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Peasant Vigilante Committees in Northern Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

John S. Gitlitz  and
Telmo Rojas
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Extract

In December, 1976, the peasants of Cuyumalca, a small, dispersed rural settlement in the northern Peruvian mountain department of Cajamarca, organized the first of what have become known as the rondas campesinas, village level vigilante committees whose primordial aim was from the first and continues to be that of putting an end to robbery, both professional cattle rustling and petty thievery. The rondas patrol roads, trails, pastures and fields

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , May 1983 , pp. 163 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

1 Some commentators who read an early draft of this paper suggested that the rondas might be a response to local land conflicts or emerge from other earlier forms of political organization. We found no evidence that this was the case. Nor were we able to establish any linkages to other forms of local political conflict or rivalries.

2 From the ‘Act of Instalation of the Junta Directiva of the Nocturnal Rondas of the Community of Yaravilca Baja, District of Chota, Department of Cajamarca, 2 December 1978.’

3 Peru is divided politically into 25 departments, each of which is subdivided into provinces and then into districts. Districts are subdivided into annexes, caseríos or estancias. Cajamarca is the northernmost department in the Peruvian mountain zone, bordering on Ecuador. The three mentioned provinces where the rondas have been formed are located in the center of the department.

4 Two of the major anthologies that examine peasant politics in Latin America are Henry, Landsberger, Latin American Peasant Movements (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1969),Google Scholar and Rodolfo, Stavenhagen, Agrarian Problems and Peasant Movements in Latin America (Garden City, Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1970).Google Scholar There are also numerous monographs, many of which are excellent. See, for example, John, Womack Jr, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (New York, Random House, 1968).Google Scholar For a fascinating study of the opposite question, i.e. why peasants do not rebel, see Gerrit, Huizer, The Revolutionary Potential of Peasants in Latin America (Lexington, Kentucky, D. C, Heath and Co., 1972).Google Scholar For studies that examine specifically peasant organizations in Peru, see, among others, Edward, Dew, Politics in the Altiplano: The Dynamics of Change in Rural Peru (Austin, University of Texas Press, 1969);Google ScholarEduardo, Fioravanti, Latifundismo y sindicalismo agrario en el Perù: el caso de los Valles de la Convención y Lares (Lima, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1974);Google Scholar or Howard, Handlemann, Struggle in the Andes (AustinUniversity of Texas Press, 1974).Google Scholar Although it does not focus on Latin America, we also found Eric, Hobsbawn'sPrimitive Rebels (New York, W. W. Norton and Co., 1965)Google Scholar a very useful work, particularly his chapter on the Mafia, , as well as his Bandits (New York, Random House, 1969).Google Scholar

5 One exception is Norman, Long and Bryan, R. Roberts, Peasant Cooperation and Capitalist Expansion in Central Peru (Austin, University of Texas Institute of Latin American Studies, 1978), in which some of the articles examine small holders in the MantaroValley. However, the problems on which the authors focus are somewhat different from those which we will be discussing here.Google Scholar

6 For a discussion of the dairy industry and the impact of Perulac on Cajamarca, see José, Eslava, ‘Perulac, sus influencias socio-económicas en la provincia de Cajamarca’ (Cajamarca, Instituto de Educación Rural, Documento de Estudios e Investigación Social, no. 10, 1973), mimeo.Google Scholar

7 There are no good general socio-economic monographs of the department of Cajamarca. The regionalization, which is our own and is vastly oversimplified, is based on a variety of incomplete sources and our own personal impressions. For a description of the emergence and organization of the hacienda in the southern sub-region, particularly in the province of Cajamarca, see Lewis, Taylor, ‘Main Trends in Agriculture: Capitalist Development in Cajamarca, Peru, 1880–1976’, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Liverpool, 1979.Google Scholar

8 We have seen nothing published on this sub-region. The description is based on second hand information gathered from peasants and others who have worked or travelled there. Neither of the authors has any direct acquaintance with the area.

