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Ellen Ray and William H. Schaap, eds., Covert Action: The Roots of Terrorism (Melbourne & New York: Ocean Press, 2003)

I

Introduction

There has been no shortage of writing produced within and beyond Latin America on the so-called “indigenous movement,” particularly after the January 1994 insurgency in Chiapas and, especially, after the more recent events in Bolivia and Ecuador.

Hugo Blanco was one of the main organizers of the 1958-64 peasant movement in Peru. Sentenced to 25 years in prison, he was freed in 1970 after an international campaign. He participated in reorganizing the Confederación Campesina del Perú (CCP) and in founding the Partido Unificado Mariateguista, and was elected to the Peruvian Congress and Senate. Currently he is a representative of the CCP in the department of Cuzco. He is the author of Land or Death: The Peasant Struggle in Peru (1972) and Nosotros los Indios (2003).

Today the specter haunting capitalism journeys through Latin America. The region’s ongoing social and political upheaval—be it through the ballot box or direct mass action—threatens the hegemony of global capital and neoliberal ideology.

A New Way of Thinking and Acting

The insurgency was a conscious initiative of the rural masses. The conscious aspect, however, seems to have received little attention in the literature on this subject. The omission is hidden in most accounts behind metaphors which treat peasant revolts as natural phenomena.… Alternatively, an explanation is sought in terms of causes that unleash the rebellion as a kind of automatic response. In either case, the insurgency is considered as something external to peasant consciousness, and the Cause is presented as Reason in imaginary disguise.

The Revolution must be good for everyone. It is like the Old Condor of the high mountains with his white crest, who must protect all of us with his powerful wings.
-- Francisco Chipana Ramos, 1945 (quoted in Rivera)