MRTA: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TODAY?

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 000948 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/31/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR ASEC PTER PE SUBJECT: MRTA: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TODAY? REF: A. LIMA 390 ¶B. LIMA 489 ¶C. LIMA 745 Classified By: POL/C ALEXIS LUDWIG FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) ¶1. (C) Summary: The Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA) terrorist group rose to prominence in the 1980s and then collapsed in the 1990s. Now the GOP believes former MRTA members released from prison are once again rebuilding the group's cadres of dedicated followers. The government's principle concern is that the FARC in Colombia is seeking to expand its regional influence by reactivating MRTA via the Bolivarian Continental Coordinator (CCB). The GOP also believes that several individuals linked to MRTA have received military training with the FARC in Colombia. Other evidence suggests that MRTA-linked armed groups are appearing anew in remote jungle areas once dominated by MRTA. Former MRTA members, however, insist that they have only political goals and have established a new party and magazine to promote their views. Although to date there is little evidence indicating that former MRTA members have the capability or intent to launch new terrorist attacks, there is more than enough evidence to warrant continued vigilance. End Summary. Brief History of MRTA's Rise and Fall -------------- ¶2. (U) MRTA initiated its armed struggle against the GOP in 1984 and over the following fifteen years its members launched a series of military actions, kidnappings, and assassinations both in Lima and in the jungle. Although MRTA at its height never numbered more than one thousand fighters, Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that it helped foster the culture of violence in the 1980s that allowed Sendero Luminoso to flourish. In 1992, the GOP delivered a significant blow to MRTA by capturing its principle leader, Victor Polay, who is serving a 35 year prison sentence. ¶3. (U) MRTA launched its last high profile attack in 1996 when fourteen terrorists assaulted the Japanese Embassy in Lima and took a group of high level officials hostage for four months. In the subsequent government raid to end the standoff, all fourteen militants were killed, including MRTA's senior commander Nestor Cerpa. With Cerpa's death, MRTA faded away, committing only minor actions in remote jungle areas. According to a terrorism study published online in 2000, the last known MRTA column operated in the jungle between the provinces of Chanchamayo (Junin region) and Oxapampa (Pasco region). A Peruvian security expert told poloff that these militants eventually laid down their weapons and rejoined society; other MRTA militants fled to Bolivia and Chile. The State Department removed MRTA from the US list of terrorist organizations in 2001. Government Believes the MRTA is Rebuilding -------------- ¶4. (C) The GOP now believes that MRTA is rebuilding. According to a Peruvian intelligence leaked to the press in 2006, MRTA has shown signals since 2004 that it is seeking to re-establish its structure with five mostly tactical, political goals: 1) fight for the liberty of imprisoned militants; 2) increase recruitment by diffusing ideology; 3) establish alliances with other radical groups; 4) develop front organizations; 5) gradually reactivate the military arm. Several public communiques issued in the MRTA's name seem to justify the government's concerns. One pronouncement, published in May 2006 by MRTA National Directorate located "somewhere in Peru", criticizes alleged US efforts to dominate Peru as proving that the "revolutionary fight is absolutely legitimate" and calls for "prolonged war". Another from late 2006 praises leftist presidential victories in the region, and says that MRTA's primary goal at the moment is to "accumulate forces" by organizing "the workers and popular movement"; "this does not mean we renounce (the armed fight),but we affirm that today political work" is the primary focus. (Note: Various pronouncements in the MRTA's name can be read at www.cedema.org. We cannot verify that any of these pronouncements are in fact produced by the MRTA. End Note.) MRTA-CCB-FARC Links -------------- ¶5. (C) The government believes that the FARC is seeking to expand its regional influence by reactivating MRTA