In most cases, these deaths were the "We want a r agrarian refor THE MAIN ISSUES debated in the in Puno today is one of the focal against the APRA government. The Frank Slegers on August 31 in Puno.
Question. What is the structure of land holding like in the Puno region after Valasco's reforms?
Answer. Under the Velasco government an agrarian reform was carried out in Puno. The bulk of the land that was previously in the hands of big landowners is now held by business cooperatives.
In Puno, among the cooperatives formed 16 are Social Interest Agricultural Societies (SAIS), 16 are Agrarian Producers' Cooperatives (CAPS), and five are Socially Owned Rural Enterprises (ERPS). These cooperatives hold 1,800,000 hectares of land.
While there were more than 500 Indian communities on the register, only 74 have benefited from this agrarian reform, being alloted small plots of land, which have often been arid or rocky. The peasant communities have remained marginalized in this process of agrarian reform.
It should be added that a thousand communities were parcialidades and as such were not officially recognized as communities. They were not entitled to a single plot of land in this agrarian reform process.
result of outrages by the military committed by way of reprisals. The official total of victims has risen to
8,256 since 1980. But to this figure should be added thousands of "disappeared," kidnapped by the military or by the special units, the Sinchis.
The human rights organizations have made the count, but their figures are probably below the real ones. And, on top of this, thousands of people are in prison on charges of belonging to Sendero Luminoso. ≥al m" third congress of the Puno Departpoints of the mass mobilization following interview was given to
For this reason, in the department of Puno, the bulk of the land is concentrated in cooperatives. The peasant communities do not have the land. They have been pushed way up in the mountains, into the most arid and rocky areas, where irrigation is non-existent and impossible. The cooperatives have gotten the flatlands where irrigation is easy, which greatly facilitates production.
In these cooperatives, there are few peasants. Most of the peasants are in the communities or the parcialidades. The peasants, who were supposed to be partners in the cooperatives, have in fact become agricultural workers.
The situation in the department of Puno can be summed up as follows. On the one hand, we have cooperatives that include few peasants and hold a great deal of land. On the other, we have peasant communities containing the majority of the peasants, which have little land and that is of poor quality.
1.
International Viewpoint 10 November 1986 ment Peasants' Federation, held August 28-31, are described in this interview with Julian Paucar, outgoing general secretary of the or. ganization. At the center of discussion were restructuring the cooperative enterprises, distributing land to the Indian communities, peasants' self-defence and the struggle for a regional government. (1)
It had been expected that a thousand delegates would turn up, but the final number was 1,250. The fight waged by the peasants ment Peasants' Federation, held August 28-31, are described in this interview with Julian Paucar, outgoing general secretary of the or. ganization. At the center of discussion were restructuring the cooperative enterprises, distributing land to the Indian communities, peasants' self-defence and the struggle for a regional government. (1)
It had been expected that a thousand delegates would turn up, but the final number was 1,250. The fight waged by the peasants
----- panel printed with this article -----
See also the interview with Hugo Blanco in International Viewpoint No. 107, October 27, 1986.
Q. The third congress of the Peasant Federation is in progress now. What are the issues at this congress and what are its objectives?
A. In this third congress, we are going to examine the problem of the land as it arises in our region. One of our major objectives is to change the agrarian structure. We do not agree with the way the land was distributed under Velasco.
We want a real agrarian reform. And that can only be accomplished through a genuine restructuring of the cooperatives. As I have already said, these enterprises hold the bulk of the better land, and therefore we want a restructuring of land tenure. We want all these cooperatives in Puno liquidated, because this sort of cooperative is not suited to this department. It is good for nothing.
