Battling the Castroites

For a month Castroite terrorists have been raising havoc in Peru's remote central highlands. One band of 60 men invaded two big cattle estates near Concepcion, burned homes and barns, destroyed a dairy plant and dynamited two bridges nearby. Other guerrillas raided two police outposts, stole arms and ammunition, killed seven police before disappearing into the dense Andean jungles. Last week the terrorists carried their vicious little war to Lima itself. One night a small bomb exploded in Lima's fashionable Club Nacional and another erupted outside the nearby Crillon Hotel. Remarkably, only three people were hurt.

Up to now Peru, one of the really hopeful countries in the hemisphere (TIME cover, March 12), seemed safe from the Castroite threat. The country's economy is strong, and President Fernando Belaunde Terry has been adding new roads, schools and communications lines in the interior to reduce the backlands poverty and remoteness that breeds revolutionaries. After last week's bombings, Peruvians were jarred into a sharp new awareness that they are not immune.

All-Out War. After first dismissing the terrorists as no worse than bandits, Belaunde reacted sharply. Declaring all-out war on the extremists, he suspended constitutional guarantees for 30 days--banning public assembly, allowing police to search homes without warrants, and permitting the indefinite detention of suspects.

A few hours later, police began rounding up more than 300 known Communists and extremists belonging to the pro-Communist National Liberation Front. Meanwhile, Belaunde ordered 100 anti-guerrilla commandos and 500 infantrymen into the central highlands, along with helicopters, Canberra bombers and light artillery.

First Catch. The battle may well be long and tedious. At least three guerrilla bands--200 to 300 men--are operating in the interior. The government claims that they are financed by Cuba and Red China. The bands are led by Luis de la Puente, a wily, pro-Castro attorney who is wanted in Lima for a 1962 murder. By week's end, government troops had already captured one small guerrilla group near Cuzco along with 16 Czech-made submachine guns and three cases of rifles. Belaunde's government sounded determined to track down the rest of the terrorists. "We will proceed with utmost energy," promised Premier Fernando Schwalb, "and with all means at our disposal."

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