Word: bela
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...blazing hammer and sickle on a hillside outside of the city signaled that the attacks were the work of an increasingly active band of guerrillas who call themselves Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path). Last week Belaúnde reluctantly cracked down. For the first time since his democratically elected government took power in 1980 after twelve years of military dictatorship, Belaúnde, 69, declared a 60-day national state of emergency, suspending civil liberties and giving police broad powers to seize suspected guerrillas for up to ten days without charges. Within 24 hours, police had arrested 200 people, although...
Until recently, Belaúnde believed that he could afford to ignore the Senderistas, a small band of no more than 2,000 students and Indian peasants who claim a tenuous adherence to Maoism while following archaic tribal customs of the Incas. Since last December, however, the well-trained insurgents have become increasingly violent. They have killed nine policemen, seemingly at random, and terrorized mountain villages by executing their leaders...
...largely impoverished Indians and mixed bloods. They bitterly resent the nation's 3 million whites, who have dominated Peru's economy and politics ever since the Spanish conquest in 1533. The threat of ethnic conflict has been partly responsible for a surprising show of unity behind Belaúnde's emergency measures, which even leftist Opposition Leader Senator Enrique Bernales admitted were "justified...
...Belaúnde well knows, the most likely threat to Peru's fledgling democracy is actually from the right. In Lima's coffee houses, talk often turns to fears that the Sendero attacks will strengthen the hand of military hard-liners who would prefer a more authoritarian government. There have even been rumors of a military coup similar to the one that deposed Belaúnde in his first term as democratically elected President...
...fact, no one in the army is eager to challenge Belaúnde's authority. Not only has he taken care to pay his generals well, but no military leaders are credited with his political skills. The Sendero threat has increased just as Peru is struggling with a severe drought in the south, flooding in the north and a crushing economic recession. Says a Peruvian Congressman: "Who else would want to try running things right now? It would be political suicide." With the Senderistas showing every sign of intensifying their attacks, Belaúnde's job may soon...