We want the land distributed to the peasant communities, to the parcialidades and to the people who work in these enterprises, who are agricultural workers. When these enterprises were created, the managers and technicians become new bosses. We want to see the domination that these managers exercise in these enterprises disappear. The laborers who are working the land should be able to manage themselves and combine to form democratic agricultural cooperatives or give more than a million hectares to the people in various communities, but nothing was delivered. As a result, in this congress, we are going to decide to carry out the restructuring ourselves. The agricultural workers [feudalorios] are taking part in this congress. Together we are going to agree to restructure the cooperatives ourselves. We are going to fight to get the changes carried out legalized.
Q So, land occupations and land seizures are one of the main objectives of this congress?
A. That is in fact one of the central objectives. of our congress, to take action ourselves to take the land we need. We can't spend our time waiting on the convenience and good will of the government. We went through that experience with the previous government of Belaunde Terry. We mobilized hundreds of times to put pressure on him. He promised us restructuring, and five years went by and it was not done. Exactly the same thing could happen with this government. So, we have decided to carry out this restructuring ourselves by means of land occupations.
Q. In your opinion, how will the government respond to these occupations? By violence? If that happens, how are you going to face up to that problem?
A. The government is trying to impose its will on us by violence. For example, in Melgar province, which is part of Puno, the government responded to the peasants' demands by establishing military rule. This militarization is not only aimed against that province but against all the peasant communities in the region.
So, we have to take up the problem of militarization in this congress, and not just in words, not just saying that "we don't want militarization," because the government has already imposed it, has already put it into practice. We are already under military rule.
In this third congress, we are going to pose the question of peasants' self-defence. What we are discussing is largely how to guarantee in practice the non-militarization of the department of Puno.
Q. In this context, what is the role of Sendero Luminoso?
A. Sendero Luminoso showed up in this department at the start of the 1980s. I think that the root of the problem is that all the successive governments never paid any attention to the peasants or even, to a very large extent, the working people as a whole. That is why small communal enterprises.
That is the only way to assure the growth of production and of productivity in the department of Puno.
Q. What is the government's policy toward this proposal?
A. Alan Garcia's government has for years failed to heed the demand raised by the Puno peasants. Recently in a struggle in the Melgar province, we occupied the lands of a cooperative, taking back 10,000 hectares. In another part of the department, Acura, in the same way, we took back 15,000 hectares. This has enabled us to advance our struggle and to put pressure on the government, which has found itself forced to issue Decree 006 on restructuring the cooperatives.
The government promised to apply this law within 120 days. The deadline has passed, and the decree has not been applied. The 15-day period for appeals has also passed, without any results. Alan Garcia's promise about the 305,000 hectares involved in this region has remained only words. In practice, he has done nothing. He had also promised to give 700,000 hectares to the peasant communities. That also remained a dead letter.
Altogether, he had promised to
Peru's black economy is mushrooming (DR)
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International Viewpoint 10 November 1986
the group appeared as an armed group, because there was no possibility of mere paper-work solutions. The group started out by saying that it was necessary first to take power in order to guarantee that attention would be paid to Puno on the national level.
Q. But this congress is not supporting Sendero Luminoso?
A. In the congress, we have not felt any presence of Sendero Luminoso. We don't feel it in the countryside either.
Q. The other objective of the congress is the fight for regional autonomy and for a regional government. What is the significance of this demand?
A. We want Puno to have a regional government. Some of us in this congress are perfectly aware that we cannot achieve it within the framework of this system. It is necessary to change this system, to replace it with another more just system in which there will be neither rich nor poor. That is the real guarantee of a regional government. But we are fighting here and now for a regional, autonomous government for Puno.
### PERU IN STATISTICS
Population
19 million - 46% Indian, 38%
Creole, 15% white; 63% urban.
Lima: 5.5 million inhabitants, 500 shantytowns, covering an area of
2.5 million hectares.
Arequipa: 800,000 inhabitants.
Cuzco: (in the Andes) 924,000 inhabitants.
Infant mortality
100 per 100,000 births; in the
Indian areas in the Andes, 250 per 100,000.
Life expectancy
58 years (it was 62 ten years ago),
45 years in the Andes.
