...And Now What?

Four years into the government of architect Fernando Belaúnde Terry and four years into the development of the Shining Path guerrilla movement, Peru seems to be heading toward the terrible point of no return of generalized violence. And unfortunately, the actors on stage seem to have agreed to follow the script of novelist García Márquez in Chronicle of a Death Foretold: everyone knows what they should not do to reach the fateful outcome, and yet everyone does exactly that. The report we present is, for many reasons, illuminating and essential reading to understand why the government should not have tasked the Armed Forces with the thorny "Sendero case"; what Sendero wants and what it is currently thinking, and to learn about the dramatic days being lived in Ayacucho. (Article introduction).