Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru | |
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The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (
The MRTA took its name in homage to
At the height of its strength, the movement had several hundred active members.[7] Its stated goals were to establish a socialist state and rid the country of all imperialist elements.[3][7]
Ideology
The ideology of the MRTA is informed by both Peruvian nationalism and
Peruvian Marxists also valorize Indigenous societies for their communal organization, which is seen as a precursor to socialism.[8] Effectively, Peruvian Marxists equate the establishment of a socialist state in Peru with a return of an Indigenous state, which is considered more just and representative of Peruvian peoples and interests.
In order to achieve their vision, the MRTA declared the necessity of forgoing legal reform in favor of violent revolution.[3][11] Accordingly, the MRTA aimed to escalate preexisting conflicts and create new ones to demonstrate the feasibility of revolution to a critical mass of Peruvians. Conflict would further deteriorate conditions in Peru, hopefully leading to a transition from a pre-revolutionary state to revolutionary state.[11] The MRTA believed that political organization would be important to a successful revolution, but criticized preexisting leftist groups as naive for believing in a peaceful reform movement. The MRTA believes that "reformism" in general has stalled the progress towards global socialist revolution by preventing the rise of class consciousness.[10]
The MRTA simultaneously preached Peruvian nationalism while arguing they were part of a larger Latin American effort to remove North American interference on the continent.[3] The prominence of Peru's Indigenous past in the MRTA's rhetoric meant they never aspired to fully merge with a global movement, only that they wished to aid like-minded allies.
Origins
The MRTA formed between 1980 and 1982 with merging of the
The MRTA maintained an alliance with MIR until 1987.[12]
Operations
The first action by the MRTA occurred on 31 May 1982, when five of its members, including Victor Polay Campos and Jorge Talledo Feria (members of the Central Committee) robbed a bank in La Victoria, Lima. During the hold up, Talledo was killed by friendly fire.
On the midnight of 28 September 1984, members of the MRTA fired on the
Peru's counterterrorist program diminished the group's ability to carry out guerrilla attacks, and the MRTA suffered from infighting as well as violent clashes with
On 6 July 1992, MRTA fighters staged a raid on the town of Jaen, Peru, a jungle town located in the northern department of Cajamarca. Two policemen including, Eladio Garcia Tello, responded to the calls for help. After an intense shootout, the guerrillas were driven out of the town. Eladio Garcia Tello perished, after a bullet to the chest.
MRTA's last major action resulted in the 1997 Japanese embassy hostage crisis. In December 1996, 14 MRTA members occupied the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Lima, holding 72 hostages for more than four months. Under orders from then-President Alberto Fujimori, armed forces stormed the residence in April 1997, rescuing all but one of the remaining hostages and killing all 14 MRTA militants. Fujimori was publicly acclaimed for the decisive action, but the affair was later tainted by subsequent revelations that at least three, and perhaps as many as eight, of the MRTistas were summarily executed after they surrendered. The Japanese embassy hostage crisis marked the end of MRTA as any threat to the Peruvian state and effectively dissolved the group.[13][11][3]
In 2001, several MRTA members remained imprisoned in Bolivia.[7]
Trials and convictions
In September 2003, four Chilean defendants, including Jaime Castillo Petruzzi, were retried and convicted of membership in the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and participation in an attack on the Peruvian North American Cultural Institute and a kidnapping-murder in 1993.[19]
On 22 March 2006, Víctor Polay, the guerrilla leader of the MRTA, was found guilty by a Peruvian court on nearly 30 crimes committed during the late 1980s and early 1990s.[20]
In a case that attracted international attention, Lori Berenson, a former MIT student and U.S. socialist activist living in Lima, was arrested on 30 November 1995, by the police and accused of collaborating with the MRTA. She was subsequently sentenced by a military court to life imprisonment (later reduced to 20 years by a civilian court).
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission determined that the group was responsible for 1.5% of the deaths investigated. In its final findings published in 2003, the Commission observed:
- Unlike Shining Path, and like other armed Latin American organizations with which it maintained ties, the MRTA claimed responsibility for its actions, its members used uniforms or other identifiers to differentiate themselves from the civilian population, it abstained from attacking the unarmed population and at some points showed signs of being open to peace negotiations. Nevertheless, MRTA also engaged in criminal acts; it resorted to assassinations, such as in the case of General Enrique López Albújar,[21] the taking of hostages and the systematic practice of kidnapping, all crimes that violate not only personal liberty but the international humanitarian law that the MRTA claimed to respect.[22]
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission goes on to note one of the MRTA's goals was to legitimize politically motivated violence in Peru. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission both condemns this justification of violence, and argues it contributed to the ability of other organizations to inflict greater violence then they might have otherwise. Further, the existence of groups like MRTA, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission argues, legitimized the Government of Alberto Fujimori authoritarian, militaristic, and repressive policies.[22]
See also
References
- ^ "Foreign Terrorist Organizations". United States Department of State. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
- ^ a b "Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement: Growing thread to US interests in Peru" (PDF). CIA.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Gordon, McCormick (1993). Sharp Dressed Men: Peru's Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. pp. 6–7.
- El Comercio(in Spanish). 24 June 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
- ^ US Department of State. "U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Terrorism 2006 – Peru". Archived from the original on 9 December 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
- El Comercio (in Spanish). 8 May 2009. Archived from the originalon 6 April 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
- ^ a b c "Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA)". Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2000. United States Department of State. April 2001. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
- ^ ISBN 9781442265875.
- OCLC 607730293.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-253-02818-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-319-91403-9.
- ^ "Peru: Information on the "Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru" (MRTA)". Refworld. 1 March 1989. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
- ^ a b Brooke, James (19 December 1996). "The Rebels and the Cause: 12 Years of Peru's Turmoil". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
- ^ "The isolation of American diplomacy. US embassies under siege by terrorism". Christian Science Monitor. 29 January 1986.
- ^ Murillo, Ana (26 October 1989). "Los maoístas de Sendero Luminoso atacan la Embajada china en Lima". El País.
- ^ lum.cultura.pe/cdi/sites/default/files/documento/pdf/656.pdf
- ^ "Patterns of Global Terrorism". 1990.
- ^ "Tras nuevo juicio – los 4 chilenos del MRTA continuarán en la cárcel". LaRepublica.pe. 7 April 2013. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
- ^ BBC News. "Peru Guerrilla Leader Convicted." 22 March 2006. Available online. Accessed 3 February 2007.
- ^ "Resurge una guerrilla en el ocaso". El País. 19 December 1996. Archived from the original on 25 January 1997.
- ^ a b La Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación. Final Report. "General Conclusions." Available online. Accessed 3 February 2007.
External links
- (in Spanish) El Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru. Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación
- (in Spanish) "Voz Rebelde": a publication by the group
- MRTA (NOTE: last updated in 2005)
- Communiqués by the MRTA (Spanish)
- Attacks attributed to the MRTA on the START database
- CIA report (with reactions) on the MRTA (1991)