Revolutionary Worker #907, May 18, 1997
The October issue of El Diario contains a more detailed description of one action by the People's Liberation Army--the August 2, 1996 takeover of the town of Aucayacu in the Upper Huallaga Valley:
...the night of August 2, as part of a political-military campaign which was gaining strength, a company of the People's Liberation Army mobilized the organized peasant masses of the region to take the town of Aucayacu (Tingo María-Huanuco) for several hours. The Maoists carried out a "people's assembly" in the central plaza of the town, where a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought speech was given and the local population chanted: long live the Communist Party of Peru, the People's War and the People's Liberation Army. People were called on to join the armed struggle, organized by our vanguard, the Communist Party of Peru. In addition the Maoists urged the local population to be vigilant in the face of the psychological measures the reactionaries use to confuse them, using them and pitting them against the People's War.
In order to carry this out, the political and military leaders deployed a number of contingents both inside and outside the town. Many dozens of heavily armed guerrillas blocked the main roads into Aucayacu in a synchronized fashion, stopping the traffic on the highway to Tocache and Tingo María for several hours. Meanwhile several groups of Communists seized resources useful for the guerrilla war. At the same time, 30 henchmen of the National Police of Peru were overpowered in their own office and the walls and walkways were painted with slogans which later were shown to the world on television: "Overcome the bend in the road" and "Develop the People's War."
In this way, the more than 4,000 inhabitants of Aucayacu witnessed once again the effective movements of the members of the People's Liberation Army that, for more than 16 years, has been working in this part of the jungle, serving the construction of the new power.
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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