Explore "A Fish in the Water" by Mario Vargas Llosa on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
On October 26, 1989, El Diario, the mouthpiece of Sendero Luminoso, published a communiqué in the name of a front organization, the MRDP (Movimiento Revolucionario en Defensa del Pueblo: Revolutionary Movement in Defense of the People), calling for a "class-based armed work stoppage" for November 3, "in support of the war of the people."
The following morning, the United Left candidate for the mayoralty of Lima and the presidency, Henry Pease García, announced that on the day chosen by the Sendero Luminoso movement for the work stoppage he would take to the streets with his supporters with the aim of proving "that democracy [is] stronger than subversion. " I was with Álvaro, in my study-early each morning, before the meeting of the "kitchen cabinet," we went over the program for the day-when I heard the news on the radio. The idea instantly occurred to me to join the demonstration and take to the streets too with my supporters on November 3 in answer to the challenge of Sendero Luminoso. Álvaro liked the idea, and to avoid its bogging down in complicated consultations with the allies, I wasted no time and made my decision public, in a telephone interview with "Radioprogramas. " In it, I congratulated Henry Pease and proposed to him that we march together.