STILL PURSUING GUERRILLA FORCES
Because of the censorship exercised by the Belaunde Terry government as part of a "state of siege," it is difficult to obtain news from Peru with regard to the three guerrilla fronts which the. authorities are trying to liquidate,
Agence France Presse reported July 8, however, that arrests. are being made throughout the country with the aim of cutting off the guerrilla fighters from alleged links with left-wing parties.
Among those arrested was Teodore Saavedra, The accusation lodged against him was that he was "suspected" of being a correspondent of the Soviet news agency Tass and that he had given out "tendentious" news taken from Cuban and Soviet short-wave broadcasts, He has worked for Agence France Press for about a year,’.
The Reuter news agency said it had learned that another journalist "suspected" of working for New China had been arrested July 8. The same source reported that government forces had run into guerrilla fighters at Pichay, close to the Apurimac river, on July 8. One soldier was wounded. The government, in an extreme effort to stamp out the guerrilla forces, ordered the entire popu lation "evacuated" from the region.
It was rumored that thirty guerrilla fighters had been killed July 12 between Huanta and Ayacucho, But the Peruvian government would neither confirm nor deny this. The police announced that supplies of arms and ammunition had been seized at Quillabamba in the department of Cuzco.
A July 15 Reuter dispatch said that the army was bombing: the Pucata region where guerrilla forces had been "sighted." They were said to be "completely surrounded,"' Meanwhile police were continuing to arrest persons west of Ayacucho on "suspicion" of "communism.,' Nine were arrested in Cuzco itself and "a number" were likewise arrested in Puerto Madonado near the Brazilian border,
Because of the lack of information, it has not been possible up to now to estimate the character of the three guerrilla fronts, particularly their relationship with the peasantry. Under Hugo Blanco, who has been held in prison for the past two years without trial, the major effort was made on organizing the peasants into unions. These, in turn, were oriented toward the occupation of land and organization of self-defense measures against the landlords,
COMMUNIST GOVERNOR OUSTED IN