My contact in Lima offers the following commentary on the MRTA in Lima:
"I think in general, revolutionaries should be treated as such. I am
very sad they all died. But these people took their action very seriously,
they were prepared to kill both hostages and military. They knew what they
were getting into and were prepared to die (they, better than anyone, knew
the Peruvian military would leave no one alive). If one wants to honor them,
they should be honored as fighters which is what they were. For my part, I
think there could have been a peaceful solution with more innovative
negotiation tactics and especially if an offer to find a peaceful solution
to armed struggle in Peru would have been proferred. I also think armed
struggle is completely counterproductive in Peru. The MRTA cannot win but
they can provoke more repression from which the rest of the population will
suffer. No one needs this. They cannot win because they will never get the
support of the peasants/indigenous people from the Andes who will not follow
their leadership nor their ideology. Peruvian peasant communities are very
well organized (community by community, that is) and are unconvinced by the
arguments of all those Leftists who have always come with promises and left
- in the case of revolutionaries - death and suffering in their wake. This
is why the MRTA is not in the mountains but the jungle where there are no
peasant communities, for the most part. There is a great deal to be done in
Peru but peaceful political organization is much more likely to be effective
than violence. But what is needed is peaceful organization which is not
guided blindly by ideology but includes a real understanding and respect for
Peruvian popular sectors and what they really want now. Peru is not the
country for messianic marxists, possessors of the truth and unwilling to
listen to those they allegedly are trying to help."
--from a progressive U.S. social scientist residing in Peru.
