The Role of Peasant Social Organizations in the Counter-Subversive Strategy: The Expreso Proposal

In all areas and aspects of national life, various social and political actors, legitimately concerned about the situation of violence that Peru is experiencing, have developed and continue to develop proposals for a way out. This report deals, precisely, with one of the most widely circulated. The one raised by the newspaper Expreso in recent months. It concerns the proposals to arm the peasant civil defense rondas so that, together with the Armed Forces, they can confront the Senderista subversion. This report aims to present in a systematic way the content of this proposal and the debate it has generated, as well as the points that in the judgment of the BGA are debatable and deserve further reflection. To this end, the first part sketches the main lines of anti-subversive thinking that the newspaper Expreso has been developing. The second part of the report presents the proposal based on the statements of "Commander Huayhuaco" and the editorials of Expreso that endorse that proposal. The third part presents a set of reactions from different social and political sectors that, from various viewpoints and professional perspectives, offer their assessments and objections to the proposal. In the final part, an attempt is made to summarize and raise some points that, in the author's judgment, remain as matters for debate stemming from Expreso's proposal and the reactions of the various sectors mentioned. (Excerpt from presentation).