CIVIL CONFLICTS

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After Three Years of Hope --
Peruvians Jolted Back to Their Nightmare

By Andres Tapia

Date: 12-20-96

After 25 years that included a military dictatorship, car bombs and civil war, many Peruvians dared to believe a new Peru was being born. The Tupac Amaru's takeover of the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima has jolted them back to the reality of a country of extremes. PNS associate editor Andres Tapia is a Chicago-based writer who grew up in Lima, Peru and writes frequently on Latin America.

CHICAGO -- Like a hand bursting out from a fresh grave, the violent takeover of the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima has jolted Peruvians back to their nightmare.

Ours is a country of extremes. We have the worst earthquakes, the most serious outbreaks of cholera, the most glaring gap between rich and poor in the Americas -- and the most brutal guerrillas.

But for a brief period, we thought a new Peru was possible.

For three years, we have celebrated the "Fujimori Miracle," which was in many ways a tempering of extremes. Inflation was down from 5000% to 10%. Top guerrilla leaders were put in prison, and their armies were in disarray. Foreign investment was pouring in , and tourism hit record levels.

After nearly 25 years that have included a military dictatorship, states of emergency, car bombs, disappearances, censorship, it seemed as if this time we might have turned the corner.

Many Peruvians living abroad were planning a Christmas visit to Peru for the first time in a long time when news of the spectacular takeover came through. Richard Valencia, a marketing and sales executive here, was going to Peru for the first time since 1988 with his wife and three children. "My father in law finally let down his opposition; since things were going so well, and now this ... ."

For me, the news has produced memories of a 12-year military dictatorship as it affected a teenager -- being 20 minutes away from home 10 minutes before the beginning of a curfew and knowing that if you were caught, you could become one of the "missing."

I remembered a rifle pointing through our car window at a military checkpoint on a fog-shrouded night. Being dismissed early from school because of violent protests throughout the city and being ordered to keep our heads low lest we get shot through the school bus windows.

For Peruvians, history is immediate and personal. Families can connect their troubles with the headlines . My parents' marriage never recovered from my U.S.-born mother's distress at the military coup of 1968, when she imagined Peru becoming another Cuba.

Maybe that is why Fujimori's miracle was so powerful for us. Peru's economy and social fabric seemed beyond repair, and when Fujimori shut down Congress and the Supreme Court it seemed like more of the same.

But Fujimori restored democracy. The leader of Shining Path Abimael Guzman is in a jail on an island off the coast, and Tupac Amaru leaders and hundreds of their troops have been jailed in the remotest parts of the country.

The world seemed to join in the celebration. Earlier this year, National Geographic ran a special section entitled "Peru Begins Again." Tourists have been flocking in, and the people of Lima have been regaining their reputation as passionate party-givers.

Yet there has been a growing unease since Fujimori's second presidential term began in 1995. The nation's huge economic inequalities had not disappeared. Inflation may have been reduced, but this did not address the deeper issue -- what keeps the majority of the country's dark-skinned Andean Indians in abject poverty. These are the facts that move and sustain guerrilla movements like Tupac Amaru.

The embassy takeover is dramatic and startling -- but something like it was bound to happen. Until Peru can truly provide justice and prosperity to its poorest citizens, the nightmare will continue.