Mayor closes museum of memories in battle over story of Peru's violent past
Source: The Guardian
Mayor closes museum of memories in battle over story of Peru’s violent past
Far-right mayor claimed Lima institution peddled false narrative of 1980-2000 conflict in which guerrillas and army killed 70,000
Dan Collyns in Lima
@yachay_dc
Fri 7 Apr 2023 11.45 BST
It was supposed to be a museum of memories: a place of dialogue and reconciliation where Peruvians could commemorate the victims of a brutal internecine conflict which killed tens of thousands of people in the 1980s and 1990s.
Since its controversial inception in 2015, the Place of Memory, Tolerance and Social Inclusion has received about 60,000 visitors a year.
But Lima’s ultra-conservative mayor, Rafael López Aliaga, has now presided over the museum’s closure in a move that human rights activists fear reflects a growing denial of the mass killings carried out by the armed forces in the conflict. The Mao-inspired Shining Path were not alone in committing atrocities.
The official reason for the sudden closure of the Place of Memory, Tolerance and Social Inclusion, known by its Spanish acronym Lum, was due to the museum’s failure to meet municipal safety norms
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/07/peru-mayor-closes-museum-of-memories-army-shining-path
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