Peru Excessive Force

Prison riots produce a crisis

At first, public opinion in Peru seemed to back President Alan Garcia Perez's bold decision to let the armed forces crush three coordinated prison rebellions, although at least 250, and possibly 400, radical inmates were killed. Last week the President again put his popularity on the line. Facing % the gravest crisis of his eleven months in office, Garcia said in a televised address that paramilitary police at one prison massacred some 30 to 40 inmates who had already surrendered. All of the victims belonged to the Maoist- oriented Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas, who have been waging a terrorist campaign...

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