through Bolivarian Continental Coordinator (CCB),a reportedly FARC-sponsored organization whose public mission is to bring together anti-system organizations across Latin America. According to a recent press report, the GOP anti-terrorism office DIRCOTE became convinced of the FARC's intentions after acquiring a photograph of the head of CCB's Peru Chapter Roque Felix Gonzalez la Rosa -- formerly imprisoned for MRTA terrorism (Refs A-C) -- with FARC sympathizer Narciso Isa Conde. GOP security forces have leaked to the press the names of various known CCB members or CCB conference attendees that previously served prison time for MRTA terrorist acts or have alleged links to MRTA. (Names include: Damaris Danitza Velasco Huiza, Yanire Luz Bautista Saavedra, Jorge Qesquen Camacho, Luis Ottivo Inga, Anibal Apari Sanchez, Pedro Antonio Mestanza Macedo, Jose Carlos Abarca Callo, Luis Alberto Gordon Iglesias, Richard Aguilar, Mary Soto, and Alejandro Astorga Valdez.) In addition, jailed MRTA leader Victor Polay is listed in the CCB website as an honorary CCB President. ¶6. (C) Security analysts have also noted the similarities between FARC and MRTA communiques in their focus on accumulating political force to combat alleged foreign intervention. The recent CCB conference in Quito, according to a press report, issued the following declaration: "in countries where insurgent civil forces exist it is necessary to develop them to...guarantee the defense against interventionist imperialist forces", to undertake "electoral counteroffensives, protests, strikes, roadblocks", and to "accumulate political and anti-imperialist military forces". Evidence of MRTA Members Receiving FARC Military Training -------------- -------------- ¶7. (C) Peruvian and Colombian security services have leaked to the media several pieces of evidence indicating that individuals linked to MRTA have received military training with the FARC. According to a document shown to the Peruvian press in March, CCB Peru chief Roque Felix Gonzalez la Rosa received military training in a FARC camp between February and May 2006 along with suspected MRTA members Guillermo Bermejo Rojas and Luis Omar Paredes Morales (who the government later accused of plotting to attack the US Ambassador's residence in Lima -- see below). According to a letter found in FARC leader Raul Reyes's computer and leaked to the Colombian press, an MRTA leader in Chile advised Reyes that he was in contact with 18 MRTA members in Peru who were ready to travel to Colombia for FARC training. (Note: No date is given for the letter. End Note.) This letter may be related to information Dircote leaked to the press in 2006 claiming that 20 MRTA members trained with the FARC in 2005. Evidence the MRTA Reactivating a Paramilitary Jungle Wing -------------- -------------- ¶8. (C) Congressman Mauricio Mulder in April announced that intelligence information indicates three armed MRTA cells are operating in the jungle, raising the possibility that MRTA fighters who disappeared in eastern Junin and Pasco regions less than a decade ago are rearming. Bolstering Mulder's claims, a group of Ashaninka Indians from eastern Junin recently traveled to Lima to inform the government that they have spotted groups of 5-15 armed MRTA fighters in parts of Chanchamayo province, a former hotbed of MRTA activity. (Note: The Ashaninka Indians declared war on MRTA in the early 1990s and fought several bloody battles to protect the region. End Note.) Asked about a revived MRTA presence in the area, a Chanchamayo mayor told Emboff that President Fujimori's successors should have finished off terrorist groups when they had the chance. An army general told Poloff that his contacts in the intelligence services say MRTA has a training base in eastern Chanchamayo. The general dismissed the claims of the Ashaninkas as attention-seeking, however, and speculated that the MRTA jungle wing -- much like Sendero Lumino's jungle fighters -- is probably tied closer to narcotrafficking than to any broader revolutionary MRTA goals. Establishing a Political Party -------------- ¶9. (C) Publicly, however, former MRTA members insist they have only peaceful, political goals and say they are focused on building a political party called the Free Fatherland Movement ("Movimiento Patria Libre" or MPL) to compete in future elections. The MPL appears to be a copy of a defunct party of the same name that served as MRTA's political wing during the 1980s and 1990s but was dismantled by