Will the Communists Get Oz?

IN THE HIGH Andes mountains of Peru, on feast days, the Indians dress up in gorgon masks to exorcise demons. A number of these masks are painted white and decorated with black mustachios and beards. They do not just stir subliminal memories of the Conquistadores; they also stand for the contemporary rulers of Peru, a group of Marxist generals.

In late August of this year, there was a coup d’état in which Peru’s President, Juan Velasco Alvarado, was deposed and a new President, General Francisco Morales Bermudez, set up in his place. Velasco had been a strongman, a super-nationalist, a man of grudges and of sudden violence. In the eight years of his rule no popular support for the Marxist revolution that he led had ever developed. President Morales Bermudez, on the other hand, is described by most journalists as a moderate man in politics, a pragmatist, and a man of intelligence. He may be all of these things but, for the Indians of the alto piano, there will be no need to fabricate new masks. The old ones will do very nicely.

DD

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Dan Doherty

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IN THE HIGH Andes mountains of Peru, on feast days, the Indians dress up in gorgon masks to exorcise demons. A number of these masks are painted white and decorated with black mustachios and beards. They do not just stir subliminal memories of the Conquistadores; they also stand for the contemporary rulers of Peru, a group of Marxist generals.

In late August of this year, there was a coup d’état in which Peru’s President, Juan Velasco Alvarado, was deposed and a new President, General Francisco Morales Bermudez, set up in his place. Velasco had been a strongman, a super-nationalist, a man of grudges and of sudden violence. In the eight years of his rule no popular support for the Marxist revolution that he led had ever developed. President Morales Bermudez, on the other hand, is described by most journalists as a moderate man in politics, a pragmatist, and a man of intelligence. He may be all of these things but, for the Indians of the alto piano, there will be no need to fabricate new masks. The old ones will do very nicely.