Mario Vargas Llosa: A Fish in the Water: A Memoir

*Supplement of Unicornio , Lima, October 25, 1987, p. 5.

*Reproduced in Contra viento y marea, II (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1990), pp. 143–55.

*See my article on the subject, “La revolución y los desmanes,” Caretas , Lima, March 6, 1975; reproduced in Contra viento y marea, I (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1990), pp. 311–16.

*Since then, Guillermo Thorndike has enriched his dossier by performing new feats. In 1990 he was editor-in-chief of a scandal sheet, Ayllu , that sympathized with the MRTA terrorist movement. In it he fiercely attacked his former employer, Alan García, and presented sensationalist documents regarding his misdeeds while in power. Later he became editor-in-chief of La Nación , a daily paper in the service of the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori.

*These last two, to the distress of those of us who considered them to be exemplary democratic journalists, were to become, from April 5, 1992, on, militant defenders of Fujimori’s coup d’état, which destroyed Peruvian democracy.

*Henry Pease, of the United Left, with 11.54 percent, the Aprista candidate Mercedes Cabanillas, with 11.53 percent, and the candidate of the Socialist Alliance, Enrique Bernales, who won barely 2.16 percent, straggled far behind.

*“The Consultant,” Granta , no. 36, London, Summer 1991, pp. 87–95.

* Acción para el cambio: el programa de gobierno del Frente Democrático (Lima, December 1989).

*Lima, August 9, 1989, p. 3.

† The interview with Ghersi appeared in the Santiago El Diario (in the section Finance-Economy-Business) of August 4, 1989, and in it there is a discussion in general terms regarding whittling down the bureaucracy, but no specific figure is mentioned.

§ Expreso , Lima, August 10, 1989, p. 4.

* Ojo , Lima, December 22, 1989.

*See the statements by Ricardo Amiel in La República and in La Crónica , August 6, 1989, and that of Javier Alva Orlandini in El Nacional , November 30, 1989.

*Chirinos Soto’s report was published in El Comercio , Lima, January 23, 1990.

* Oiga , Lima, August 12, 1991.

*“Vargas Llosa’s speech at CADE was unquestionably impressive, but more than one of his listeners is already trembling.” Caretas , Lima, December 4, 1989.

*His case was not the only one. Of the fifteen Libertad senators and congressmen, four deserted the Movement, on various pretexts, in the first year and a half of the new administration: Senators Raúl Ferrero and Beatriz Merino and congressmen Luis Delgado Aparicio and Mario Roggero. But, unlike the first three, who after parting company with Libertad maintained a discreet and even friendly attitude toward the Movement, Roggero devoted himself to attacking it in public communiqués and declarations. That was his response to the generous decision of the political committee which, instead of declaring him no longer a member of Libertad because of his absence when that vote was taken in Congress, confined itself to a mild warning. Several months later, the representative Rafael Rey also was to resign, after being criticized by the leaders of Libertad because of his gestures and declarations in favor of the dictatorship instituted by Fujimori on April 5, 1992, which he has been faithfully serving since.

* Caretas , Lima, January 8, 1990.

* Caretas , Lima, January 15, 1990.

*Law 15792, of December 14, 1965.

*In March, an opinion poll by the CIP (Centro de Investigaciones del Peru — Peruvian Center for Research) gave me 43 percent nationwide, against 14.5 percent for Alva Castro, 11.5 percent for Alfonso Barrantes, and 6.8 percent for Henry Pease.

*During the month of October many people in Lima dress in purple or wear something purple to show their devotion to the Lord of Miracles, a painting of the crucified Christ said to have been done on the wall of slaves’ quarters in the seventeenth century, which has survived all of Lima’s great earthquakes and is an object of veneration. On three days in October, the icon, which weighs three tons, is borne through the streets by teams of men in a spectacular procession that includes incense bearers and a choir. ( Trans. note )

*Faithful to these ideas, General Salinas Sedó, who had already retired, tried to start a movement, based on constitutional provisions, to restore democracy in Peru, on November 13, 1992, seven months after the authoritarian coup on April 5. But the attempt was a failure, and he and the group of officers who backed him are, as of the time when I am correcting the proofs for this book, currently in prison.

† “Civiles y militares en el Perú de la Libertad.” Speech explaining the background of the current situation, delivered before officers of the Peruvian army, navy, and air force at CAEM (Centro de Altos Estudios Militares: Center for Advanced Military Studies), on February 26, 1990. Lima, 1990.

*“El país que vendrá.” Closing speech of the Freedom Revolution meeting. Lima, March 9, 1990.

*Following the “self-coup” of April 5, 1992, the rivalry between Mayor Belmont and the brand-new dictator was to turn into an impassioned romance.

*This had happened in the 1985 elections, in which Alan García won a little less than 50 percent, beating Alfonso Barrantes, who came in second. There ought therefore to have been a second electoral round, which was avoided because of the withdrawal of the candidate of the United Left.

*I wrote about it for the first time in an article entitled “Crónica de un viaje a la selva” in the magazine Cultura Peruana (Lima: September 1958); then in a lecture published as La historia secreta de una novela (Barcelona: Tusquets, 1971); in Chapter IV of my novel El hablador (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1987); and in countless reportages and articles as well.

*After April 5, 1992, Chirinos Soto was to arm himself with “constitutional” reasons to justify agricultural engineer Fujimori’s coup d’état and attack those of us who condemn it. He now accuses me of being — a Marxist!

*This individual also visited Álvaro, who, like Patricia, agreed to submit to the ritual of the laying-on of hands and has left a personal account of the episode in El diablo en campaña , pp. 180–81.

*See the vivid description of this process in José María Arguedas’s posthumous novel El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo (The Fox Below and the Fox Above) (Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1971).

† The Lima daily Expreso , May 28, 1990.

*Television message to the Peruvian people, May 30, 1990.

† It must be said that the evangelical congressmen and senators behaved discreetly and respectfully toward the Catholic Church during their short period in office. And when Fujimori, after twenty months of his term as president, closed down Congress and proclaimed himself dictator, almost all of them, beginning with the second vice president, Carlos García, condemned what had occurred and made common cause with the democratic resistance against the coup d’état.

*Congressman Olivera, the leader of the FIM (Frente Independiente Moralizador: Independent Front for Morality), did not belong to the Democratic Front nor did he support my candidacy.

*An absurdist literary movement, contemporary with existentialism, which flourished in Paris in the 1950s. Many of its efforts to deflate pretentiousness of all sorts depended on outrageous parody. ( Trans. note )

* El diablo en campaña , pp. 195–204.

*“Una visita a Lurigancho,” in Contra viento y marea, II (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1983).

*Friedrich Hayek, Law, Legislation and Liberty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973), vol. 1, p. 107.