Our beloved and respected Chairman Gonzalo, our Great Leadership and center of Party unification, has always taught us that the leadership never dies and this is a principle of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought; as such, we have had no doubt that the Communist Party of Peru that leads us would overcome the difficulties that the capture of Comrade Feliciano implied. With respect to the key question – that of leadership – the Party, as always, has resolved this problem in a brilliant manner. Facing the capture of Comrade Feliciano, it is Comrade Julio [*] who today has assumed the leadership of the entire Party.

The Peru People's Movement takes up a position, to subject ourselves to and close ranks around the system of leadership, established by Chairman Gonzalo, along with all the Party and all the organisms that it leads. It is Comrade Julio who today heads up the Central Committee.

With revolutionary jubilation we express our total and complete recognition of this and we reaffirm ourselves on our plain conviction that we can count on a leadership proven for years, forged by our Great Leader, Chairman Gonzalo, that shall lead us to final victory.

Today the Party is advancing and resolving new problems with Gonzalo Thought, that is our combat weapon: It is not only with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, because if there is no application the particular will not be; hence there would be no advance. The problem is that some abroad question Gonzalo Thought. It is important that everyone understand that a creative application of the universal truth, which is Maoism, to a concrete reality is necessary. Without this no Communist Party can advance in the construction of the Party and in the interrelated instruments; much less will it be able to establish the laws of the revolution in a given country, staying simply at basic good intentions. In the long term this opposes the New Great Wave of the World Proletarian Revolution, to the point that Parties are trapped and unable to initiate people's war; hence this is a problem of vital importance. The struggle inside every Party should be to embody Maoism and apply it, and this will generate its Guiding Thought.

The genocidal, fascist and country-selling regime of Fujimori; imperialism (principally Yankee imperialism); and the rats of the revisionist and capitulationist Right Opportunist Line, are now repeating their rotten crowing about the "defeat of Sendero", but nothing or no one will be able to defeat the People's War, the greatest and most transcendental transforming epic in the [history of] the Peruvian people. We have the Communist Party of Peru, the organized vanguard of the proletariat, the leadership and guarantee of the Peruvian Revolution, axis and center of all revolutionary construction, sustained by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought. The masses of our people are incorporating themselves into the People's War in growing numbers, because the people want the People's War, since it is the continuation of their struggle with arms in hand. The winds are blowing in our favor, and in all parts of the country the People's Liberation Army, under the leadership of the Party, is carrying out demolishing blows to the enemy; also we can see a clear increase of actions both in quantity and quality, conquering more glorious victories for Chairman Gonzalo and the Party. The New Power is flourishing in our motherland and the heroic masses of the Support Bases, shoulder to shoulder with the Party and the People's Liberation Army, are defending it against the vile attacks of the reactionary Armed Forces that are developing the campaigns of encirclement and annihilation (within the strategy of the so-called "low intensity war"). Each one of the enemy's campaigns has been defeated, and within the New Power a new economy, a new politics and a new culture continues to develop. Today the People's War is clearly serving the overcoming of the bend in the road signified by Chairman Gonzalo's capture, and the revolutionary situation in growing development is a powerful fact. What is the situation on the counterrevolutionary hill? The concrete fact is that they go from failure to failure; there is no way out for bureaucratic capitalism and their crisis is worsening, unemployment grows daily and poverty has increased. The regime can't achieve its objectives, it has not been able to advance like it wanted to since the fascist coup of April 5, 1992; their long-term plan is ruined, despite all the indiscriminate repression they employ, and despite all the campaigns within the Yankee strategy of low intensity war. They have never been able, and never shall be able, to defeat the People's War.

It is within this situation that the genocidal, fascist and country-selling regime is systematically unfolding its campaigns of psychological warfare, which form part of the low intensity war led by Yankee imperialism. They construct hoax after hoax, seeking to sow confusion and pessimism; they seek divisions between leaders and led, between commanders and combatants, and between the People's Liberation Army and the people; seeking thus to separate the guerrilla from the masses. But the Peruvian people – today more conscious than yesterday – do not believe anything that the regime (which has made lies their norm) says. They know that behind all this are the reactionary Armed Forces, the crafty Montesinos (a vulgar CIA agent expelled from the reactionary Armed Forces for treason) who heads up the "National" Intelligence Service, and their big puppeteer, Yankee imperialism. The Party has crushed the hoax of pacification with People's War, and in all areas there is talk of the "terrorist renewal". This was also the case with the hoax of the "peace accord", but now, with the capture of Comrade Feliciano, they seek to replay it by saying that "Comrade Feliciano asked to confront Chairman Gonzalo"; in this manner aiming to lay bases for new montages and all with the aid of the wretched rats of the revisionist and capitulationist Right Opportunist Line. But this hoax shall also fail and no one should believe even a pinch of what imperialism, reaction and revisionism say. We know how reaction manipulates and creates videos – that is nothing new – and we know how they continue to defame our Great Leadership through false imputations. We must all be very clear that this is a new hoax underway and that it also forms part of their new psychological war, serving their plan of assassinating our Great Leader, Chairman Gonzalo. This signifies a concrete advance of the enemy's sinister plans; therefore it is even more important to reject it and to raise the defense of the Great Leadership to new heights on all levels. One necessary step in this is to immediately reactivate all of the International Emergency Committee to defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo.

When the reactionary's "trial" against Comrade Feliciano begins, let it be completely clear that this is a farce and it has nothing to do with justice; rather it is a tribunal of the exploiters and oppressors, a tribunal of the landlord-bureaucratic state, and Comrade Feliciano will be charged with "treason to the motherland". This is extremely cynical: The most blatantly pro-imperialist regime in the history of Peru is going to condemn one of the best sons of the people for "treason to the motherland"! This is completely absurd. The "trial" is motivated by the fact that Comrade Feliciano is a Communist and that he has been a leader of the revolution, one of those who has shown the path for the proletariat and people to follow. For that reason the reactionaries seek to annihilate him, and for that reason it is the will of the Communists of the world, of the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world to defend his life. We must defend him in his condition as a Communist because that is why he is where he is; similarly we must defend the life of our Great Leader, Chairman Gonzalo, exactly because of his condition of being the Great Leadership of the Party and the Revolution. This is intimately linked to the campaign for Maoism, that is to say, it is necessary to understand the direct link between these two strategic tasks: the defense of the Great Leadership and the struggle to put Maoism as the command and guide of the world proletarian revolution – and not fall into "humanitarianism".

We call upon all the revolutionary Parties and organizations, the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the international proletariat and all the peoples of the world to put all forces into play to defend our Great Leadership and the life of Comrade Feliciano; to carry out activities of all types with great repercussion and to crush all forms of convergence with the Right Opportunist Line that are given both inside and outside our ranks; to close ranks around the Communist Party of Peru and the People's War, elevating the international support to new heights.

Thus the Peru People's Movement reaffirms itself on our Great Leadership, Chairman Gonzalo; on the First Congress of the Party, a Marxist Congress, a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought Congress; on our Basis of Party Unity with its three elements; thus reaffirming all the system of leadership of our Party and closing ranks around Comrade Julio. We know that no one or nothing shall be able to change the course of history and with the People's War we shall reach Communism.

LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM, GONZALO THOUGHT!

DEFEND THE LIFE OF CHAIRMAN GONZALO!

DEFEND THE LIFE OF COMRADE FELICIANO!

CRUSH THE NEW HOAX UNDERWAY!