|
Peru Community Leadership
Throughout the highlands, there are vestiges of the
colonial
civic and religious organizations of "indirect rule"
originally
implanted by Spanish officials. Where they survive in
Peru,
principally in Indian communities, there are networks of
villages
tied together in an association broadly supervised by a
parish
priest or his surrogate. The village religious leaders,
who are
called by various names such as alcaldes
pedáneos
(lesser mayors) and varayoq or envarados
(staff
bearers), plan and carry out elaborate yearly festival
cycles
involving dozens of lesser special lay religious
authorities.
Often referred to as carrying a "burden" or responsibility
(cargo), all of these village officials are
selected
annually by elaborate systems of prestige rankings based
on prior
experience and local values of devotion, honesty,
reputation for
work, and capacity to underwrite the costs of office.
The principal officials in these hierarchies carry holy
staffs of office, often made of chonta (tucuma)
palm wood
brought from the tropics and adorned with silver relics
and
symbols. The additional duties of the varayoq
include the
supervision of village morals, marriage, and the
application of
informal justice to offenders of village norms. Although
specifically outlawed in several of Peru's older
constitutions,
the system has endured throughout the highlands. Changes
have
occurred, however, when communities, under pressures to
modernize, abolished the varayoq institution. In
other
cases, the system has evolved into a more formal political
apparatus, leaving the religious activities in the hands
of the
parish priest, lay brotherhoods, and other devotees. The
multicommunity Peasant Patrols (rondas campesinas)
in the
highlands have acted as informal but powerful self-defense
forces
controlling rustling and, beginning in the 1980s, the
intrusion
of unwanted revolutionaries like the Shining Path. In
aspects of
their orientation and organization, they may aspire to
resemble
the varayoq as moral authorities.
The formal political and social organization of
Peruvian
towns and cities of course follows the outlines laid down
in the
constitution of 1979 and various laws enacted by the
Congress.
One of the somewhat confusing arrangements, however,
pertains to
the officially constituted corporate community
enterprises, the
Peasant Communities, and their offshoots--such as the
Social
Interest Agrarian Association (Sociedad Agrícola de
Interés
Social--SAIS) and the Social Property Enterprises
(Empresas de
Propiedad Social--EPS). There is disagreement over how
these
entities fit into the community and political picture
because
their constituencies overlap with the political divisions.
The
districts and provinces are political subdivisions with
elected
mayors and council members charged with administering
their
areas. Corporate communities are a form of agrarian
cooperative
business that own inalienable land, with memberships that
are not
necessarily restricted to a single residential unit like a
town.
The Peasant Communities and other units conduct their
affairs
through a president, as well as administrative and
vigilance
committees elected by the general assembly of the
membership.
Community property and members (comuneros) are
within the
administrative domains of districts and provinces for all
other
civic purposes. In some areas, the boundaries of the
Peasant
Communities coincide with those of a district, as is
frequently
the case in the Mantaro Valley. In other areas, community
lands
occupy only a portion of the district; there may also be
two
separate Peasant Communities within a district, or
districts with
residents who do not belong to the corporate organization.
Members of Peasant Communities and other corporate
groups
constitute about 30 percent of all rural people and
therefore
have been a significant factor in economic and political
affairs
throughout the highlands and in some areas of the Costa,
where
the former plantations passed into workers' hands after
1969. On
the coast, there have long been linkages between worker
unions
and the regional political powers, but in the Sierra these
ties
have not developed strongly. The exception is in the
central
highland department of Junín and in the southern
department of
Puno, where in the 1980s there were powerful, organized
movements
based on Peasant Communities and independent small farmers
groups
allied with political parties. The influence of these
groups was,
for the most part, localized.
Data as of September 1992
|
