AN INTERVIEW WITH HUGO BLANCO GALDOS

Abstract

This interview was conducted in Spanish in Cuzco, Peru, on 8 April 2010. It delivers a brief history of the 1958–63 struggle for agrarian reform in the Cuzco region of Peru, from the perspective of one of its leaders. Hugo Blanco is reticent on the specifics of military strategy and emphasizes instead the necessity of adopting principles of indigeneity if political, social and ecological progress is to be made.

Keywords:

• agricultural syndicalism
• armed resistance
• climate change
• eco-socialism
• indigeneity
• Peru

Notes

¹A Peruvian guerrilla leader of the Leftist Revolutionary Movement (MIR), operating during the 1950s and 1960s. Killed in action in 1965 (Loveman and Davies 1985).

²A Peruvian guerrilla force formed in 1983, self-described as Maoist. Known in English as Shining Path.

³The World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth was held 19–22 April 2010 in Cochabamba, Bolivia, with 20,000 in attendance (Schipani 2010). It was called by Bolivian president Evo Morales in response to what he considers failed United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009.

⁴The monthly newspaper edited and published by Blanco: www.luchaindigena.com.