The Battles of Ayacucho

Ayacucho is currently fighting several decisive, defining, final battles. The battle against the merciless and bloody violence unleashed by those who wish to bring down the State and the existing social order, and the violence that seeks to put an end to the senderista audacity that the police forces were unable to subdue. The battle against those who, by hook or by crook, are trying to win over a population gripped by bewilderment, panic, and terror — a population that knows it must choose between one side and the other. The battle against increasingly appalling poverty, and against those who want to tear apart all the indigenous communities. A population that is the stage on which various military, police, and senderista strategies measure themselves, compete, and clash. With what result? With dozens of deaths daily, with dozens of lives lost of innocent or guilty people: twenty in Huanta, thirty in Sacsamarca, ten in Huaychau — and the number grows day by day. Not only that. Every day the newspapers report that entire communities "go out in search of senderistas," and that confrontations between these groups leave numerous casualties. (Article introduction).