Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement

This article is about the Peruvian guerrilla group. For the Uruguayan guerrilla group, see Tupamaros. For the indigenous revolution, see Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II.

Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement flag.
Active	Early 1980s – 1997
Country	Peru
Allegiance	Marxism-Leninism
Type	[1]
Garrison/HQ	Unknown
Nickname	Emerretistas
Motto	"With the masses and the weapons, fatherland or death, we will win" and "I don't have patience to take all this!"
Colors	Red and white
Equipment	Small arms
Engagements	Japanese embassy hostage crisis
Commanders
Notable commanders	Néstor Cerpa Cartolini "Evaristo" or "Hemigidio Huertas" (deceased) Víctor Polay "Rolando" (imprisoned)
Insignia
Identification symbol	Face of Túpac Amaru II above a mace and rifle forming a V
Identification symbol	Initials MRTA

The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (Spanish: Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru, abbreviated MRTA) was a Marxist revolutionary group active in Peru from the early 1980s to 1997 and one of the main actors in the internal conflict in Peru. It was led by Víctor Polay Campos (comrade "Rolando") until his incarceration^[2] and by Néstor Cerpa Cartolini (comrade "Evaristo") until his death in 1997.

The MRTA took its name in homage to Túpac Amaru II, an 18th-century rebel leader who was himself named after his ancestor Túpac Amaru, the last indigenous leader of the Inca people. MRTA was considered a terrorist organization by the Peruvian government, the US Department of State and the European Parliament^[3][4] but was later removed from the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations on October 5, 2001.^[1]

At the height of its strength, it had several hundred active members. Its stated goals were to establish a socialist state and rid the country of all imperialist elements.^[5]

Origins

The MRTA originated in 1980 from the merging of the Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Socialist Party and the militant faction of the Revolutionary Left Movement, MIR El Militante (MIR-EM).^{[citation needed]} The former gathered several ex-members of the Peruvian armed forces that participated in the leftist dictatorial government of Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975), and the latter represented a subdvision of the Revolutionary Left Movement, a Castroist guerrilla faction which was defeated in 1965. The MRTA attempted to ally with other leftist organizations following the first democratic elections in Peru after a military government period (1968–1980).

Operations

The first action by the MRTA occurred on 31 May 1982, when five of its members, including Victor Polay Campos and Jorge Talledo Feria (members of the Central Committee) robbed a bank in La Victoria, Lima. During the hold up, Talledo was killed by friendly fire and became the first loss of the movement.

Peru's counterterrorist program diminished the group's ability to carry out terrorist attacks, and the MRTA suffered from infighting as well as violent clashes with Maoist rival Shining Path, the imprisonment or deaths of senior leaders, and loss of leftist support. ln 2001, several MRTA members remained imprisoned in Bolivia.^[5]

On 6 July 1992, MRTA fighters staged a raid on the town of Jaen, Peru, a jungle town located in the northern department of Cajamarca. One policeman, Eladio Garcia Tello, responded to the calls for help. After an intense shootout, the guerrillas were driven out of the town. Eladio Garcia perished in the firefight. 6 July is now memorialized as the "Day of Heroes" (Dia de los Heroes) in Jaen, in honor of Garcia.^{[citation needed]}

Its last major action resulted in the 1997 Japanese embassy hostage crisis. In December 1996, fourteen MRTA members occupied the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Lima, holding 72 hostages for more than four months. Under orders from then-President Alberto Fujimori, armed forces stormed the residence in April 1997, rescuing all but one of the remaining hostages and killing all fourteen MRTA militants. Fujimori was publicly acclaimed for the decisive action, but the affair was later tainted by subsequent revelations that at least three, and perhaps as many as eight, of the MRTistas were summarily executed after surrendering.

Trials and convictions

In a case that attracted international attention, Lori Berenson, a former MIT student and U.S. socialist activist living in Lima, was arrested on 30 November 1995, by the police and accused of collaborating with the MRTA. She was subsequently sentenced by a military court to life imprisonment (later reduced to twenty years by a civilian court).

In September 2003, four Chilean defendants were retried and convicted of membership in the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and participation in an attack on the Peru–North American Cultural Institute and a kidnapping-cum-murder in 1993.^{[citation needed]}

On 22 March 2006 Víctor Polay, the guerrilla leader of the MRTA, was found guilty by a Peruvian court on nearly 30 crimes committed during the late 1980s and early 1990s.^[6]

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission determined that the group was responsible for 1.5% of the deaths investigated. In its final findings published in 2003, the Commission observed:

Unlike Shining Path, and like other armed Latin American organizations with which it maintained ties, the MRTA claimed responsibility for its actions, its members used uniforms or other identifiers to differentiate themselves from the civilian population, it abstained from attacking the unarmed population and at some points showed signs of being open to peace negotiations. Nevertheless, MRTA also engaged in criminal acts; it resorted to assassinations, such as in the case of General Enrique López Albújar, the taking of hostages and the systematic practice of kidnapping, all crimes that violate not only personal liberty but the international humanitarian law that the MRTA claimed to respect. It is important to highlight that MRTA also assassinated dissidents within its own ranks.^[7]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "List of known terrorist organizations". Center for Defense Information. http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/terrorist-groups.cfm. Retrieved 4 August 2009. 
2. ^ "Corte Suprema incrementa condenas a Víctor Polay y a cúpula del MRTA" (in spanish). El Comercio. 24 June 2008. http://www.elcomercio.com.pe/ediciononline/HTML/2008-06-24/corte-suprema-incrementa-condenas-victor-polay-y-cupula-mrta.html. Retrieved 4 August 2009. 
3. ^ "U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Terrorism 2006 - Peru". http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4681088023.html. Retrieved 4 August 2009. 
4. ^ "MRTA será incluido en la lista de terroristas" (in spanish). El Comercio. 8 May 2009. http://www.elcomercio.com.pe/impresa/notas/mrta-incluido-lista-terroristas/20090508/283759. Retrieved 4 August 2009. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA)". Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2000. United States Department of State. April 2001. http://www.nps.edu/library/Research/SubjectGuides/SpecialTopics/TerroristProfile/Prior/TupacAmaruRevolutionaryMovement.html. Retrieved 3 April 2009. 
6. ^ BBC News. "Peru Guerrilla Leader Convicted." 22 March 2006. Available online. Accessed 3 February 2007.
7. ^ La Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación. Final Report. "General Conclusions." Available online. Accessed 3 February 2007.

External links

• (Spanish) El Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru. Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación
• Notice of a book about an MRTA-sponsored prison break, by Claribel Alegría
• MRTA (NOTE: last updated in 2005)
• Communiqués by the MRTA (Spanish)
• Attacks attributed to the MRTA on the START database