Documentation for Rondas Campesinas (Informal)
March 3, 1983
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
The police have begun to offer prizes to campesinos who bring in
guerrillas, dead or alive, in order to encourage vigilante action. In some
cases, rival communities settling old grudges have passed the casualties
off as guerrillas.
Aug. 18, 1984
The New York Times
They say their strategy involves military and psychological tactics and includes the use of terror as a dissuasive method, stepped up formation of peasant militia forces to create grass-roots resistance to the guerrillas
Sept. 21, 1984
The Guardian (London)
Campesinos say that their communities are 'navalised,' meaning that they have been organised by the marines to fight Sendero. In some cases the campesinos' collaboration is clearly both voluntary and enthusiastic. Others talk of killings and house-burnings by the marines in their villages, before they were 'navalised.' These communities carr out nightly patrols, armed with home-made pikes, knives, and catapults.
In some areas army officers accompanying vigilante patrols have issued the campesinos with rifles for specific operations. the aim of the militias is 'to enable the campesinos to defend themselves against Sendero.' However, a marine in Huanta admits that the system can lead to 'mistakes' in which communities use their official backing for revenge attacks against their enemies.
Feb. 28, 1985
The Washington Post
. Encouraged and sometimes ordered by the armed forces, dozens of small towns have organized their adult men and some women and children into squads who roam the countryside with machetes, spears and stones, challenging all outsiders and hunting down suspected guerrillas.
Government and military leaders say these "civil defense forces" are impeding the Shining Path's ruthless attacks on civilians and forcing the insurgents out of the mountains. But local residents and legal officials say that untrained and often illiterate vigilantes have also ransacked rival villages, murdered innocent civilians, and contributed to human rights abuses by security forces. The vigilantes also act as military guides and informers
Nov. 6, 1990
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Along the 200-kilometre valley of the Apurimac River, the Peruvian
navy has set up 30 civil defence teams in villages similar to Pichari.
most reports put their membership at between
6,000 and 7,000 - 80 per cent of the valley's male population
...centrepiece of the Peruvian military's war against the Shining Path.. badly armed and poorly
trained peasant squads...make their own weapons. a
carpenter in Pichari, has set up a shop where he makes semi-automatic
rifles similar to the old U.S. M-1 model
...reports of devastating raids by vigilante units on several villages
have sparked a massive exodus of terrified peasants
In a recent raid on the village of Pantuarias, the marine-backed civil
defence squads reportedly burned all the houses, destroyed the corn
harvest and stole the villagers' few domestic animals
Feb. 1, 1991
U.S. Dept. of State Dispatch
While many [compesino] rondas units actively worked in a variety of legitimate fields, including community development and self-defense, there were also credible reports that some rondas committed serious human rights abuses, including the torture and extrajudicial execution of terrorist suspects or even of ronda members of rival communities. Rondas of nearby villages are blamed for the May 18 sacking of the village of Pampacores, Huanta, Ayacucho and for the deaths of 15 villagers. Those killed were accused of having ties to Sendero. One of the most graphic cases of rondas abuse occurred after a March battle between rondas and Sendero in Huancayo. The rondas captured nine guerrillas alive, decapitated them, and, as a sign of the rondas' capabilities and allegiance, sent the heads in burlap bags to local military authorities.
Jan. 8, 1996
IPS-Inter Press Service
For while the civil war has officially been declared over, the rural areas are still patrolled by the "rondas campesinas" (rural workers groups), armed paramilitary groups promoted by the Peruvian army.
These groups were a traditional element of rural life to defend the people from livestock rustlers until the government provided them with 25,000 rifles and turned them into self-defense organizations.
"The continuing existence of these paramilitary organizations is a daily reminder that there is still a risk of a guerrilla resurgence," said former deputy, Manuel Benza
Oct. 15, 1997
IPS-Inter Press Service
some 300 troops, accompanied by 500 members of the "peasant defense patrol," known as "rondas campesinas," are presently chasing three columns of the dissident faction of Shining Path.
The rondas campesinas is a paramilitary movement organized as a self-defense force under the control of the army. They were first organized as an experiment under the government of Alan Garcia, and then massively promoted by Fujimori, who distributed around 14,000 rifles to peasant communities.
Dec. 8, 1998
IPS-Inter Press Service
The exact number of men and women organized in these peasant militias is unknown. Some estimate the number at 30,000, a calculation based on the fact that the government of President Alberto Fujimori gave them 14,000 rifles and that more than half of these paramilitary units obtained arms on their own. The "self-defense committees," as they are known officially, grew out of a grassroots initiative to combat cattle thieves in the northern highlands of Peru. They emerged spontaneously in 1985 in the central and south-central highlands in communities that found themselves unprotected as the police left the area due to the growing presence of Shining Path guerrillas,The government of social democrat Alan Garcia (1985-90) convinced the military high command to accept the existence of the rondas, which were fighting Sendero Luminoso. But the army refused to allow the state to provide weapons for the self-defense units. Fujimori had more luck, however, convincing the army in 1991 to agree to this policy.Disciplined, armed with rifles, slingshots, spears, sticks and handmade rifles that shoot a single bullet, the self-defense units today remain an integral part of rural social structure.
March 2, 2009
IPS (Latin America)
Similar 'rondas campesinas' or peasant self-defence groups emerged in northern Peru in the second half of the 1970s to fight cattle rustling and impose justice in property boundary disputes. But they later expanded to a total of around 400,000 local vigilante committees in that country.
Aug. 12, 2010
Inter Press Service
"The navy, which set up bases in the district of Huanta, was the first military institution to real-ise the usefulness of the villagers' armed response against Shining Path," former CVR member Carlos Tapia told IPS.
"That is when the military gave the 'rondas' carte blanche to take action against anyone sus-pected of being involved in Shining Path. The members of the 'rondas' were themselves indige-nous peasants, and many were victims of the subversives. But they also committed excesses of their own," he said. (...)
In 1991, the government of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) issued a law that gave the "rondas" legal status, officially naming them "self-defence committees" and providing them with weapons and military training.
