Abimael Guzman, better known to the world as Chairman Gonzalo, is the 84 year old imprisoned leader of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), the Peruvian Revolution and is currently serving two life sentences in Callo Naval Base, Peru, for his leadership of the Protracted People’s War in the Country throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
With just 11 Cadre in 1969, Gonzalo reorganised the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) against revisionism and set on the road to Revolution, upholding the teachings of Chairman Mao.
Having careful built support and bases in the 1970s, in ,the PCP launched a Protracted People’s War in 1980. On May 17, 1980, the first defiant act of this People’s War saw Communist Guerrillas burn ballot boxes on the eve of the Presidential Election.
Throughout the course of the 1980s this spark that lit the People’s War burst into a Revolutionary flame that seriously threatend the old Peruvian State, and throughout the course of the People’s War, Chairman Gonzalo and the PCP were able to synthesise Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as a third and higher stage of Marxism, a massive contribution to the ongoing develop of Revolutionary Science.
Captured along with other key leaders of the PCP on September 12 1992 in a safe house in the Country’s capital Lima, Gonzalo later defiantly described this set back as “Just a Bend in the road” displaying the neseciary Revolutionary Optimism that the People’s War has not been defeated and would reorganise and continue until victory
In May 1992, Chairman Gonzalo was tried by hooded military judges and sentenced to life imprisonment for leading the revolution of the Peruvian masses.
These military trials were later deemed illegal and upwards of 400 prisoners found guilty on there order have since been released from prison
The first retrial ordered for Gonzalo ended in farce as two of the three judges recused themselves from the process
At a second retrial, the judges again declared Gonzalo guilty, upholding the life sentence, and at a subsequent trial a further life sentence was added against the leader of the Peruvian People’s War
On the 27th Anniversary of his capture, Irish Socialist Republicans demand the release of Chairman Gonzalo. As the leader of the Communist Party of Peru his life remains under threat everyday he remains in the prisons of the enemy, who have made no secret over the years of the fact that they want him dead
Irish Socialist Republicans send our Solidarity to the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), and we salute their valiant effort and to continue the People’s War despite the great difficulties faced by the Revolutionary Movement
