MRTA
Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru − Perù
Peruvian Marxist-Leninist revolutionary movement formed in 1984 by organizations from the radical left, including the MTA and MIR-IV. Its objective is to rid Peru of imperialism and establish a Marxist regime. During the 1990s, has suffered from defections and government counter-terrorist successes in addition to infighting and loss of leftist support .
Tupac Amaru, which is estimated to have between 300 and 600 members, operates mainly in the upper Huallaga Valley, a vast jungle area in eastern Peru controlled by guerrillas and drug traffickers.
Its activities include bombings, kidnappings, ambushes, assassinations. Previously was responsible for a large number of anti-US attacks. Most of its militants have been jailed but, in December 1996 a MRTA group took over the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Lima during a diplomatic reception, capturing hundreds of hostages.
On April 22, 1997, the Peruvian special forces launched a raid on the embassy compound, liberated the remaining 72 hostages and killed all the 14 MRTA militants, including the group's leader, Nestor Cerpa.
History
Ideology &
Strategy
Leadership
Updates
Attacks
from 1988-Present
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History
1984: The MRTA is founded by organizations from the radical-left, including the MTA and the MIR-IV .
In 1986/87, the MRTA begins its armed struggle against the government of Alan Garcia. Its actions were concentrated in the regions of San Martin, Loreto, and Uyacali in the northern Amazon region.
February 1987: The MRTA occupies seven radio stations in Lima and reads a communique against the increasing militarization of the society .
July 1988: An MRTA commando kidnaps retired air force general and businessman Garcia .
February 1989: Police arrest MRTA leader Victor Polay and imprison him in Canto Grande prison in Lima .
End of the 1980s: The MRTA becomes increasingly active in rural areas.
January 9, 1990: An MRTA commando shoots former Defense Minister E. Lopez Albujar.
July 1990: Victor Polay and 46 other inmates escape from Canto Grande prison via a 315 meter long tunnel .
June 10, 1992: Victor Polay is arrested again.
November 30, 1995: 30 Tupac Amaristas are arrested after a plot to occupy the Peruvian Congress, holding its members hostage in exchange for jailed MRTA militants, was foiled.
December 17, 1996: An MRTA commando occupies the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima and takes all the guests at a reception in honor of Japan's Emperor hostage. Most of the hostages were released but the commando continued to hold 72 people prisoner, including the brother of President Alberto Fujimori, several generals and heads of police divisions, Peru's Foreign Minister, Supreme Court judges, Members of Congress from the ruling party, and the ambassadors of Japan and Bolivia.
April 22, 1997: A raid is launched on the embassy compound by Peruvian special forces. All 14 members of the MRTA's "Commando Edgar Sanchez", including the group's leader Nestor Cerpa, are killed.
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Ideology & Strategy
MRTA was named for an 18th-century rebel leader who fought Spanish colonial, Tupac Amaru, because he symbolizes the Peruvian people's struggle against their oppressors. Tupac Amaru was drawn and quartered in the square in Cuzco after leading an anti-Spanish rebellion which almost shook off Spain's domination of a large part of South America.
The goal of the MRTA is to replace the representative democracy with the "power of the people". The organization has three levels: the revolutionary forces, which consist of full-time soldiers; when needed, these forces are backed up by part-time militias; then there is the base, in the villages, where there are self-defense committees whose duties extend well beyond military matters into social, political, and legal fields as well. MRTA does not establish "liberated zones" in the classic sense of the term, rather it supports, with military means, the creation of "organized bases of popular power".
MRTA launched its armed struggle in San Martin province, where the conditions were most favorable. In the countryside, the farmers were organized, as the region was the most stable base of the CCP (Confederacion Campesina del Peru) in all of Peru. In 1985/86, MRTA began to build up its forces, and in 1987 launched its first actions.
During the campaigns Che Vive and Tupac Amaru Libertador, it temporarily occupied a few provincial cities, attacked police stations, and carried out public meetings. In 1987, MRTA was able, for the first time, to take over a provincial capital, Juanji, a city of 25,000 inhabitants. That same year it occupied the Sisa Valley for two weeks.
