A Bloody Response

On a state visit to Brazil late last month, Peruvian President Fernando Belaunde Terry was asked when he planned to lift the state of emergency in the Andean highlands, imposed in October 1981 after repeated terrorist attacks by Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas. Replied Belaunde: "When not a drop of blood is spilled for 30 days." Last week the rebels made a gruesome response: the bloodiest attacks around the country since Sendero's emergence as a violent force in 1980. Armed with submachine guns, rifles and dynamite, the guerrillas attacked police posts, army patrols, bridges, power stations and telecommunications lines. An estimated 120 police, government troops and civilians were killed and scores injured, bringing the death toll in the four-year guerrilla war in the Andes to more than 3,100.

As early as this spring, according to Interior Minister Luis Percovich Roca, Peruvian police knew that a June offensive was being planned. Numerous arrests were made, and explosives and weapons were confiscated. But those precautions were insufficient. Percovich called last week for public cooperation to combat the guerrillas. Police resources, he admitted, are limited. Said he: "We cannot be everywhere."