Caged Leader of Guerrillas Unveiled by Peru’s Police

As hundreds of reporters crowded a platform in front of a curtained cell at central police headquarters here Thursday, agents pulled the strings, the curtains dropped and there behind bars was Abimael Guzman, 57, feared leader of the Sendero Luminoso guerrillas and for 12 years Peru’s most wanted man.

It was Guzman’s first appearance before the press since police arrested him and seven others in a Lima safehouse Sept. 12. The stout, bearded rebel chieftain, wearing an ill-fitting prison uniform with black-and-white stripes, spoke in staccato bursts as he paced the 15-by-15-foot specially constructed cage holding him in an open-air patio.

“Under these circumstances, some think that this is a defeat. Keep on dreaming,” he said. He ignored shouted questions from reporters, who jostled for space on the makeshift platform set up in the headquarters building’s enclosed patio. Police allowed him to speak for 20 minutes.

“Maoism in the world is marching unstoppably to command the new wave of the world’s proletarian revolution,” he said.

“What have 12 years shown?” he asked. “That the Peruvian state--the old Peruvian state--is a paper tiger. That it is rotten.”

At one point, he started a verbal “salute to the international proletariat” but was drowned out by jeers from the press and police.

“The people’s war will win!” Guzman shouted, punching his fist in the air.

Security was tight. A police helicopter circled overhead; officers with assault rifles perched on nearby rooftops, and a phalanx of police guarded Guzman’s cell.

Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas have responded to their leader’s arrest with scattered bombings and selective killings. On Thursday, the rebels called an “armed strike” in the Andean city of Ayacucho, birthplace of Guzman’s movement. Sendero uses terrorist tactics to shut down commerce and keep vehicles off streets in its armed strikes.