Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:04:18.917Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Democracy Without Peace: The Cultural Politics of Terror in Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2022

Susan C. Bourque
Affiliation:
Smith College
Kay B. Warren
Affiliation:
Princeton University
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The twelve years of military rule in Peru between 1968 and 1980 witnessed few abuses of human rights, in marked contrast to the activities of military governments in Southern Cone countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Yet paradoxically, the return to democracy in Peru, with the election of Fernando Belaúnde in 1980 and Alan García in 1985, has brought sharp escalations in political violence and terror. Guerrilla activity by the Sendero Luminoso (“Shining Path”) in the highlands, urban terrorism, and a severe economic crisis have combined to pose a serious challenge to the authority of the state. Thus it is problematic to speak of a “return to democracy” while Peruvians are being subjected to expanding military control and repression.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

We would like to thank June Nash, Richard N. Adams, Joan Scott, Peter Johnson, Jill Conway, and the anonymous LARR reviewers for their comments and suggestions on this paper. Paul Doughty, Billie Jean Isbell, and Julio Cotler also stimulated our thoughts during the presentations of earlier versions at the meetings of the American Anthropological Association in 1985 and the Latin American Studies Association in 1986.

References

Alisky, Marvin 1981 “Peru: Bolstering Reform through the Media.” Latin American Media: Guidance and Censorship. Des Moines: Iowa State University Press, 67–88Google Scholar
AMERICAS WATCH COMMITTEE 1985 A New Opportunity for Democratic Authority: Human Rights in Peru. New York: Americas Watch Committee.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict 1983 Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Bassiouni, M. Cherif 1982Media Coverage of Terrorism: The Law and the Public.” Journal of Communication 32, no. 2: 128–43.Google ScholarPubMed
Bejar, Hector 1983Guerrilla, terrorismo: de 1965 a 1982.” Debate 14: 5457.Google Scholar
Bourque, Susan C. 1985 “Peru's Debt and Its Political Crisis.” Christian Science Monitor, 20 August.Google Scholar
Bourque, Susan C., and Warren, Kay B. n.d. “Peruvian Responses to the Economic Crisis of the 1980s.” Paper delivered at the American Anthropological Association meetings, 17–19 November 1983, Chicago.Google Scholar
Bourque, Susan C., and Warren, Kay B. 1981 Women of the Andes: Patriarchy and Social Change in Two Peruvian Towns. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Bruss Huaman, Georges 1986 Un futuro irreverente. Paris: Editorial Pigmalion. As excerpted in Quehacer 45 (1987).Google Scholar
Campbell, Leon G. 1973The Historiography of the Peruvian Guerrilla Movement, 1960–1965.” LARR 8, no. 1: 4570.Google Scholar
COMISION INVESTIGADORA DE LOS SUCESOS DE UCHURACCAY 1983 Informe de la Comisión Investigadora de los Sucesos de Uchuraccay. Lima: Comisión Investigadora de los Sucesos de Uchuraccay.Google Scholar
Degregori, Carlos Ivan 1985Entre dos fuegos.” Quehacer 37: 5354.Google Scholar
Degregori, Carlos Ivan 1987 Sendero Luminoso: I. Los hondos y mortales desencuentros; II. Lucha armada y utopia autoritaria. Documentos de Trabajo, nos. 4 and 6. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.Google Scholar
Diez Canseco, Javier 1985 Democracia, militarización y derechos humanos en el Perú, 1980–84. Lima: Servicios Populares (SERPO) y Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos (APRODEH).Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford 1973 The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gitlitz, John S. n.d.a “Sendero Luminoso in Cajamarca, Peru.” Paper presented at the New England Council of Latin American Studies meetings, 13 October 1984, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Gitlitz, John S. n.d.b “An Overview of Sendero Luminoso.” Manuscript.Google Scholar
Gitlitz, John S., and Rojas, Telmo 1983 “Peasant Vigilante Committees in Northern Peru.” Journal of Latin American Studies 15, pt. 1: 163–97.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Raul 1985aSendero cinco años después.” Quehacer 36: 3740.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Raul 1985bLa otra estrategia.” Quehacer 37: 5561.Google Scholar
Handelman, Howard 1981The March to Civilian Rule.” In HANDELMAN AND SANDERS 1981, 100141.Google Scholar
Handelman, Howard, and Sanders, Thomas G., EDS. 1981 Military Government and the Movement toward Democracy in South America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Ranger, Terence, EDS. 1983 The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Isbell, Billie Jean n.d. “Images of Domination and Rebellion in Highland Peru: Competing Ideologies of Violence.” Manuscript, October 1984.Google Scholar
