It was a car bomb, they said. People were scared, they didn’t know what was going on, it might have been paramilitary groups attacking terrorist groups, or it might have been terrorists attacking public places to set the terror, no one knew what the reality was. Car bombs were usually followed by blackouts but it was also the other way too. There was such uncertainty that no one knew what would happen next.
Peru, in South America, suffered the striking attacks of the most dangerous terrorist group in the country—the Shining Path. Led by Abimael Guzman and by his ideology based on Mao Tse Tung, Karl Marx, and Lenin, with a radical extremism, this group attempted to take over the country to have complete control of all power. According to them, the proletariat would only get their rights respected when full power was achieved.
Guzman was captured on September 12th 1992. Massive media coverage showed Peruvians the results of an extensive investigation to track down Guzman who was hiding in a middle-class house in the suburbs of Lima. In order to show Peruvians that the government had defeated the terrorists, the then-President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) ordered that Guzman be dressed in black striped clothes and be shown to the media (this was not common among other prisoners). This, he said, would show all people that the hardest to capture and most dangerous leader of the terrorists was subdued to the justice.
Just like any other kid, I would have enjoyed watching cartoons and simply not be aware of what was going on, yet blackouts terrified everyone. They could take a few hours, they could take more than that. Usually, terrorists used this method for the rest to believe that they were there, causing terror and panic. This is the situation I grew up in. Being ten years old in 1995 was also being part of the uncertainty. I remember watching the breaking news about the car bomb in Tarata (a known street in Miraflores-Lima) and new attacks. I also still remember hearing the explosion of another car bomb that killed many people in a local TV station (video is in Spanish). My mediated experience was a constant confrontation with the violent reality; my experience was not based on a single circumstance, but a phenomenon. The media played a key role in portraying the acts of terrorists but also in transmitting the countless images of dead people and car wreckage constantly. This coverage led to countless documentaries and TV shows that came up in Peru and in international TV shows as well. All this massive coverage had a powerful impact on people's perception of 'insurgents' (this is how Shining Path followers called themselves). People simply considered them as criminals.
Terrorists leaders were finally incarcerated. Car bombs are now in the past but the terrifying experiences and testimonies of those who first-hand witnessed everything and who became victims are still in the present.
The irony of the story: the Shining Path darkened thousands of lives in Peru between 1980 and 2000. According to a commission that investigated the impact and effects of what is now known as the internal war in Peru, thousands of people died.
Peru, through this internal war, experienced the most dramatic moments in its history. I believe that the media coverage was crucial in depicting not only Abimael Guzman as a diabolic person but also in depicting them as a defeated force, all dressed in black striped clothes. Though Guzman talked about a reformism and a new and equal redistribution of goods, facts clearly demonstrated his violent means.
Further Resources:
Visit the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (This commission was in charged of investigating and documenting the facts and effects of the internal war in Peru as well as the number of victims and the testimonies of those who survived the war in Peru)
I was too young at the time to remember hearing about this story (this is why I chose to read yours). It's amazing how symbolism and irony played a huge role in your mediated experience: the extremists were symbolically as well as literally brought to justice because of their ironic agendas that were supposed to be human rights activism. The fact that one seemingly small group reigned such terror on the country that you remember it as being an "internal war." I have heard before (and read in the text) that one truth is that history repeats itself. Again we are dealing with terrorism and violent agendas that masquerade as the better option. Your story and video was very interesting and imformative...I learned something new today!
ReplyDeleteHi Thelma,
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I also think history repeats itself. Yet things like this makes us think about new possibilities to not follow false leaders. I may only add a couple of things for further reference. Abimael Guzman was known as the 'brainwasher' because that's exactly what he did to anyone who would talk to him about social causes. He was a well educated professor at a university, a philosopher, yet his way of taking things from theory to practice demonstrated and revealed his evil personality. That's how he influenced thousands of people into rebellion. Also, the Shining Path first began to attack small towns outside Lima and people in the city could not feel that impact, yet as years went by the war was taken to the City, thus demonstrating that the Shining Path was always a dangerous group with big capacities that went from attacking small towns to setting the terror in the capital.
I remember this event too. I saw the entire video when the armed forces in collaboration with the police save the life of those people, except for one, who was a major for small town. All Latin America was concern about the situation in the Embassy. The president of Peru at that time was Fujimori, who is a Japanese origin (erroneamente el Chino.
ReplyDeleteNow his daughter wants to run for president. I think she is crazy.
After all your post is excellent. I enjoy reading it.
Good Luck.