Peru deconstructs: 'Path' hits, response misses.

Once known as the "garden city," Lima, Peru, is being called the new Beirut.

As the nation's capital, and home to more than 7 million people, Lima has become the newest target in Peru's bloody twelve-year guerilla war. In mid-July, forces of the Maoist Shining Path launched a new offensive against the city that in less than a month left more than fifty dead, hundreds wounded, and millions of dollars in damages.

The first attack, by far the most devastating, came on July 16 with the explosion of two enormous car bombs in the upscale residential and commercial district of Mira flores. Twenty two people were killed and many banks, businesses, and hotels were left in rains.

"The attack was meant to instill fear in the population and demonstrate that the country's security forces and President Alberto Fujimori's antisubversive strategy are not capable of defeating the Shining Path," said Peruvian journalist Cecilia Remon.

Citing an economic and military emergency, the popularly elected Fujimori, backed by the armed forces, suspended Peru's constitutional democracy on April 5. Municipal elections are scheduled for November, but many observers doubt the army will relinquish its newly acquired powers. Fujimori says he will continue as president until his term expires in 1995. For the present, however, the Shining Path's insurgency threatens chaos.

"I don't know what they [the Shining Path] are after," Remon said, "but if they want to attack the state they should go after other people and leave civilians alone."

Richard Cardillo, an American teaching at Lima's Roosevelt High School, whose apartment was destroyed in the bombing, said "there is an ominous sense that no one knows when the next bomb will explode. For the first time, the people of Miraflores, who once thought the violence was directed at the poor, feel that they are now targets."

Despite increased police and military presence in the streets of Lima immediately following the attack, the Shining Path waited only twelve hours to strike again, this time destroying the police station and school in the poor district of Villa El Salvador.

Unlike the people of Miraflores who have the resources to rebuild their lives and homes, the 500 families affected by the Villa El Salvador bombing had nowhere to turn. A majority of the barno's 300,000 residents are unemployed and live in precarious "estera," straw-mat houses that lack electricity and water. Recent statistics from the Labor Association for Development put the number of unemployed and underemployed in Peru at more than 80 percent.

According to Cardillo, more than the destruction of the bombing, what has stayed with him is the memory of truckloads of Villa El Salvador residents who came to Miraflores to participate in a march for peace. "The contrast between the people was incredible," he said, "but even more incredible was the solidarity that was obvious in the faces of the people. Rich and poor, Peruvians are tired of the violence. People want peace.

However, the possibility of peace seems remote, especially since Fujimori's "self coup" in which he dissolved Congress and radically restructured the judiciary. Violence has intensified since April, with more than 565 Shining Path attacks-- more than 400 in Lima alone--and more than 800 people have been killed, 356 of them civilians. In Fujimori's two years as president, more than 6,200 people have been killed as a result of political violence.

The Shining Path strategy is undoubtedly linked to the increased instability caused by the coup as well as to the nation's persistent economic problems. Although Fujimori enjoys some popular support, he has neglected the country's massive economic and social problems in an all-out effort to convince international creditors and foreign governments that his government is legitimate.

In a recent document, the Peruvian Conference of Bishops stated :"Poverty, which yesterday meant there was little to eat, today has become only the bitter taste of tears." The bishops go on to say that "Peru will not be at peace until Peruvians can feed their children."

Critics say the government, instead of listening to the warnings that increased misery and a heavy-handed, purely military response to the Shining Path would lead only to increased violence, has come up with Band-Aid solutions that have been anything but successful. The first step taken by Fujimori and his ministers after the July bombings was a redoubling of the current vehicle curfew---buses and private cars are forbidden to circulate between 10 P.M. and 5 A.M. without a safe-conduct pass--and deploying additional troops in the city. "The [demented] attack in Miraflores that took innocent lives has further strengthened the armed forces' commitment to an all-out war," Fujimori said.

After several emergency meetings, the government has implemented procedures whereby accused "terrorists" can now be tried and sentenced within twenty-four hours of being captured and most will be tried in military courts or by "faceless" judges. Stiff sentences are being imposed, and the government is also seriously considering the possibility of reestablishing the death penalty.

Regardless of the government's hardline measures, the Shining Path declared an armed strike for July 22 and 23, and Lima residents who made it to work or to school had to do so without public transport--most of the city's buses stayed in their garages. Shining Path cadres shot and burned alive one taxi driver and destroyed more than a dozen taxis and minivans.

Cardillo said that since the July 16 bombing he has been wary about leaving his apartment. "When I'm on the street I keep looking over my shoulder expecting the worst."

He is not alone in his concern. A quick look at Lima is telling: after dark the streets are empty, the usually bustling markets are chained shut, and many of the windows in the city's residential areas now sport masking tape as a protection against explosions.

"I don't feel safe," said Fanny San Miguel, who works for a local nongovernmental organization. "When I get on a bus, the only thing 1 think about is if the person sitting next to me is a subversive."

That fear appears to be what Shining Path is looking for. In its war against the state, the Shining Path wants to set the conditions for a confrontation between the military and its Popular Guerrilla Army. Indeed, many people fear that the insurgents may be gaining the upper hand militarily. According to Peru's bishops, the Shining Path, which is widely suspected of dealing extensively in the drug trade. may be able to count on 60,000 followers, far more than the 5,000 members mentioned in the U.S. State Department's annual country profile report.

In spite of twelve years of guerrilla fighting, Peru' s military continues to be geared toward a conventional war in which the enemy can be identified and attacked. "The Peruvian military is an antiquated machine, lumbering forward but unable to adjust to the war against the Shining Path," said a Peruvian journalist who asked not to be identified. "The subversives don't show their faces, no one knows who they are or where they are hiding. The government has to realize that this isn't a conventional war, but one which requires a coherent plan of military intelligence."

If this past summer is any indication, the war that has affected the interior of the country for more than a decade--more than 50 percent of Peru consists of army-controlled emergency zones--is deepening. And in spite of Fujimori's declarations, the Shining Path is not about to disappear in the near future.

Lucien Chauvin is on the staff of Latinamerica Press and is a correspondent for the Chronicle of Higher Education.