According to Victor Polay, MRTA's leader at the beginning of the 1990s, Peru is no longer semi-feudal, rather it has become a dependent capitalist country. There is a bourgeoisie which represents the interests of imperialism. The working class has grown enormously, so the MRTA needs anti-capitalist elements in its political theory.
According to MRTA's theory, in every factory and in every school there must be mechanisms of direct control by the people. The monopolies must be transformed into property of the people but not state controlled because public corporations are dependent on the government, and are therefore subject to bureaucratization and corruption.
The fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe affected the MRTA because it revealed the bureaucratization of the society and the privileged role of one party, and the USSR's domination of COMECON, which led to the distortion of many structures. According to Polay the revolution cannot be exported, it must be created everywhere by the people where they live.
Another of MRTA's leaders, known as Comandante Andres, thinks that in Peru there's a pre-revolutionary condition with some of the traits of a revolutionary situation. According to Andres the defeat of the regime, of the "imperial" social and economic system, and the building of a new model through revolution, through armed struggle, is possible.
However, it isn't the MRTA that's going to make a revolution in Peru, but the Peruvian people, through their numerous social and political organizations, within which the MRTA has an important role. MRTA isn't the vanguard, the only vanguard, but part of the social vanguard.
MRTA sees Sendero Luminoso as dogmatic and Stalinist. Their lack of theory is coupled with a dictatorial, terrorist-militarist praxis, which in many cases is directed at the people itself. Sendero represents the more marginalized sectors of the society.
There's more that separates MRTA from than unites it with Sendero Luminoso. Sendero believes that its leaders' ideas express a qualitative development, a fourth stage of Marxism-Leninism. MRTA leaders have conceptual and concrete differences in the practice of revolutionary struggle.
Sendero is characterized by its negative image. They don't seek to win hearts and minds, but impose their direction on the people, which is why they don't hesitate to kill to achieve their dominion. Sendero is also characterized by its cruelty, which is strongly repudiated.
Their Pol Pot concept of life and revolution is a long way from what MRTA leaders think of as revolution. But at the same time, Sendero achieved a certain strength because of certain actions it took. In 1980, Sendero began the armed struggle at a time when other organizations were saying it wasn't possible. Later, through its actions, it showed its true character and that objectively limited its growth.
MRTA `s aim is to approach and become involved closely with the people. Aside from the political work done by the organizations at various opportunities - it uses armed propaganda, mainly in the cities.
MRTA hopes to build socialism because capitalism has not been, nor has the possibility of being, according to them, the solution to the Peruvian people's problems, not a socialism styled and modeled after the eastern European countries, a model which failed in practice, but a socialism appropriate to conditions in Peru.
MRTA leaders don't want state centralism or the bureaucratization of Pesociety but a democratic, very participatory society; not an electoral democracy every five years, but a democracy where men and women get involved in their workplace, their community, their neighborhood and decide their own destiny, a "participatory democracy with the people as the actors".
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Leadership
Victor Polay Campos is a member of the Central Committee of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA).
Victor Polay is a jurist, fluent in both French and Basque. He studied in both France and Spain - together with Alan Garcia (who later became President of Peru), with whom he lived for a short time.
After 1987, Polay, now known as Comandante Rolando, carried out a series of guerrilla actions in San Martin, until he was arrested during a raid on a tourist hotel in Huancayo.
In July 1990 Polay and 46 other MRTA militants staged a spectacular escape from Canto Grande Prison. Polay was re-arrested in 1992 and is detained in total isolation in the Callao navy base.
Nestor Cerpa Cartolini the leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, known by the nom de guerre Comandante Evaristo, took the helm of the Tupac Amaru organization after its founder, Victor Polay, was captured in June 1992. Cerpa was a founding member of the group and its military commander.
Unlike other leaders of Tupac Amaru, who come from the middle class, Cerpa was from a working-class family and was active in the labor movement of the 1970s. As a young union official nearly 20 years ago, Cerpa and his fellow workers took control of a bankrupt textile factory after its owners tried to close it down. Four people died in the conflict, and Cerpa served a year in prison.
After his release, he joined the leftist movement and later went underground. Cerpa has displayed an uncanny ability to elude capture.
