Terruqueo
[9] Since the 1980s, the word terruco has been carelessly used by right-wing politicians in Peru to target left-wing, progressive and indigenous groups, with this baseless and often racist attack being called a terruqueo.
[5][9][10] The basis of the terruqueo began during the presidency of Fernando Belaúnde when Legislative Decree 46 broadly defined terrorism as "any form of glorification or defense of the political discourse of subversive organizations".
[1] Into the 1990s, authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori utilized terruqueos with the help of the National Intelligence Service to discredit those who opposed him, including dissenters from his own government, with political scientist Daniel Encinas saying that this would evolve into conservative politicians using the attack to target those opposed to Fujimori's neoliberal economic policies and that the right-wing used the terruqueo as a "strategy of manipulating the legacy of political violence".
[5][6][9] Following the 1992 Peruvian self-coup, Fujimori would broaden the definition of terrorism in an effort to criminalize as many actions possible to persecute left-wing political opponents.
[9] When Ollanta Humala, who initially espoused a left-wing ideology, was involved in Peruvian politics, opponents used the terruqueo against him, even though he was a soldier in the army who fought directly against the insurgency.
[12] Congresswoman Martha Chávez of the Fujimorist Popular Force party described protesters as "vandals and extremists, undoubtedly linked to Shining Path or MRTA".
[5] The protests, fueled by younger individuals who were not influenced by conservative governments and the armed forces were not affected by the terruqueo since they did not hold fearful memories from the historical conflict, with demonstrators often chanting "they messed with the wrong generation".
to supporters and at the Respect My Vote rally that was organized by Willax TV owner Erasmo Wong Lu on 26 June 2021, he supposedly stated "Death to communism, get out of here, filthy communists, you have awakened the lion, to the streets!
[6] In the book Buscando un inca, historian Alberto Flores Galindo wrote:[6] ‘Senderista’ was replaced by ‘terrorist’ and this word became over time a synonym of “people from Ayacucho”, which in turn was equivalent to anyone who was Indian or mestizo, was poorly dressed, or made a deficient use of Spanish ... To be called “people from Ayacucho” was to admit to have incurred in the antiterrorist law.
In this manner, the end of the war in 1984, became an onslaught of the western side of Peru against its Andean region.United Nations experts condemned the fear mongering tactic, saying it was an act of intimidation that stigmatized human rights workers, indigenous individuals and rural groups.
[8] During the protests in 2023, Edgar Stuardo Ralón, Vice President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), stated that terruqueos created "an environment of permission and tolerance towards discrimination, stigmatization and institutional violence".
