1475 Following our item a few weeks ago on HUGO BLANCO, tho left-wing revolutionary activa in Peru, we are reproducing part of a translation of an article on this subject which appeared recently in the Cuban paper "Bohemia."
Towards the end of last year "see.e.5,000 campesinos gathered in the Capital of the department (Cuzco) to demand eeraslan reform, under the slogan "Land or Death", The police attacked them with bombs and tear gas. The campesinos fought back with stones and clubs, and they held the police at bay for three hours, The government sent 40 tanks, made in tha United States, to reinforce its military units and to prevent by force any demonstration by the people." Blanco has been able, as we reported in our previous item to resist fully all attempts by the Peruvian autherities to put down the revolt, "A very complicated entrance to la Convencion is made through the valley of Lares, on the road which goos only as fear as the town of Ampares, entering through Calca. The narrowness cf the valley, surrounded by high mountains, exposes any troops which enter to tho risk of being killed by avalanches started by tha campesinos.
"The chief characteristic that atrikes have in this region is that there is no work stoppage, instead the strikers work for themselves, Immediat— ely’ the harvests are multiplied five-fold. And that is how, two years ago, an agrarian reform was started in Peru by the campesinos themselves. Unpaid labour, called'pongaje' a custom by which the campesino is forced to work for nothing for the great latifundists, without remuneration of any kind, not even of food, has been eliminated. At the same time, the unions of the region demanded and won the right of the campesinos to pay the landowners with money and not with work, This marks a groat advance compared with the former semi-feudal situat— ion, The landowners in some regiona no longer dare to exercise their right to kick the campesinas Pa ea tide
"Near Chaipimayo there is a large sign which reads "Free territory of Chaupimayo". There the campesinos havo « large short—wave radio set with which they keep informed of events occurring in a world which until a short time ago was unknown to them, In the liberated areas the union controls production as well ¢ as relations among the campesinos. It distributes the land,
] ustice and it issues a newspaper. Tho first guerrilla tetannnent is led by Hugo Blanco, t is very mobile and operates in the valley of la Convencim and Lares . Leolership of the brigade of the future Army of National Liberation is exercisoi through a united front wherein different political tendencies are represented."