Cerpa was the leader of the commando who took hostages the guests at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima in December 1996 and died during the attack on the embassy compound on 22 April 1997.
Tupac Amaru, which is estimated to have between 300 and 600 members, operates mainly in the upper Huallaga Valley, a vast jungle area in eastern Peru controlled by guerrillas and drug traffickers.
Its activities include bombings, kidnappings, ambushes, assassinations. Previously was responsible for a large number of anti-US attacks. Most of its militants have been jailed but, in December 1996 a MRTA group took over the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Lima during a diplomatic reception, capturing hundreds of hostages.
On April 22, 1997, the Peruvian special forces launched a raid on the embassy compound, liberated the remaining 72 hostages and killed all the 14 MRTA militants, including the group's leader, Nestor Cerpa.
History
Ideology &
Strategy
Leadership
Updates
Attacks
from 1988-Present
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History
1984: The MRTA is founded by organizations from the radical-left, including the MTA and the MIR-IV .
In 1986/87, the MRTA begins its armed struggle against the government of Alan Garcia. Its actions were concentrated in the regions of San Martin, Loreto, and Uyacali in the northern Amazon region.
February 1987: The MRTA occupies seven radio stations in Lima and reads a communique against the increasing militarization of the society .
July 1988: An MRTA commando kidnaps retired air force general and businessman Garcia .
February 1989: Police arrest MRTA leader Victor Polay and imprison him in Canto Grande prison in Lima .
End of the 1980s: The MRTA becomes increasingly active in rural areas.
January 9, 1990: An MRTA commando shoots former Defense Minister E. Lopez Albujar.
July 1990: Victor Polay and 46 other inmates escape from Canto Grande prison via a 315 meter long tunnel .
June 10, 1992: Victor Polay is arrested again.
November 30, 1995: 30 Tupac Amaristas are arrested after a plot to occupy the Peruvian Congress, holding its members hostage in exchange for jailed MRTA militants, was foiled.
December 17, 1996: An MRTA commando occupies the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima and takes all the guests at a reception in honor of Japan's Emperor hostage. Most of the hostages were released but the commando continued to hold 72 people prisoner, including the brother of President Alberto Fujimori, several generals and heads of police divisions, Peru's Foreign Minister, Supreme Court judges, Members of Congress from the ruling party, and the ambassadors of Japan and Bolivia.
April 22, 1997: A raid is launched on the embassy compound by Peruvian special forces. All 14 members of the MRTA's "Commando Edgar Sanchez", including the group's leader Nestor Cerpa, are killed.
Back to Top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ideology & Strategy
MRTA was named for an 18th-century rebel leader who fought Spanish colonial, Tupac Amaru, because he symbolizes the Peruvian people's struggle against their oppressors. Tupac Amaru was drawn and quartered in the square in Cuzco after leading an anti-Spanish rebellion which almost shook off Spain's domination of a large part of South America.
The goal of the MRTA is to replace the representative democracy with the "power of the people". The organization has three levels: the revolutionary forces, which consist of full-time soldiers; when needed, these forces are backed up by part-time militias; then there is the base, in the villages, where there are self-defense committees whose duties extend well beyond military matters into social, political, and legal fields as well. MRTA does not establish "liberated zones" in the classic sense of the term, rather it supports, with military means, the creation of "organized bases of popular power".
MRTA launched its armed struggle in San Martin province, where the conditions were most favorable. In the countryside, the farmers were organized, as the region was the most stable base of the CCP (Confederacion Campesina del Peru) in all of Peru. In 1985/86, MRTA began to build up its forces, and in 1987 launched its first actions.
During the campaigns Che Vive and Tupac Amaru Libertador, it temporarily occupied a few provincial cities, attacked police stations, and carried out public meetings. In 1987, MRTA was able, for the first time, to take over a provincial capital, Juanji, a city of 25,000 inhabitants. That same year it occupied the Sisa Valley for two weeks.
According to Victor Polay, MRTA's leader at the beginning of the 1990s, Peru is no longer semi-feudal, rather it has become a dependent capitalist country. There is a bourgeoisie which represents the interests of imperialism. The working class has grown enormously, so the MRTA needs anti-capitalist elements in its political theory.
