquidate the guerrilla fighters militarily.
But. the guerrilla forces are able to follow the troop move-
ments perfectly and are prepared to confront the repressive forces with the advantage offered by the wildness of the region they hold.
Meanwhile the social crisis engendered by the failure to solve the agrarian problem is constantly growing sharper. The big peasant movement around economic demands which shook the region two years ago, is again stirring. This time it has armed backing such as it has not had before.
Cuzco, and particularly La Convencién, are again becoming the axis of the social revolution in Peru,
"IZVESTIA" CENSORS SARTRE
_ The process of “de-Stalinization," introduced in the Soviet Union by Khrushchev, has led to many welcome changes from the viewpoint of the working class. But the rule of the bureaucratic caste remains basically unchanged, and many of the revolting customs of Stalin's day have undergone but little modification.
One of these is censorship -- a censorship that even extends to loyal friends and defenders of the Soviet Union. A current example is provided by the handling of Jean-Paul Sartre's explana~ tion of why he cancelled an opportunity to make a tour of the United States. Sartre's explanation contains strong denunciation of the American aggression in North Vietnam. ' [See World Outlook April 9.]
. It was translated and printed in the April 6 issue of Izvestia -- but with an amputation. This was the first paragraph of Sartre's answer to the question: "Certain newspapers say that you are more willing to condemn the Americans than the Soviets."
"In view of the facts, that's a straight lie," responded Sartre. "Together with Merleau-Ponty, in my magazine Les Temps Modernes, I condemned the Stalinist labor camps when their existence was proved. I violently condemned the Soviet intervention in Budapest in an interview in Express of which the gist was reproduced in most dailies," -
Sartre then went on to explain that despite his criticisms, he did not equate the two camps of "the East and the West." “It is necessary to know which side you are on," he said, "without losing sight of the critical judgment that is an intellectual's duty."
All of Sartre's statement supporting "the East" was printed in. Izvestia, except the paragraph recalling his condemnation of the Stalinist labor camps and Khrushchev's’ intervention in Budapest. "De-Stalinization" is a good thing -- but even Sartre should watch that tongue of his.