Re: STATEMENT OF DETROIT'S PE...

[Godenas@xxxxxxx]

I have, in fact, talked to quite a number of Peruvians, but, admittedly, not
in Peru itself.  There is quite a range of opinion on the PCP, but there
seems to be a consensus against the Fujimori government usurpation of powers
(if you look closely at the election results from last spring and count those
not voting, "spoiled" or "missing" ballots, as well as those voting for the
rather housebroken "opposition," I think it is pretty apparent that Alberto
does not enjoy the type of support that is widely advertised in the west).
 But, again, it depends on who you talk to.  There is quite a disparity of
views between, say, a resident of Millaflores, and a slum dweller in San
Salvador (where a pro-"Sendero" businessmen's association won a fairly
decisive election victory a couple of years ago).  It is a commonplace to
denounce viiolence on the part of the rebels.  Such facile denunciations fall
easily from the lips of those who remain silent in the face of official state
violence, visited upon a population by an armed services intent on, in their
own words, "drowning the revolution in blood."  These are likely, in my
experience, to be the same people who silently acquiesce in the plundering of
their own people (certainly a form of denouncable "violence).  I am not one
of those who delight vicariously in violence or who exhort others to commit
violent acts.  In my own country, the U.S.,  we honor with stamps and on
currency those whose systematic violence against unprofitable and "dangerous"
natives and all people of color enshrined the "American Way of Life" into the
pantheon of human civilization.  May I be forgiven if I do not share their
descendent's revulsion against a people whose recourse to violence is
somewhat more justified?
Please tell me what you think.
                                   Louis Godena


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