According to MRTA's theory, in every factory and in every school there must be mechanisms of direct control by the people. The monopolies must be transformed into property of the people but not state controlled because public corporations are dependent on the government, and are therefore subject to bureaucratization and corruption.
The fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe affected the MRTA because it revealed the bureaucratization of the society and the privileged role of one party, and the USSR's domination of COMECON, which led to the distortion of many structures. According to Polay the revolution cannot be exported, it must be created everywhere by the people where they live.
Another of MRTA's leaders, known as Comandante Andres, thinks that in Peru there's a pre-revolutionary condition with some of the traits of a revolutionary situation. According to Andres the defeat of the regime, of the "imperial" social and economic system, and the building of a new model through revolution, through armed struggle, is possible.
However, it isn't the MRTA that's going to make a revolution in Peru, but the Peruvian people, through their numerous social and political organizations, within which the MRTA has an important role. MRTA isn't the vanguard, the only vanguard, but part of the social vanguard.
MRTA sees Sendero Luminoso as dogmatic and Stalinist. Their lack of theory is coupled with a dictatorial, terrorist-militarist praxis, which in many cases is directed at the people itself. Sendero represents the more marginalized sectors of the society.
There's more that separates MRTA from than unites it with Sendero Luminoso. Sendero believes that its leaders' ideas express a qualitative development, a fourth stage of Marxism-Leninism. MRTA leaders have conceptual and concrete differences in the practice of revolutionary struggle.
Sendero is characterized by its negative image. They don't seek to win hearts and minds, but impose their direction on the people, which is why they don't hesitate to kill to achieve their dominion. Sendero is also characterized by its cruelty, which is strongly repudiated.
Their Pol Pot concept of life and revolution is a long way from what MRTA leaders think of as revolution. But at the same time, Sendero achieved a certain strength because of certain actions it took. In 1980, Sendero began the armed struggle at a time when other organizations were saying it wasn't possible. Later, through its actions, it showed its true character and that objectively limited its growth.
MRTA `s aim is to approach and become involved closely with the people. Aside from the political work done by the organizations at various opportunities - it uses armed propaganda, mainly in the cities.
MRTA hopes to build socialism because capitalism has not been, nor has the possibility of being, according to them, the solution to the Peruvian people's problems, not a socialism styled and modeled after the eastern European countries, a model which failed in practice, but a socialism appropriate to conditions in Peru.
MRTA leaders don't want state centralism or the bureaucratization of Pesociety but a democratic, very participatory society; not an electoral democracy every five years, but a democracy where men and women get involved in their workplace, their community, their neighborhood and decide their own destiny, a "participatory democracy with the people as the actors".
Back to Top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leadership
Victor Polay Campos is a member of the Central Committee of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA).
Victor Polay is a jurist, fluent in both French and Basque. He studied in both France and Spain - together with Alan Garcia (who later became President of Peru), with whom he lived for a short time.
After 1987, Polay, now known as Comandante Rolando, carried out a series of guerrilla actions in San Martin, until he was arrested during a raid on a tourist hotel in Huancayo.
In July 1990 Polay and 46 other MRTA militants staged a spectacular escape from Canto Grande Prison. Polay was re-arrested in 1992 and is detained in total isolation in the Callao navy base.
Nestor Cerpa Cartolini the leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, known by the nom de guerre Comandante Evaristo, took the helm of the Tupac Amaru organization after its founder, Victor Polay, was captured in June 1992. Cerpa was a founding member of the group and its military commander.
Unlike other leaders of Tupac Amaru, who come from the middle class, Cerpa was from a working-class family and was active in the labor movement of the 1970s. As a young union official nearly 20 years ago, Cerpa and his fellow workers took control of a bankrupt textile factory after its owners tried to close it down. Four people died in the conflict, and Cerpa served a year in prison.
After his release, he joined the leftist movement and later went underground. Cerpa has displayed an uncanny ability to elude capture.
Cerpa was the leader of the commando who took hostages the guests at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima in December 1996 and died during the attack on the embassy compound on 22 April 1997.
