Shining Path To Continue `People's War'
BFN   ["Exclusive" report by Angel Paez]  [Text] The Shining Path Central Committee, comprised of leaders who have still not been arrested and alternate members elected by the Shining Path congress in 1988, held a meeting in February that was presided over by Oscar Ramirez Durand, a.k.a. "Comrade Feliciano." During the meeting, the Shining Path Central Committee decided to continue the "people's war" and to consider those members who uphold the peace accord with the government to be removed from the party "by their own free will." The document entitled "To Grow Strong on the Grounds of Partisan Unity and Conquer Power" [Reafirmarse en la Base de Unidad Partidaria y Construir la Conquesta del Power], which contains the conclusions of the Shining Path event, criticizes the leaders under arrest who try to convince the militants still operating to "uphold the great decision and definition," that is, Abimael Guzman's appeal for the Shining Path to end hostilities against the Peruvian state. A Shining Path pamphlet dated February, which is signed by the leaders under arrest, asserts that "the people's war has ended, and (therefore) to continue refusing to uphold (the "great decision and definition") means obstructing the Peace Accord and placing the life of President Gonzalo and other comrades at stake." But the Central Committee meeting in February disqualified the arrested leaders, stating that "it is an international communist rule that no leader can lead (the party or a war) from prison." According to the Maoist theory, a militant who is in prison loses his operational capacity when he is isolated from reality, and therefore is assigned another type of job. In March, the National Counterterrorism Directorate [Dincote] learned about the Shining Path meeting, according to an intelligence report datelined 31 March that states it was held in Razuhuillca, Huanta Province, Ayacucho. As a result, Peruvian Air Force troops carried out operations in the aforementioned area during the second week of April. The operations, however, were unproductive. Dincote also obtained information according to which "Feliciano" presided over the meeting, during which it was decided to start a new phase of the "people's war" as well as plan an operation to rescue Abimael Guzman, dead or alive, at any cost. The five-point document issued at the end of the meeting is attached to lengthy citations of speeches by Abimael Guzman and documents signed by him that show why the war must not end. The following is one of the citations chosen by the Shining Path Central Committee to uphold its decisions: "Always taking into account the glorious actions of the people's war, the people's war cannot end. The leadership may be wiped out completely or partially, but those leaders who are not must and can continue carrying out plans, the struggle, the people's war. We were taught that the revolution will not stop, will not become paralyzed." This was selected from the document entitled "To Conquer Power in the Midst of the People's War" that was drafted during the Second Shining Path Central Committee Plenum, when Guzman was still free. The document even mentions what must be done with those who uphold peace and put down arms: "There are two reasons for surrendering: to surrender in view of local reaction and to surrender in view of international reaction. This is always the case. Its purpose is to ruin the revolution. Those who surrender, therefore, are no good, and must be wiped out through fire and bloodshed." (Preliminary Session of the Second Plenum). The first of the five points discussed during the meeting refers to "reasserting" the agreements reached during the Third Central Committee Plenum, which was held in March 1992 and headed by Abimael Guzman Reinoso. This plenum was labeled "glorious, historic, and momentous" as it planned the terrible wave of violence unleashed by the Shining Path in July 1992. During the 1992 partisan meeting, it was stated that during an adverse situation the party should draft "a new plan, taking into account the experience of the past years, establish new axes, sub-axes, guidelines, and lines of action with a nationwide criteria (...), seek new ways to develop and set up strategic military plans, and establish, for example, those objectives and carry them out on an established date." It seems that the Third Central Committee Plenum's assessment of what was happening to the Shining Path was negative and, therefore, it was decided to unleash a fierce wave of violence in order to conceal the weaknesses of the Maoist organization. The second point of the document of the Central Committee meeting presided over by "Feliciano" highlights the agreements of the Working Meeting of the Shining Path leadership held in August 1993, almost one year after Guzman was arrested, and during which the implementation of the agreements of the Third Plenum held in March 1992 was discussed. During the working meeting, and in addition to approving the efforts to "step up investigations to determine the sanctions for those who are found responsible" for contributing to the arrest of Abimael Guzman, it was agreed, among other issues: 1. To defend the life of "President Gonzalo" by widely preaching our ideology, by showing great courage, placing even our lives at stake, by keeping our red and invincible flag flying high, and by pursuing our unwavering objective: communism." 2. To reassert the conclusions of the Third Central Committee Plenum (March 1992), "personally presided over by President Gonzalo, whose victorious appearance revealed its glorious, historic, and momentous nature; the second most important milestone after the congress (held in 1988)." 3. To reassert the three strategies: the political strategy: to conquer power; the military strategy: the people's war, to develop the war of movements and promote arrangements for the uprising of cities; and the construction strategy: to make arrangements to conquer power in the midst of the people's war. Based on the conclusions of the Third Plenum and the Working Meeting, the Central Committee, during the meeting in February presided over by "Feliciano," reasserted "the principle of revolutionary violence as a universal law expressed in the people's war." The third point discussed during the Central Committee meeting headed by "Feliciano" referred to the militants who uphold the peace accord. The document addresses this aspect of the internal debate as: "About the Struggle Against the Counterrevolutionary Hoax and the Black Group that upholds a Right-Wing Opportunist Line (LOD)." In order to confront the Black Group or LOD, which are nothing but Shining Path militants who sign Abimael Guzman's letters and uphold his "great decision and definition" to negotiate with the government in order to end the war, the Central Committee demands that the militants "grow stronger on the Basis for Partisan Unity [Base de Unidad Partidaria, BUP]," which is the Shining Path basic principles adopted during the 1988 Congress, and "arrange for conquering power in the midst of the people's war." The Central Committee Plenum that "Feliciano" presided over in order to break away from the Black Group orders the "unleashing of a massive reassertion movement based on the BUP throughout the party, the People's Liberation Army, and among the masses of the New Power."
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