By Wall Street Journal staff reporters Tom Vogel and Matt Moffett in Lima, Peru, and Jed Sandberg in New York.
While leftist guerrillas holding scores of hostages at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Peru find themselves hemmed in by crack government troops, rebel sympathizers around the world are carrying on the struggle in cyberspace.
Supporters of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement are filling dozens of pages on the World Wide Web with rebel propaganda, including the rebel group's official on-line newspaper, Voz Rebelde, or Rebel Voice. The sympathizers' computer link, which even includes detailed drawings of the rebels' plan of assault on the Japanese ambassador's residence, has almost overnight become a hot spot in cyberspace. Internet surfers have logged on more than 16,000 times to one site set up by Tupac Amaru sympathizers in the U.S. and Canada 10 days ago.
Tupac Amaru's efforts are the latest example of the burgeoning use of the Internet to advance the political and ideological agendas of radical organizations. For years, fringe groups have turned to the global computer network to post information about their organizations, recruit new members and organize rallies. Groups of all political persuasions, from neo-Nazis to militant environmentalists to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, have taken to cyberspace to get their message out to millions around the globe without fear of censorship.
Audience Of 70 Million
[...]
Among the most electronically sophisticated of these extremist groups are Latin American guerrilla movements, which have enjoyed something of a renaissance the past few years. Mexico's Zapatista guerrillas have been rallying support on-line since shortly after their 1994 uprising. Outlawed in Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces guerrilla group fields press queries through electronic mail.
With the Internet, "you solve a logistical problem without having to create a risk," says Mike Godwin, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a Washington-based group specializing in Internet privacy and freedom-of-speech issues. "It's an obvious, cost-effective way to put your material out there, not only to communicate with the world but also to communicate your legitimacy."
Tupac Amaru's Internet presence may be one of the most comprehensive of any Latin American subversive group. Their Web page for Rebel Voice includes copies of two communiques issued since the crisis started. It has a conciliatory message composed by one group of hostages freed by the guerrillas. Another section, filled with articles from Peruvian and international publications, boasts: "Tupac Amaru isn't afraid of either criticism or the truth."
There are even Web sites dedicated to ancillary players in the Tupac Amaru drama. One such site is operated by the family of Lori Berenson, the American who was sentenced to life in prison last year for her alleged involvement with Tupac Amaru. The Lori Berenson Home Page continues the extensive documentation of her legal appeals, the Peruvian justice system, as well as links to other Web pages for human-rights groups.
Attempts To Censor Sites
Some Latin American governments have tried suppressing the guerrillas in cyberspace. At the behest of Colombia's government, Mexican authorities squashed a Web page run by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia last fall through a server based in Mexico. The group has continued communications through electronic mail while it tries to set up a new site, perhaps through another host in another country.
In the past, the Peruvian government has cracked down on traditional forms of subversive propaganda, such as newspapers. Peruvian security forces were widely thought to be behind the fire bombing of the offices of El Diario, the now-defunct newspaper of the Shining Path, a larger, more violent Peruvian rebel group. But countering propaganda on the Internet is much more complicated, authorities concede. "We can't very well cut phone lines and confiscate computers," says one Peruvian government official.
Tupac Amaru's cyberspace allies include some at the University of California at San Diego. One site run by Tupac Amaru sympathizers, the Solidarity Page, is located on that school's computer network. Officials at the university were unaware of the site and said that, because of the holiday break, they weren't able to reach personnel knowledgeable about it. But Bruce Miller, assistant university librarian, indicated that universities don't traditionally object to the use of school computers for free speech.
"Generally, among universities, there is a principle of academic freedom, and a researcher writes and publishes whatever is appropriate within his area of specialization," Mr. Miller said. He added that he didn't "have a clue" about the Tupac Amaru information.
Rebels On The Web:
Voz Rebelde Page:
http://www.cybercity.dk/users/ccc17427/
Solidarity Page:
http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/mrta.htm
(This article appeared on page A8 of The Wall Street Journal, Monday, January 6, 1997)