9 Again, we know of no detailed empirical studies of the peasant economy of the provinces of Cutervo, Chota or Hyalgayoc. Our discussion is based on considerable personal but random and unsystematic observation and some aggregate level data obtained from the National census. Our conclusions are entirely consistent, however, with those reached by others who have studied the small farmer economy in other regions of northern Peru. See, for example, Efraín, Franco et al. , ‘Diagnóstico del área de influencia del proyecto Cajamarca-La Libertad’ (Cajamarca: 1976), mimeo, ch. III,Google Scholar or José, María Caballero, Economiá agraria de la sierra peruana, (Lima, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1981), pp. 215–231.Google Scholar

10 See Enrique, López Albujar, Los caballeros de delito (Lima, Compañía de Impresiones y Publicidad, 1936)Google Scholar as well as Ciro Alegría's description of the bandit Fierro, Vásquez in his novel, El mundo es ancbo y ajeno (Buenos Aires, Editorial Losada, 1900.) One serious recent examination of rustling in Peru examines the phenomenon in the southern department of Cuzco.Google Scholar See Benjamin, Orlove, ‘The position of rustlers in regional society: social banditry in the Andes,’ in Benjamin, Orlove and Glynn, Custred, Land and Power in Latin America (New York, Holmes and Meier Publishers, Inc., 1980), p. 179–194.Google Scholar

11 For a slightly more detailed model of this pattern of political conflict, see John, S. Gitlitz, ‘Conflictos políticos en la sierra norte del Peru: la montonera Bend contra Leguía, 1924,’ Estudios Andinos, 16 (1980), p. 127–138.Google Scholar

12 Ibid. Also, Genaro, Matos, Operaciones irregulares al norte de Cajamarca: Cutervo, Chota y Santa Cruz (Lima, Ministerio de Guerra, 1968)Google Scholar.

13 Mario, Padrón, ‘Evaluación y programación de actividades del Instituto de Educación Rural de Bambamarca: sobre el campesinado de la zona’ (Cajamarca, Instituto de Educación Rural, Departamento de Estudio e Investigación Social, Serie No. 1, 1969) mimeo, chapter 3.Google Scholar

14 Our discussion of the formation of the Cuyumalca ronda is based primarily on interviews with Régulo Oblitas and Daniel Idrogo as well as on documents provided by them.

15 The lieutenant governor is the representative of the executive in an annex to a district. The structure of authority in Peru can be represented schematically as follows:

Nation President Department Prefect Province Sub-prefect District Governor Annex, caserío Lieutenant Governor At each level the person named to occupy the executive position is responsible to the next higher level.

16 From the Act signed by the peasants of Cuyumalca, , 29 12 1976.Google Scholar

17 Letter from Augusto, Ingar Garay, Sub-Prefect of Chota, 6 01 1977.Google Scholar

18 For a discussion of the political struggle which has emerged around the rondas, see pp. 193–197, below.

19 Our evaluation of Idrogo's role is based primarily on conversations with Idrogo himself, with Oblitas and with peasants and others from the district of Chota.

20 Interviews with peasants of the estancia of San Antonio as well as the act signed in San, Antonio, 8 03 1978.Google Scholar

21 José, Pérez Mondaca, ‘Las rondas campesinas’ (Universidad Técnica de Cajamarca, Centro de Investigaciones de Temáticas Antropo-sociológicas, 04 1981), mimeo. Also, interview with Pedro Risco, president of the Rondas Pacíficas, Chota.Google Scholar

22 There are a few semi-documented accusations of police complicity. The Lima weekly, Marka, in 1980, reported on events which led to the expulsion of the Investigating Police (PIP) from Cutervo. In March, 1980, it alleged, peasants of the communities of Yatún and Chipuluc, both in La Succha, captured a well-known band of rustlers with a number of stolen animals. They took the thieves and the cattle to the PIP in Cutervo, who shortly thereafter released them. The peasants a few hours later found the rustlers and the PIP in the midst of a feast, supposedly eating one of the stolen animals. The result was a confrontation, during which the PIP opened fire and one peasant was seriously wounded. The following day some 2,000 peasants of the rondas of La Succha descended on Cutervo to protest in front of the PIP headquarters. The protest became violent, the PIP fled, and their oflces were burned. (‘Cutervo y el “niño héroe” de la ronda’,Google Scholar by Gregorio, Martínez in Marka pp. 2404 1980, 28–9). We cannot vouch for the veracity of the Marka version.Google Scholar

23 Popular justice against local abusers has tremendous appeal and forms the basis of countless folk tales and legends. See, for example, Lope de Vega's famous Renaissance play, Fuenteovejuna.

24 Interview with Pedro Risco.

25 See, Correo (Lima), 31 08 1980, various articles.Google Scholar

26 Ibid..

27 Ibid..