Pierre Frank to James Aronson, editor of the New York weekly National Guardian, |
_ August 16, 1965 Dear Mr. Aronson, .
In Cedric Belfrage's otherwise excellent article on the oute break of guerrilla warfare in Peru (National Guardian, July 31), there are two references to the Trotskyist peasant leader Hugo Blanco which seem to be based on misinformation and which we are sure you will want to correct.
"Tn 1959," the article states, “Hugo Blanco, an intellectual inspired by Trotsky and Fidel Castro, learned Quechua and began organizing resistance in the Convencién Valley near Cuzco, but gave himself up to the police in 1963."
Further on, the conduct of Luis de la Puente Uceda, one of the three guerrilla leaders currently in the resistance movement, is stated to be in "contrast to the mystery in which predecessor Blanco clothed his actions..." :
Hugo Blanco was an agricultural student in Buenos Aires when, inspired by the Cuban Revolution, he decided to return home to Peru to participate in the peasant struggles. Practical experience led him to conclude that while much could be learned from the Cuban example, it could not be mechanically duplicated in Peru. Adjusting his tactics to the inclinations of the peasants themselves, among whom he was very popular, he took the lead in organizing unions, These defended the daily interests of the peasants -- much Like the Peasant League organized by Francisco Juliao in Brazil -- and engaged, where conditions were favorable, in "recuperating" land from big landholders. This led to armed conflicts in which Blanco was pictured in the press as a "guerrilla' leader although he actually headed a federation of some 10,000 members whose struggles were mainly on the economic front,
The Peruvian government mounted a repressive operation like the one now directed against Luis de la Puente, Guillermo Lobatén and Gonzalo Ferndndez Gasco. Hugo Blanco was captured on May 30, 1963, when, desperately ill, he was brought by his followers down out of the mountains in search of clandestine medical treatment. Blanco did not give himself up any more than Castro did after the affair at the Moncada barracks, At the time, the press reported that Blanco was charged with "responsibility" for the death of "five
rural policemen" killed during skirmishes with the land-hungry peasants.
As for the "mystery" in which "Blanco clothed his actions..." Che Guevara had this to say in an interview given in Algiers, July 23, 1963, published in the August 3 issue of El Moudjahid: "Hugo Blanco is the head of one of the guerrilla movements in Peru. He struggled stubbornly but the repression was strong. I don't know what his tactics of struggle were, but his fall does not signify the end of the movement. It is only a man that has fallen, but the movement continues. One time, when we were preparing to make our landing from the Granma, and when there was great risk that all of us would be killed, Fidel said: t‘What is more important than us is the example we set.! It's the same thing. Hugo Blanco has set an example, a good. example, and he struggled as much as he could. But he suffered a defeat, the popular forces suffered a defeat. It's only a passing stage, Afterward will come another stage."
Guevara's tribute was not without more immediate reason than reference to the general example set by Hugo Blanco. At the end of October 1962 during the Caribbean crisis, Hugo Blanco, as a demonstra-~ tion of solidarity in behalf of the Cuban Revolution, led a march of 5,000 peasants from villages in the Andes into Cuzco. They occupied the city for several hours before withdrawing. The action received due publicity in Peru at the time.
Readers of the National Guardian will undoubtedly be interested in the way