President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000). The two founders of the modern MPL, Anibal Apari and Alberto Gordon, are both ex-MRTA militants who served more than a decade in prison for terrorism before their release in 2004 and 2005. (Note: Apari is the spouse of US citizen Lori Berenson, currently serving a prison sentence for MRTA links. End Note.) Both recently explained to the press that the current Peruvian reality has no room for an armed conflict and stressed their party's electoral goals, although neither disavowed their violent past. A reliable Embassy source with contacts in the movement told poloff that the new party has been working for about three years to build alliances with local leaders in social conflict zones -- near the Rio Blanco mining concession in Pura, in Apurimac, and in Ayacucho -- in order to run a handful of viable municipal candidates in the 2010 municipal elections. ¶10. (C) In a recent interview from prison, Victor Polay said he backed these efforts, adding "The electoral victories of leftist and center-left movements show us that it is possible to aspire to change within a democratic framework." Another thirty ex-MRTA militants belong to MPL's ranks, according to press reports. Other organizations that Peruvian government officials and media representatives allege are MRTA front groups include: Movimiento de Liberacion 19 de Julio, Colectivo Socialista Tus Muros Caeran, Pueblo en Marcha, and Colectivo Mariategui Guevarista, Unidad Democratica Popular, ONG Generacion, and Asociacion de Familiares de Victimas y Caidos Molinos Jauja, as well as the Asociacion Pro-Defensa de la Vida y la Libertad "Micaela Bastidas", which promotes the release of MRTA "political prisoners". Establishing a Propaganda Arm -------------- ¶11. (C) Former MRTA members have also resurrected the magazine "Cambio" (Change) that promoted MRTA in the 1980s, and like the MPL was dismantled by Fujimori in the 1990s. The new Cambio is directed by Mary Soto, who one newspaper also describes as the press director for the CCB. The first issue, published in April 2006, reportedly praises the CCB and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez; a note posted on the CCB website in May 2007 returned the praise. In addition to Cambio, MRTA has also used several websites to communicate its message, including its official site Voz Rebelde, Kaos en la Red, and Nadir, which has not been updated since 2005. (www.voz-rebelde.de; www.kaosenlared.net; www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/mrta/) Little Evidence of Terrorist Plotting -------------- ¶12. (C) We have little evidence to date that MRTA retains the capability or intent to launch terrorist attacks. The best evidence relates to a foiled plot to attack the US Ambassador's residence at the end of 2006. Upon arresting the accused plotters, police found fertilizers and homemade detonators as well as recordings of MRTA pronouncements, according to press. According to an intelligence document shown to the press, two of the accused -- Guillermo Bermejo Rojas and Luis Omar Paredes Morales -- received FARC training in early 2006 along with CCB Peru chief Roque Felix Gonzalez la Rosa. The suspects deny the charges and claim to belong to a group called "Todas las Voces", not MRTA. (Note: A judge has dismissed charges against all those accused in this suspected plot. End Note.) The only other evidence to date that MRTA may be plotting renewed violence comes from a meeting held by Gonzalez la Rosa in February that was penetrated by Dircote: at the meeting, according to information leaked to the press, attendees discussed plans to disrupt an international summit held in Lima in May. Police later arrested Gonzalez la Rosa and several others to prevent any disturbances. (Refs A-C) Comment: Enough Evidence to be Concerned -------------- ¶13. (C) Former MRTA militants claim now that they have exclusively political goals (which may be the case),but they have stopped short of renouncing violence and could be planning for the day when violence is again "justified". In that sense, while we cannot definitely conclude that individuals linked to the MRTA in the 1980s and 1990s have the capability or intent to launch new terrorist attacks, we have ample evidence to warrant continued vigilence. So, it seems, does the GOP -- notwithstanding allegations by civil society organizations that the government is exaggerating the MRTA threat as a pretext to limit legitimate social protest and political dissent. MCKINLEY