Below we publish the statement of the TKP/ML International Committee in defense of the life of Chairman Gonzalo:
CPP (Communist Party of Peru) leader Manuel Ruben Abimeal Gusman Reynoso (Chairman Gonzalo) has been held in a solitary cell at the Callao military naval base since his captivity on September 12, 1992, despite his advancing age and deteriorating health. He had a heart attack on 17 July 2021 and was hospitalized. Chairman Gonzalo is the leader of the theoretical and practical construction of the People’s War in Peru, which, from the 1980s to the early 1990s, made great hopeful advances in faith and determination in the revolution to the oppressed and exploited peoples and working class of the world. Chairman Gonzalo was also one of the architects of the formulation of Marxism-Leninism as Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, that is, the worldwide dissemination of Chairman Mao’s contributions to Marxism-Leninism and the validation of MLM as the Marxism of our era.
When he was captured in Lima, the capital of Peru, by a CIA-based operation on September 12, 1992, the Communist Party of Peru had established control over a large part of the country and was making preparations to deal the final blow to Peruvian fascism.
When Chairman Gonzalo was captured, he had created a mass-supported movement of about 25,000 guerrillas and thousands of armed militias and millions organized around thousands of illegal mass organizations from all oppressed sections of society. The People’s War in Peru has been a communist barricade to the counter-revolutionary propaganda of the revolution and the collapse of socialism, carried out by imperialists and all kinds of anti-MLM understandings. The revolutionary struggle under the leadership of the CPP, which has made great progress in a short time, has demonstrated both theoretically and practically that the power from the imperialists and reactionaries can only be achieved through the People’s War guided by Chairman Mao’s teachings and by drawing clear boundaries with the enemy. The imperialist system was afraid that this line would have widespread and deep effects among the masses. That both undermined the belief in the invincibility of imperialism and reaction and caused revisionist, reformist and parliamentary theories to be worthless in the eyes of the masses.
The struggle and line of CPP under Gonzalo’s leadership emerged at a time when revolutionary struggles around the world were on the decline and revisionist camp was increasingly integrating itself into the capitalist system. At a time when the capitalist system supporters who usurped power in China after the death of Chairman Mao betrayed the Chinese revolution and dragged China onto a social imperialist route, Chairman Mao’s teachings found their spirit and essence with this breakthrough. In other words, the belief in revolution and socialism has given hope to the oppressed and exploited masses of the world from the Andes with this move.
Therefore, when he was captured by the CIA-based operation, the imperialists and their lackeys wanted to expose him in their own way in front of a large cage to show that they had won. Gonzalo called for the continuation of the People’s War and popped the bubble of the bourgeoisie by saying the International. For 29 years, the imperialists and Peruvian reaction have been taking revenge on the leaders of these struggles and the struggle for revolution and socialism in the person of Chairman Gonzalo, by keeping him under severe isolation conditions. Because, during the People’s War led by Chairman Gonzalo, they saw what the oppressed and exploited masses, who were able to create the armed force of the people under the command of MLM ideology and had the right leadership, could do. This anxiety and fear has condemned the imperialists and their lackeys, the Peruvian ruling classes, to continue the isolation policy in the strictest manner.
Our Party TKP/ML organized serious campaigns in many parts of Turkey and Europe during the period when Comrade Gonzalo was imprisoned and showed solidarity with the Peruvian revolution. Today, it believes that Gonzalo’s People’s War line is the only way of liberation for the revolutionary struggle of the Peruvian people. In the spirit of internationalism, it supports the Peruvian People’s War under the leadership of the Party.
The Peruvian fascist state must immediately stop the inhumane isolation and treatment of Chairman Gonzalo. The international revolutionary and progressive public opinion should raise their voices and increase solidarity for the health and freedom of Chairman Gonzalo, who is kept under severe oppression and isolation conditions and whose life is still in danger.
Embrace the resistance of the revolutionary and communist prisoners held captive by the imperialists and their lackeys around the world in the person of Chairman Gonzalo!
Defend Chairman Gonzalo’s life and claim his freedom! Long live the Victory of the People’s War! Long live proletarian internationalism!
TKP/ML International Committee August 2021
