REVEALED
The ‘rioting that flared in Tima Moy 24 appeared to have the most. accidental of causes, A spectator ran out into the field to protest the decision of the umpire in a soccer game between Argentina and Peru, The result of this action -= an unofficial toll to date of 268 dead and 320 injured -- seems to have no real. connection whatever with an individual fan's excited protest,
That such ghastly consequences could be touched off by a trivial incident at an athletic contest testifies in reality. to the extreme social tensions now existing in Peru, The populace as a whole is living in a state of | high tension -= and the authorities are trigger happy.
This is shown by the role of the Lima police at the stadium, According to the referee, Angel Pazos, an Uruguayan, the police expelled the fan who ran * out onto the’ field, But then another man sought to attack the referee with a bottle. After the police hauled him away, the crowd grew angry.
The police began throwing tear-gas grenades into the bleach~ ers. The reaction was predictable, The crowd sought to escape the tear gas, But the police kept the gates locked so that no one could escape and kept throwing grenades, People began going down in the stampede,
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Hundreds of people tore down the steel netting separating them from the playing field to escape the tear gas, "Police tried. to beat them back with clubs," said an eyewitness. "The police. dogs barked and bit. I saw one dog torn to pieces by the throng,"
When the crowd of 45,000 finally managed to break out of the . trap, heavy police reinforcements began arriving. The police fired into the crowd, =
The mass of soccer fans then went on.a rampage through the streets of Lima protesting the police brutality, "Revenge t" they were reported to scream. "Down with the policet®
Among the first places. ‘they went to was the ‘offices of. the. U.S.Goodyear Rubber Co., one of the outfits standing behind the Belatinde government, They broke dozens of plate glass windows, wrecked telephones, smashed furniture and hauled away typewriters,
The demonstration thus rapidly assumed political overtones. This was strictly in accordance. with the deep social crisis now > gripping Peru that ties in directly with the unsolved agrarian pro-= blem,.
In a standard reaction to such situations, the government at once declared a Natate of emergency."
This means Suspefsion of democratic rights guaranteed under the constitution, . The government, in short, issued a decree authorizing the police to make arbitrary arrests, break into homes without search warrants, prohibit public gatherings and prevent departures from the . country.
In this way the Belavinde government disclosed its own deep sense of inseourity, its fear that it can be overthrown at any moment. This fear is undoubtedly justified,
The tragic loss of lives at the soccer stadium, due to the way Lima's police have. been trained to respond to crowds that appear unmanageable, followed another brutal action, Only five days before the soccer game, on May 19, a “task force" of 2,000 police officers. drove some 15,000 striking metal workers out of 18 factories which they had occupied to dramatize their. demands for higher wages. This gives another indication of the social setting.
When these workers and the insurgent peasants in the countryside succeed in combining forces with the masses in the cities in common action behind the.slogan."Down with the police!" the curtain will rise on the socialist revolution in Peru, -
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