Latin America's Wars Volume II by Robert L. Scheina

Author:Robert L. Scheina
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Potomac Books Inc.
Published: 2003-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

PERU, 1962-63

In Peru, Castro first helped a group of university students who came to Cuba to learn revolutionary warfare. As the Trotskyte Hugo Blanco49 was being hunted down by the Peruvian military, thirty-five Cuban-trained guerrillas, long on political theory and short on guerrilla training, were entering Peru from the southwest. They were coming to rescue Blanco even though he was probably ignorant of their efforts. The guerrillas flew to La Paz and then trekked 400 miles across the Bolivian highlands and jungle. An advanced party of six reached Puerto Maldonado, Peru (525 mi E of Lima), on May 14. The police, who were on the alert, discovered them the following day and the six guerrillas were all killed, including the twenty-one-year-old poet Javier Heraud,50 in a one-sided shoot-out. Those not in the advanced party hid in Bolivia.51

Coinciding with the destruction of the Cuban-trained guerrillas and the capture of Blanco, a new guerrilla force began to take shape within Peru. These future guerrillas were the more radical members of the socialistic Aprista Party who had been expelled in 1959. Initially, they adopted the name APRA Rebelde, but by June 1962 they felt that the association with the old party was a liability, so they changed their name to the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria—MIR). Their leader, Luis de la Puente,52 did meet with the Trotskyte Hugo Blanco in October 1962, but their philosophical differences were too great to permit a combined effort.

From May 1963 through early 1965, these city-bred guerrillas vainly tried to establish a rapport with the Indian peasants in the vicinity of their preselected focos (base camps) in the Andes. In part their failure was due to the fact that the Peruvian government had already enacted some land reforms.53

The guerrillas projected three areas of operation. The Tupac Amaru foco, led by Guillermo Lobatón, was to operate due east of Lima, centered around the town of Satipo (168 mi E of Lima). The Javier Heraud foco, led by Héctor Béjar, was to concentrate southeast of the capital in the vicinity of Ayacucho (207 mi SE of Lima). The Pachacutec foco, led by Luis de la Puente and Rubin Tupayachi, was to operate south of Lima, near Cuzco (348 mi SE of Lima). A fourth foco was to be established on the Ecuadorian border, but it never materialized.

Apparently, the guerrillas were to begin operations in the northern regions and, once army troops had been drawn into that area, those to the south would attack. In May 1965 the leaders of the various focos met at de la Puente’s camp near the village of Maranura and drew up a fifteen-page “Revolutionary Proclamation.” This document outlined their goals but alerted the government to the immediacy of guerrilla operations.

The Tupac Amaru foco was the first to go into action. It began operations in the vicinity of the Andamarca River Valley, almost due east of Lima. On June 9, 1965, the guerrillas raided a powder storage depot at the Santa Rosa mine and escaped with large quantities of dynamite.

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