Martín Pumar: Community activist, Peru

What is Casa Alternativa Joven?
bout four years ago, a group of young people
who were involved in community youth groups
in Villa El Salvador founded Casa Alternativa
Joven. Hundreds of youth groups have existed through-
out the district since the 1970s, and they have done
interesting things like organize sports tournaments,
musical groups, theater groups, etc. Our idea in forming
Casa Alternativa was to create a space where young
people could come together not only for recreational
activities but also to talk about politics. We called it
“Casa” (House) because we wanted it to be a space in
which young people could participate and feel wel-
come. We called it “Alternativa” (Alternative) because
we believe that Peru is desperately in need of new per-
spectives and new possibilities. And we called it
“Joven” (Youth) because as young people who com-
prise the majority of the population in Peru, we believe
we must take up the challenge of creating new ideas,
new perspectives, new alternatives.
What are the short-term and long-term goals of Casa
Alternativa?
One of the issues we are currently dealing with at
Casa Alternativa is the growing problem of violence
among Peru’s youth. Youth gangs, which were not
common in Peru, have proliferated in the past few
years. They engage in random vandalism, and feuds
between rival gangs in poor and working-class neigh-
borhoods in Lima have become increasingly common.
Another manifestation of youth violence are the “bar-
ras bravas”-soccer clubs made up of young people
who commit arbitrary acts of violence at soccer games
against the fans of opposing teams as well as against
innocent spectators. Where does this violence come
from? Today’s youth are the offspring of three “par-
ents.” They are the children of Fujimori and the savage
individualism his neoliberal economic model has
unleashed in this country. They are also the children of
ex-President Alan Garcia and the corruption and abuse
of authority his administration personified. And they
are the children of Abimael Guzman and the violence
unleashed by the Shining Path and the military. The
values of Peruvian youth have been fundamentally
shaped by these three elements. This is why in Peru
today there is so much individualism, so little trust in
public authority, and so much violence.
VOL XXXI, No 1 JULY/AUG 199747 VOL XXXI, No 1 JULY/AUG 1997 47
I P E R UVOICES ON THE LEFT
Many of these young people also have family prob-
lems. Many of their parents are absent, alcoholics or
abusive. Participating in a gang or a barra brava pro-
vides them with a group identity, which makes them
feel important. It also gives them an outlet for their
frustrations. Remember that Peru is a country were
there are few jobs available to young people, and going
to a university is a distant dream for most Peruvians.
Casa Alternativa began working with gangs and the
barras bravas in early 1996. In contrast to the media
hype, which portrays gangs and barras as security
issues that require more police and stiffer sentences for
juvenile offenders, we see them as a social problem that
demands a comprehensive solution. Youth need to be
given opportunities, the chance to grow and to learn, the
chance to be heard.
What are the longer-term goals of Casa Alternativa?
The principles that underlie Casa Alternativa Joven
are leftist principles-solidarity, peace, social justice,
democratic participation-and we seek to promote
these values among the youth. But while Casa
Alternativa is a social space with leftist principles and
objectives, it is not a political party. Anyone can partic-
ipate in the activities and programs we organize.
One of our long-term goals is to promote new mech-
anisms of participation for young people at the local
level. But there is a problem: young people are very
skeptical of politicians and of politics in general. They
see politicians as the problem, as unconcerned with
their needs. This applies not only to political parties,
but also to the many “independent” groups that have
also failed to solve the country’s problems.
In an attempt to change these perceptions in Villa El
Salvador, we have promoted different initiatives to
incorporate young people into the local government.
For example, Casa Alternativa has organized a series of
meetings between young people and municipal author-
ities. This has developed into an ongoing dialogue that
we hope will form the basis of new and interesting ini-
tiatives. We also seek to promote new leadership among
the youth. We believe that young people can and should
play a fundamental role in promoting a development
project for the entire district of Villa El Salvador. But
for that to happen we need to promote leaders who have
strong links to their respective social bases. In the old
way of doing politics, even among the left, it was not
uncommon for party leaders to be candidates for any
office or post, whether or not they had any real link to
the grassroots. What we want to do is to build new lead-
ership from the vantage point of local government;
leaders who know that they are speaking for a specific
group of people who support them.
48
You said earlier that Casa Alternativa considers itself part
of the left. In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge
facing the Peruvian left today?
In the 1980s, several leftist parties came together in an
electoral front called United Left (IU). As IU, the left
became the second-most powerful political force in
Peru. The IU governed Lima from 1983 to 1986, as well
as several local districts in Lima and other parts of the
country. This was the left’s best moment. We had so
much popular support that we had the possibility of win-
ning the presidential election in 1990, but by the end of
the 1980s the IU had fallen apart. I participated in the
first-and only-national congress of the IU in 1989,
when the violence was growing and the economic crisis
worsening. But rather than focus on national problems
and developing solutions, the parties fought amongst
themselves, and the IU split into three different groups.
Part of the problem was the existence of caudillismo
within our ranks. Our leaders were more interested in
their own quota of personal power than in building and
consolidating a coherent left-wing project for Peru.
Another problem was that in terms of corruption and
authoritarianism, some of the local IU governments
were not very different from those of the right or of
APRA. As a result, people lost faith in the promises of
the left to be more transparent and more democratic.
Many progressive activists went home and refused to
participate. That is why it is so important for the left to
create new styles of leadership. I think it was easier for
the left to be the opposition than to actually govern.
People got tired of going to marches, throwing rocks,
writing graffiti. They wanted the left to govern the coun-
try and provide alternatives. The left in Peru failed to do
that; it never had a national project for the country. It fell
into the trap of criticizing without creating new alterna-
tives. This is the greatest challenge we face today-not
just criticizing neoliberalism but coming up with viable
alternatives that respond to people’s basic needs.
How would you characterize the different relationships
that your group has been building over time with other
progressive actors in Peru? What problems and benefits
have they brought?
We have cultivated a very fruitful relationship with
the municipal government. The mayor, Michel Azcueta,
recognizes the importance of the youth, which make up
nearly 75% of the district’s population, and he has been
very supportive of our efforts. My election to the city
council has facilitated and strengthened that relation-
ship. But even before that, we started from the premise
that local government is society’s closest link to the
state, and therefore the most critical space for us to
impact in terms of local and even national politics.
NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASVOICES ON THE LEFT
Representatives from the Casa Alternativa would meet
with the mayor or members of the city council to nego-
tiate specific initiatives. But after several years, we
decided that we needed to be on the inside. Of course
municipal governments in Peru have scarce resources,
and there is no money budgeted for youth or women’s
programs. So we have to be creative. The official postal
system is not very effective in poor districts like Villa,
and seeing this need, Casa Alternativa decided to start
up a messenger service. We negotiated a one-year con-
tract with the municipal government, and a dozen
youths began to work as messengers. Once we proved
ourselves, we began winning other
contracts with other institutions,
including private companies, in the
district.
Aside from the municipality, what
other relationships or alliances with
outside groups have been important
for Casa Alternativa?
Has Casa Alternativa had any kind of relationship with
other levels of government?
We’ve had a few meetings with Vice-President
Ricardo Mirquez in which we discussed the problem of
youth gangs and the barras bravas. We think this kind
of dialogue is vital in building new state policies for the
youth. The state must dialogue with all social sectors-
campesinos, women, small business owners-to build a
truly national development project.
Given the neoliberal bent of the current regime, what
possibilities are there of building a national development
project?
Today’s youth are the
children of Fujimori
and his savage
nanliharnlicm” The growing problem of political
violence in Lima, which was espe- of ex-pre cially acute here in Villa El Salvador, prompted us to coordinate our efforts Garci
with different groups, most notably
the National Human Rights corr
Coordinating Committee (CNDH), and of which represents human rights
groups nationwide. The CNDH took Guzm6 notice of us in the early 1990s, when
some of us began to organize differ- violence u
ent activities in response to the grow- Shining P ing presence of Shining Path in the
district. For example, we organized mil campaigns to clean the district of
Shining Path’s graffiti. We painted
over their slogans promoting war
with graffiti promoting peace and life. We participated
in peace marches here in Villa and in other districts as
well.
Our relationships with outside groups such as non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) have not always
been smooth, however. Many NGOs do not treat grass-
roots organizations like Casa Alternativa as equal part-
ners. We found that many NGOs cared more about their
own particular interests than about building something
for the community. And many NGOs do not have broad
social objectives, and instead are organized as a series
of small-scale projects. This does not help to strengthen
social organizations, which we think should always be
the main objective of any development project because
strong local organizations form the basis of a strong
civil society.
sident Alan
and his
option;
Abimael
n and the
unleashed by
ath and the
litary.
I think that the state is an arena to
promote dialogue among different
sectors of society and to coordinate
efforts that promote peace and
social justice. The neoliberal state
has abdicated this responsibility.
For example, it recently sold the
telephone company to Spanish
interests, and as a result the state no
longer has any say in how the com-
munications industry is run.
Telef6nica does whatever it wants
to. They put up telephone lines
where it is most profitable, not
where they are most needed. Nor do
they respect the municipal govern-
ment’s development plans or even
try to coordinate their plans with
the local government. It’s the same
with the electric company. The state
has no power over what private
companies do, which undermines
the ability of the state or the munici-
pal government to promote local
development.
Villa El Salvador in the 1980s is an example of how
the state, in this case local government, can promote
integral development. With the help of urban planners, the municipal government, then run by the IU, created
a development project for the district, which included
among other things an industrial park and an agricul-
tural zone. People said that we were dreaming, that we
couldn’t achieve these things. Yet by the end of the
1980s we had an industrial park and an agricultural
zone where residents of Villa El Salvador set up their
workshops and make their living. We can do this at the
national level. It’s a matter of projecting what we want
and mobilizing our resources to build it. And the young
people of Peru must be an integral part of any national
development project.