Maria Elena Moyano
For the last few months I've been reading the book, 'Peru Reader- History, Culture, Politics' and it is only in the last few days before I go that I've been reading about Peru's more recent history. I've been very struck by an interview with Maria Elena Moyano in 1991- an original settler of Villa El Salvador and vice mayor of the municipality, one of Lima's largest. She was a grassroots leader and an articulate proponent of a nonviolent path between state and guerilla terror. Moyano represented a new kind of leader emerging in the 'pueblos jovenes', new towns: young, feminist, afro-peruvian, progressive but not tied to any major political party."If I have courage, it's because the Federation women have given it to me. On the same day that [the Shining Path] put a bomb in our offices, we met. We reacted rapidly. This gave me strength and a sense of worthiness. There, the women agreed to reject and repudiate the Shining Path and even publicly name them. Also, inspired by the example of Villa El Salvador, the metropolitan association of soup kitchens agreed to sponsor a march against hunger and terror."
Five months later, Moyano was brutally murdered by a Shining Path assassination squad to silence her criticism of their terror tactics.
posted by Lou @ 10:53 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home