Isbell, Billie Jean 1978 To Defend Ourselves: Ecology and Ritual in an Andean Village. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Peter T. n.d. “Historic Continuity and Discontinuity in Peruvian Highland Rebellions: The Sendero Luminoso Case.” Manuscript.Google Scholar
Kelly, Michael J., and Mitchell, Thomas 1981Transnational Terrorism and the Western Elite Press.” Political Communication and Persuasion 1, no. 3: 269–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowenthal, Abraham F., ED. 1975 The Peruvian Experiment: Continuity and Change under Military Rule. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Manrique, Nelson 1985Guerra sucia, etnicidad y racismo.” Quehacer 37: 6669.Google Scholar
Mercado, Rogger 1982 Algo más sobre Sendero. Lima: Ediciones Cultura Popular.Google Scholar
Mercado, Rogger 1987 El Partido Comunista del Perú: Sendero Luminoso. 4th edition, revised and expanded. Lima: Mergras.Google Scholar
Mcclintock, Cynthia 1983Sendero Luminoso: Peru's Maoist Guerrillas.” Problems of Communism 32, no. 5: 1934.Google Scholar
Mcclintock, Cynthia 1984Why Peasants Rebel: The Case of Peru's Sendero Luminoso.” World Politics 37: 4884.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mcclintock, Cynthia 1986Why Peru's Alan García is a Man on the Move.” LASA Forum 16, no. 4 (Winter):912.Google Scholar
North, Liisa n.d. Presentation at the workshop on Sendero Luminoso, Latin American Studies Association meetings, 18–20 April 1985, Albuquerque, New Mexico.Google Scholar
North, Liisa 1978 Perspectives on Development Policy and Mass Participation in the Peruvian Armed Forces. Woodrow Wilson Center, Latin American Program Working Paper. Washington, D.C.: Wilson Center.Google Scholar
Palmer, David Scott 1973 “Revolution from Above: Military Government and Popular Participation in Peru, 1968–1972.” Cornell University Latin American Studies Program Dissertation Series, no. 47. Ithaca: Cornell University.Google Scholar
Palmer, David Scott 1984The Changing Political Economy of Peru under Military and Civilian Rule.” Interamerican Economic Affairs 35, no. 4: 3762.Google Scholar
Palmer, David Scott 1986Rebellion in Rural Peru: The Origins and Evolution of Sendero Luminoso.” Comparative Politics 18, no. 2: 127–46.Google Scholar
Pareja Pflucker, Piedad 1981 Terrorismo y sindicalismo en Ayacucho (1980). Lima: n.p.Google Scholar
Pease Garcia, Henry 1977 El ocaso del poder oligárquico. Lima: DESCO.Google Scholar
Plaza, Nelly, and Bonilla, Jenifer 1985 Las rondas campesinas de Cajamarca: aproximación a una experiencia de organización de autodefensa. Lima: Programa de Apoyo a las Centrales Campesinas, Centro de Educación y Comunicación.Google Scholar
Roett, Riordan 1985Peru: The Message from García,” Foreign Affairs 64, no. 2 (Winter):274–86.Google Scholar
Saba, Raul 1987 Political Development and Democracy in Peru. Boulder, Colo.: Westview.Google Scholar
Salcedo, Jose Maria 1985aPuno: esperando a Sendero.” Quehacer 36: 5164.Google Scholar
Salcedo, Jose Maria 1985bZona de emergencia: el precio de la paz.” Quehacer 37: 7085.Google Scholar
Saulniers, Alfred H. 1986The Peruvian President's Economic Dilemmas.” LASA Forum 16, no. 4 (Winter):1521.Google Scholar
Sanders, Thomas G. 1981The Politics of Transition.” In HANDELMAN AND SANDERS 1981, 7799.Google Scholar
Scurrah, Martin 1986Military Reformism in Peru: Opening the Pandora's Box.” LARR 21, no. 1: 244–57.Google Scholar
Taussig, Michael 1984Culture of Terror—Space of Death: Roger Casement's Putumayo Report and the Explanation of Torture.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 26, no. 3: 467–97.Google Scholar
Theberge, Leonard, and Alexander, Yonah, EDS. 1984Terrorism and the Media in the 1980s (Conference Report).” Political Communication and Persuasion 2, no. 3: 283331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorndike, Guillermo 1976 No, mi general. Lima: Mosca Azul.Google Scholar
Thorndike, Guillermo 1983a “Sendero, realidad o patraña?” Diario La República, 9 August 1983.Google Scholar
Thorndike, Guillermo 1983b Uchuraccay: testimonio de una masacre. Lima: Editorial Labrusa.Google Scholar
Todorov, Tzventan 1982 The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor, and Bruner, Edward, EDS. 1986 The Anthropology of Experience. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 1986 “Peru.” In Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1985, 663–72.Google Scholar
Vargas Llosa, Mario 1983 “Inquest in the Andes.” New York Times Magazine, 31 July 1983, p. 18.Google Scholar
Vargas Llosa, Mario 1984 Historia de Mayta. Barcelona: Editorial Seix Barral.Google Scholar
Vasquez, Mario C., and Doughty, Paul L. n.d. “Change and Violence in Rural Peru: The ‘Indian Problem’ Today.” Paper presented at the meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C., December 1985.Google Scholar
Warren, Kay B. 1978 The Symbolism of Subordination: Indian Identity in a Guatemalan Town. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Werlich, David 1987Debt, Democracy, and Terrorism in Peru.” Current History 516 (January):3438.Google Scholar
Werlich, David 1988 “Peru: García Loses His Charm.” Current History, no. 525: 1316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar