Maria Elena Moyano was murdered by Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path). She was 33 years old, mother of two boys aged 11 and 12, a beloved and supportive friend, a leader of the popular women's movement of Peru, and Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Villa El Salvador (VES), one of the largest districts of Lima. She was first killed and then her body was blown up with dynamite. The repeated death threats against her were, on February 15, turned into a crime.
Maria Elena's commitment to women and people began with her first years in the youth movement. This was the begining of her political experience, at the very moment of the birth of VES . From that time on Maria Elena was a leader, firstly as an adolescent, secondly as a woman and finally as an important political activist in defense of democratic rights for women and the poor as a whole. In 1984, aged 24, she was elected President of Fepomuves (Federation of Popular Women of VES), one of the most active and effective women's organisations in the country, and probably in all of Latin America. Her political vision -seeking a democratic and pluralistic future-favoured links between Fepomuves and the various women's organisation operating in the neighbourhood. The organisation thus went beyond the original political basis of the federation, the Mothers' Clubs (Clubes de Madres).
Fepomuves currently represents around 10,000 women from VES. This is a coalition that carries out the most diverse activities: people's kitchens (comedores populares), health committees, groups related to the Glass of Milk programme (Programa del Vaso de Leche) income-generating projects, committees for basic education . In 1990 Maria Elena left the Fepomuves leadership, opening the way to the rise of the new generation of female leaders formed in recent years. Directly after this she was elected Deputy Mayor in the municipality of VES. This was at a particular political moment: the circumstances required the peoples's leaders to not only seriosly commit themselves to the grassroots organizations but to also take a principled stand on, and pronounce a clearcut condemnation of terrorist methods.
The political confrontation between Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and the organisations of the people has a long and sinister history in Peru. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of killings, in which miners' and peasants' leaders, leftwing political representatives, soldiers and policemen of high and low rank, company executives, students and women's leaders have lost their lives.
Sendero is particularly suspicious of women's organisations. Their deep roots amongst the people, their commitment to democratic values, their distance from and criticism of political violence, their capacity to create new forms of daily life (in order to counter the adverse economic conditions in the country) are diametrically opposed to Senderopolitical aims. Sendero strategy has consequently been a campaign of murder and terror, intended to isolate the leader from their base. It also relies on ignominious accusations of betrayal of the popular struggle. Sendero accuses women leaders of reformism, of collaboration with the government, of opportunism (since they are committed to survival and to the improvement of their lives, of those of their families and their communities).
Sendero does not accept the active role of women in the process of transforming the destiny of the country, it questions the efforts of women's organizations for better education for women and for their full acquisition of citizenship rights. It also accuses women leaders of imposing the use of contraceptive methods so as to diminish the number of children that women should produce for the so-called revolution.

A brief chronology of terror

In mid-1991 Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) began an open attack on the leadership of popular women in Lima. In September, Juana Lopez, coordinator of the Glass of Milk Programme in the Carmen de la Legua District of Lima, was murdered after she had denounced the presence and activity of Sendero in the neighbourhood. Beside her corpse was found a dead dog and a poster. Organizations took to the streets of Lima to denounce and repudiate the bloody methods of Sendero. Maria Elena was a speaker at the final gathering, strongly condemning the demented terrorist activities of Sendero as threatening the very existence of the country.
From then on Sendero extended the death threats to various other female leaders, among them Maria Elena and Emma Hilario -the latter being the President of the National Federation of People's Kitchens. In October Sendero attacked the Fepomuves food storage centres with bombs. In November, as threats against Maria Elena's life intensified, we managed to convince her to leave the country for several weeks. This was intended to provide her some relief from the daily tension she was being subjected to, and to permit us to establish minimal measures to protect her life. Maria Elena returned to Peru ten days later and told us that she would rather lose her life struggling against Sendero than die with feelings of anguish and impotence away from the country.
At six a.m. on December 19th, Sendero shot Emma Hilario with a shotgun in her own house. Miraculously she was not killed, but she was forced to leave the country as the only way of protecting her life.
After that the feminist movement, as well as the popular women's movement, concentrated their attention on the protection of Maria Elena. We managed to obtain two Peruvian Police bodyguards for her. She did not sleep at home or even in the neighbourhood. She carried out her activities in the Municipal Council and the women's movement with considerable precautions. We had the illusion that these measures would protect her life. The death threats continued, however -as did the systematic condemnation by Maria Elena of Sendero's methods and actions. These direct and courageous denunciations inspired her nomination as "Personality of the Year" by the national press.
On February 15 Maria Elena was brutally murdered, the killing being witnessed by her children and people from VES. Sendero had decided on an "armed strike" in Lima for the previous day. Maria Elena had once again resisted the proposal, calling upon the people not to accept Sendero's orders. The previous night she had not slept at home. She returned to the neighbourhood during the day, however, to participate in fund-raising activities being organised by the comen's commitees. During the party, in one of the committee rooms, an armed Sendero group arrive and forced those present to leave the place. Maria Elena stayed alone and, as her children and the women watched, she was machine-gunned and her corpse blown up with dynamite -an act of extreme cruelty that clearly reflects the crazed and perverse inspiration of Sendero terrorists.
We strongly believe that Maria Elena's death has not been in vain. We believe Peru to be a viable country, a place for women and men -of all ages, races, classes and conditions- to live in. This is what Maria Elena lived for. Presently in Peru we, as women, have taken on a political role of more importance than ever before in the history of the country. We are leaders, citizens, women's rights activists, organisers and mobilisers of the grassroots efforts to survive, to overcome the crisis and to protect life and livelihoods -as well as the democratic spaces and values that have cost us so much effort to construct.

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