PERU LIMA 6 SHOTS ARE HEARD AT BESIEGED JAPANESE EMBASSY

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(4 Feb 1997) Spanish/Nat • • Six shots were heard early on Tuesday morning at the site of the besieged Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima where Marxist rebels are still holding 72 hostages. • • They were to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the deaths of six workers in the Cromotex textile plant take-over. • • The hour-long commemorations of the deaths of six comrades in a factory occupation began shortly after nightfall Monday. • • The rebels fired six shots into the night sky early on Tuesday as their leader, Nestor Cerpa, called out the names of the six slain workers. • • UPSOUND: (Spanish) • Comrade Hemigidio Huerta, (shot) comrade Marcelino Castro (shot) comrade Silvio Jimenez (shot) comrade Inocencio Ramos (shot) comrade Maximo Lara (shot) comrade Maximo Montoya (shot) following their example we will win. • SUPER CAPTION: Voice of Nestor Cerpa, Tupac Amaru rebels' leader in the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Lima • • Flickering candles brightened up the darkened ambassador's residence, which at government orders has been without electricity since the early days of the stand-off. • • As well as the six gun salute, the rebels unfurled banners honouring the slain workers. • • They were commemorating the 18th anniversary of the Cromotex textile plant take-over. • This is how the factory looks today. • • In December 1978, Nestor Cerpa led the occupation of the plant by about 250 workers. • • Peruvian Congressman Javier Diez Canseco, who tried to mediate the Cromotex dispute, remembered the rebel leader. • • SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) • Nestor Cerpa was the secretary general of the textile workers union in Cromotex, a company where a conflict started in November 1978 because workers wanted the company to pay them two months' unpaid salary, they wanted to try and stop the company dismantling machinery and stopping several sections in the factory and to get rid of a group of thugs that had been hired to threaten the workers. • SUPER CAPTION: Javier Diez Canseco, Peruvian Congressman • • The occupation ended in February 1979 when 700 police stormed the factory. • • One policeman and six workers, including Cerpa's close comrade Hemigidio Huerta, were killed. • • SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) • The killing that took place in the factory after armed police emptied violently an occupation by some 70 workers at the time, marked without doubt Nestor Cerpa Cartolini's life. • SUPER CAPTION: Javier Diez Canseco, Peruvian Congressman • • The bloody end of the Cromotex strike was a turning point in Cerpa's life. • • Since his death, Hemigidio Huerta has been Cerpa's spiritual leader. • • Cerpa was charged with complicity in the murder of the policeman and was sent to prison with other 24 Cromotex unionists. • • He was released in December 1979 after a general amnesty. • • From union organiser he moved quickly to more violent anti-government activity. • • Cerpa went underground and became a leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement in the early 1980s. • • Tuesday's ceremonial shots - one shot for every killed worker, were yet another reminder that Cerpa's Marxist ideology is as alive today as it was eighteen years ago. • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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