George Rassias

3/25/17

In Mario Vargas Lllosa’s Inquest in the Andes and Questions of Conquest, the conditions

faced by the native peoples of Peru is explored through the 1980’s Sendero Luminoso insurgency

as well as legacy that Cristopher Columbus continues to have in these areas.

In Inquest in the Andes, Llosa focuses on the terrorist group known as Sendero Luminoso

which operated during the 1980’s in rural Peru. The group was based on the communist

ideology, and tried to overthrow the Peruvian government by using force and violence, even

against their own people. Sendero Luminoso had their power centered in rural, mountainous

Peru, home to the indigenous Quechua communities. What is interesting is that even though the

native Peruvian originally practiced a form of communalism as stated by Jose Carlos Mariategui,

they completely rejected the ideology of Sendero Luminoso and regarded them as thieves and

criminals. Llosa mentions that as a group of these terrorists entered a native village, the Indians

initially welcomed them to deceive them, however once they felt received and comfortable, the

natives quickly killed them. Clearly, their ideologies did were not the same. Members of Sendero

Luminoso were extremely violent, and often times killed and raped villagers for no apparent

reason. Llosa explains how by 1982, the group had claimed responsibility for “2,900” operations,

many of these were murders. By the end of the same year, 80 civilians and 43 police officers had

been killed. One result of the terror of the Sendero Luminoso was that much of the civil authority

in the rural, indigenous inhabited areas had collapsed. These regions were more or less cut off

from Lima and the indigenous had to fend for themselves against the terrorists. Llosa says “The
Guardia Civil had almost no effect on the insurgency, but their lack of discipline and abuse of

power produced a disastrous record of arbitrary arrests, torture, rape, theft, mutilation and even

murder. Even when the Peruvian government did try to stop the insurgency, they were hopelessly

ineffective. On the same page, Llosa says “Sendero’s tactics demonstrated terrorist proficiency

and a cold, unscrupulous mentality. Besides destroying power lines and raiding mining camps

for explosives, the Senderistas devastated farm and killed or wounded their workers.”

The actions of Sendero Luminoso are important when discussing the relations between

races in Peru. Sendero Luminoso operated mostly in the Andean region of the country, an area

densely inhabited by native peoples while the lowlands were dominated by mestizos. Thus, we

have a clear division between the two societies of Peru, a paradox of two nations sharing

common borders. The mestizos living in more urban areas did not have to worry too much about

Sendero Luminoso, whereas the indigenous were constantly living in fear, cut off from

governmental support. It is a theme which we see time and time again, where the Indian is

ignored. Llosa also mentions how reporters more or less had very little access to the regions most

affected by Sendero Luminoso, and that most of the population living in the urban regions had

no idea about the atrocities that were taking place. People were badly informed in the highlands

and communication was often severed from village to village.

In Questions of Conquest, Llosa first examines the question of how the pre-Columbian

empires fell relatively quickly by small bands of Spanish soldiers. He emphasizes the importance

of historical chronicles instead of newspapers and public opinion when dealing with these issues.

By using these historical pieces, Llosa paints a picture of what pre-Columbian Peru was like. The

Incan empire was a highly advanced society, governing over 20 million people and in some ways

had reached a level of social, military, and agricultural development that Spain had not reached.
Despite the numerous achievements of this civilization, the most important that Llosa points out

is that the Inca have managed to nearly eradicate hunger. This relates back to what Mariategui

had said about the communalistic structure of Incan society, where goods and harvests are

distributed between members of the community, the question of the downfall of the Incan empire

by the small number of Spaniards can be explained by the fact that the Spanish quickly killed the

emperor and left the nation without a leader. Because of this swift assassination, public order had

dismantled confusion was very high throughout the land. Later in the article, Llosa mentions that

the Incan civilization “Was not capable, however, of facing the unexpected, that absolute novelty

presented by the balance of armored men on horseback who assaulted the Incas with weapons

transgressing all the war and peace patterns known to them.” What is clear from Llosa’s work is

that the arrival of the Spaniards from the new world to the Americas was not the coexistence of

two cultures, it is the takeover of one by the other. Even today, the two societies are separated

and live in different worlds. Llosa also mentions how immense opportunities had been brought

by the Spanish to the Americas, but the reality is that they are only accessible to a minority, those

who are mestizo or are of full European descent. Here, we see how the two societies are again

divided economically.

In both of his works, Llosa provides an thorough analysis of the conditions of the native

population in Peru by analyzing the insurgency of the Sendero Luminoso in the 1980’s as well as

exploring the historical impact that the Spaniards have had since the times of Christopher

Columbus. While Peru constitutes a unified nation politically, the truth is that two nations inhabit

its border, that of the mestizos and that of the Indian. While it may appear to the outside world

that Peru is a result of a cultural symbiosis, the reality is that the indigenous are totally

dominated by the colonizer.