Gross National Product per capita
1982:1,260 dollars; 1983:1,040 dollars.
Economically active population
Agriculture 39% (12% of GNP)
Industry 18% (40% of GNP)
Services 43% (48% of GNP)
Inflation (official figures)
1980:59.2%; 1981:75.4%; 1982:
64.4%; 1983:111.2%; 1984:110%
Foreign debt (in thousands of millions of dollars)
1980:9.6; (56% of Gross Domestic product); 1985:13.9 80% of GDP). 20
In this country, everything depends on Lima. We don't agree with that. We want to solve the problems we face ourselves. Take for example the case of the restructuring of the cooperative enterprises in Puno. That is a specific problem of the department. So, it should be solved here. That is why we are fighting for a regional government.
Q. How does the question of the Quechuas and Aymaras fit into this regional government framework?
A. The Quechuas and Aymaras are two nationalities in the department of Puno. In the northern part, Quechua is spoken; in the south, Aymara. We are all working together in an organized way in the Federation. There is no discrimination. Every one of us is using his or her own language, and I don't think there will be a lot of problems in the context of a regional government.
We are aware that the bulk of the population of Puno are peasants, and so we will fight to assure that the peasants have a majority in the regional government.
Q. What balance sheet have the peasants drawn of the various political organizations and formations, of APRA and the Izquierda Unida?
A. APRA has been in government for a year now. We have seen it at work, and it has not solved any of the problems of the peasants, of the countryside. And we are not the only ones. All sections of the ordinary people have seen this.
For example, Puno suffered from floods caused Lake Titicaca. The government turned a blind eye to the problem, just offering us reassuring words as usual. It did nothing in practice.
On the other hand, some aid was sent to the department by international bodies. Under various pretexts, the governmental authorities in the region did not distribute this aid. They kept it, and now that an election campaign is approaching, they are distributing it to get people to vote for the government party, APRA.
We say that this government is an anti-peasant government incapable of solving the peasants' problems. In his election campaign, Alan Garcia made us a lot of promises. So far we haven't seen him even start to deliver on them.
The IU is playing a very important role in the Puna region. In the peasant federation, we have prepared a bill on restructuring, the sort of law we want for Puno. But we are not members of parliament and cannot present it. Deputies have to introduce it, and the IU comrades have helped us a lot in this respect. We have three IU deputies for this department who have brought the restructuring question into the Chamber of Deputies. They didn't get a hearing. The bill has not been discussed. The government has not bothered to apply the bill that it passed as an alternative.
Q. What place does the Federation hold in the Peruvian people's movement as a whole?
A. The peasants have to struggle, but experience has taught us that we cannot fight isolated in our own corner. We have to unite all the people's forces on the departmental and national level. In the peasant federation, we are going to take part in the second preparatory meeting for a People's Assembly, which is to be held in January. We will be at that meeting and at the People's Assembly, of which we are a component.
We will make known there the point of view of the peasants and the alternatives we'll propose. In Puno, we have a lot of experience with people's assemblies, because we think they are the best way to bring together all the people's forces in the department at all levels. For example, at the time of the last land occupation in Airibiri we held a people's assembly. The people decided to strike in support of the peasants, and we then proceeded to occupy the land.
Q. What sort of government does the Federation propose for Peru as a whole?
A. We want Peru to have a government that corresponds to the aspirations and needs of the people. In the last elections, it was the parties of the right that won out, the APRA. The peasants were taken in by Alan Garcia's promises. But his demagogic policy seems to have fizzled. We think that our role as a federation is also to clarify political questions, and our objective is a workers' and peasants' government.
Q. What role do women play in the Federation?
A. Last year in Puno, we organized a departmental federation of peasant women. That is part of the Federation's organizing plan. Sometimes the men have played active roles in the Federation, while our companions have been left at the sidelines. So now, women are organizing in order to strengthen the departmental federation. To achieve our objectives, we need everybody, men and women.
International Viewpoint 10 November 1986