Peru : Rebellion In The Prisons
March 2001
Immediate Fulfillment Of The Demands Of The Peruvian Political Prisoners !
On March 13, the political prisoners of the Peruvian revolutionary organization MRTA (Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru) launched a rebellion occupying the high security prison of Yanamayo.
On March 22, the protest action was ended since the authorities had promised to transmit the prisoners’ demands to the central government. The political prisoners demand their immediate transportation into another prison and the definite closure of the extermination prisons of Yanamayo and Chayapallca. These high security prisons have been built by the Fujimori dictatorship and are used against the Peruvian revolutionary movement. They are located at an altitude of more then 4,000 meters in the Peruvian Andes. The Peruvian people know them under their nickname "graves for human beings", since prisoners being kept there frequently suffer from torture, low temperatures, hunger, lack of medical treatment, terrible hygienic conditions, and permanent isolation. Various human rights organizations, even the Interamerican Court for Human Rights, have condemned on numerous occasions the barbarism of Fujimori’s penal policy and have demanded the closure of these extermination prisons.
The political prisoners’ second demand is the investigation of the case involving at least three MRTA militants who participated in the siege of the Japanese embassy. According to witnesses they survived the storming of the embassy by police forces on April 22, 1997, but reappeared later on among the dead. All facts indicate an extra-judicial execution.
When the dictatorship of Fujimori and chief of the secret services Montesinos broke down, under the growing pressure by the popular democratic movement protesting the obvious election fraud integrating even parts of the army, the USA dropped Fujimori, who had guaranteed the dictatorial regime over the last few years. Thus, they managed to avoid the escalation of the popular protests that could have become dangerous for them.
Step by step the whole scandal about corruption and illegitimate enriching of the dominant class, the systematic violation of human rights, thousands of illegally imprisoned opposition activists - lacking witnesses and proof, judged by military judges with hidden faces or even without any judgment - as well as the social misery of the large majority of the peoples due to the neo-liberal policy, privatizations, and massive closures of factories - all these atrocities came to light.
Despite the apparently democratic promises of the transitional government, the political prisoners of the guerrilla organizations and many social activists are still kept in these high security prisons. This is a worrying sign since it seems already obvious that the future political leaders of Peru intend to reduce the democratic opening by turning it into a mere publicity campaign on an international scale without introducing any real changes. Thus they are negating the revolutionary opposition - which is continuing to struggle for a real change, for popular power, for a new economic system, and against neo-liberal capitalism - any possibility to openly and democratically express themselves.
The Anti-Imperialist Camp calls upon all democratic organizations internationally to pressure the Peruvian government to fulfil the demands of the political prisoners and to demand their immediate liberation.
Freedom For All Peruvian Political Prisoners !
Immediate Closure Of All High Security Prisons !
Democracy And People’s Power !
March 25, 2001