Week 11 - The Terror

This chapter was one of the mot interesting for me. This has to do with the fact that I'm very interested in Fujimori's government and history. I remember when my grandpa told me stories about the situation and all of the knowledge he had. My grandfather's childhood best-friend is Isaac Humala. Isaac is the father of the current president of Peru. He does not have a good relationship with his son mainly due to the varying political views. Isaac is close to being considered and extreme leftist and is in favour of communism. One of the most interesting stories my grandpa has told me, is about president Ollanta Humala and his rebellion against Fujimori.

This up-rising happened in 2000 near Tacna, Peru, and was against Fujimori on his last days of president. It was sparked by the return of former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos to Peru. As a Lieutenant Colonel of the Peruvian Army, Ollanta and other 40 other Peruvian soldiers revolted against their senior army commander. Although many of these soldiers deserted the movement due to oppression of the army, Ollanta called on Peruvian "patriots" to join him in the rebellion. His brother, Antauro, and around 300 former soldiers answered his call but had little success. Humala managed to escape and hide but was later given a pardon by congress due to the fact that Fujimori did commit the accused crimes.

It was very interesting to learn about the history of the country where I was born. Little did I know that a lot of this happened while I was living in the country as a kid. It turns out that this was a major reason why my parents left the country. Even now when I go to visit you can tell that there are scars present in the community. Trust in the government is very minimal and there still seems to be a lot of corruption. Some people still support everything that Fujimori did and many believe that his actions were necessary in order to take the country back from terrorism, especially the Sendero Luminoso movement. It is also seen that the act of giving power and training to local guerrillas was necessary in order to defeat the communist group. In a big way this helped break down the social cues the communist group held in communities across the country, but it also led to the many deaths of innocent people. It is not known what Peru would look like today if all of these events did not take place but either way, there is no justice in some of the horrors that took place.