Who is the Peruvian guerilla general quoted in this Guns N Roses song?
September 6, 2013 2:37 PM   Subscribe

The lyrics sheet for "Use Your Illusion II" attributes a quotation in the antiwar song "Civil War" to an unnamed Peruvian guerilla general. Who said this?

The alleged quotation is: "We practice selective annihilation of mayors and government officials, for example, to create a vacuum, then we fill that vacuum. As popular war advances, peace is closer." Did Axl Rose just make this up or is this something an actual Peruvian rebel might have said in the late 1980s?
posted by steinsaltz to Society & Culture (5 answers total)
 
Sounds like something Guzman would have said.

Guzman was influential Peru in the 1980's, when Axl Rose would have been writing this song.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:41 PM on September 6, 2013


If you can find the Granta back issue, Nicholas Shakespeare wrote about Guzman's terror campaign.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:43 PM on September 6, 2013


I'd guess Guzmán as well, but I don't really know how much he talked about peace. Perhaps this is a "sound-alike" quote?
posted by chainsofreedom at 3:21 PM on September 6, 2013


Best answer: Aha! After a bunch of googling I finally found a real reference. This was apparently quoted in the Chicago Tribune on July 9, 1989, and is attributed to a "young guerrilla officer who gave his name as Jorge."
posted by brainmouse at 4:39 PM on September 6, 2013 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: Amazing work, thanks. This is one of those secrets I have wondered about since high school.
posted by steinsaltz at 4:07 PM on September 7, 2013


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