| Sumario: | Part of a special section on the struggle over the past in Latin America. The writer discusses the attempts to achieve honest accounts of the past in postwar Peru. It is considered almost subversive to challenge the official version of history in postwar Peru. Thus, struggles over memory have remained dormant and alternative interpretations of the country's recent past have been obscured. Victims' groups remain stigmatized and isolated because their members are both poor and presumed to be connected with the Shining Path guerrilla movement. Human rights groups also remain isolated, accused by the Fujimori regime of acting as defenders of terrorists and mere front groups for the Shining Path. However, memory is capable of manifesting itself in surprising and unanticipated ways: Although the government has maintained firm control over the commission that reviews the cases of prisoners convicted unjustly of terrorism, the same commission is starting to investigate other issues relating to the legacy of the war.
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