Their movement is called “the Andean National Socialist Movement of Peru” and they seek to emulate the national socialism of Adolf Hitler. They have declared themselves to be the Fuhrer’s supporters and the mortal enemies of the Jews, who they blame for all the world’s ills.
By Oscar Miranda
Photographs: Reuven Grandes
The spectacle before me is distinctly peculiar to put it mildly. Inside an office within an old house located in Alfonso Ugarte Boulevard, sit seven men – four of whom, dressed in Third Reich officers’ uniforms, are insisting that the Jews are to blame for all the problems facing humanity. None of them appear to be especially different from the average Peruvian; however, here they are, wearing Nazi uniforms, praising Adolf Hitler and vilifying and cursing the Jews. During certain moments the scene seems surrealistic. Hard as it is to believe, neo-Nazism is alive and well in the Andes Mountains.
Their spokesman is their leader, Martin Quispe Mayta, the 38 year old proprietor of a small business which prints advertisements on clothing in the city of Gamarra and who founded this strange movement called “the Andean National Socialists of Peru” “based on the fundamental principle that the Jews are to blame for all the world’s troubles and must therefore be driven “to extinction”.
Of course there is nothing new in this fabricated story, which has already been promulgated by neo-Nazi groups throughout the world for decades. What’s different about “members of the national socialist party” is that unlike those affiliated with the other small Peruvian neo-Nazi groups (such as the national socialist “Peru Awake”, or the confused comrades of the “National Vanguard”) who conceal their identities within closed online forums, they dare to show their faces in public.
And another distinctive feature, is that despite their declared love for the Fuhrer and Nazi Germany, they claim not to be racist. Moreover, they insist that Hitler was never a racist and that the theory of Aryan supremacy is a myth invented by what they maintain is the Jewish-controlled media.
Martin Quispe never completed his primary school studies. His childhood in La Victoria was turbulent, his parents were La Parada peddlers, he was the youngest of eight siblings … and in any case, the fact is that he did not progress beyond the third grade. “Of course, later on in life I had opportunities to study, but I’m convinced that all educators and public officials are the servants of the Jews. Why should I go to study, when there are other ways for me to acquire knowledge?” he asks.
He was educated in a bazaar on Aviación Boulevard, before returning to “La Cachina”, where as an adolescent, he discovered some old books on the Second World War. One day he came across a copy of the book “the International Jew”, written by Henry Ford, an essential text for understanding anti-Semitic theories which was lauded by Hitler who even quoted it in Mein Kampf (My Struggle). Later on, he read several works of the Mexican writer Salvador Borrego, a known supporter of National Socialism who promulgated the “hidden history” theory. The anti-Semitic “germ” was by now firmly entrenched in his mind and it grew and developed over the years the more he read other works of the same genre.
He founded the movement a decade ago, on the seventh floor of the cooperative building formerly owned by Santa Elisa. His first “militants” were drunks, drug addicts and vagabonds from the San Martin Plaza whom he would gather, give food and shelter to and inculcate with his anti-Semitic theory. According to him he managed during this period, in the merit of his special “joining” method, to recruit up to 300 “national socialists”.
He claims that there are currently approximately 70 “militants” in his group, 40 of whom are permanent members and 30 who come and go. He employs four coordinators, two stationed in the Alfonso Ugarte Boulevard branch, one in Rimac and another in San Juan de Lurigancho.
Every day the “militants” wander around the city squares and sell the books published by Quispe (“The Hidden Jewish Power” and “The Jews: The Cause of all Humanity’s Ills”). They also sell polo and other shirts bearing the movement’s symbol, and DVDs containing a summary of his political platform.
Aside from noticing their inexplicable antipathy towards the Jewish people, anyone encountering them will definitely see them as a hotchpotch of former drug addicts from central Victoria mixed with members of Antauro Humala’s ethnic-nationalist movement.
“It’s all a fabrication”
Martin, why are you admirers of Hitler?
“Because Hitler sacrificed himself for the sake of humanity, he gave his life for humanity”!
He sacrificed himself? In what way?
– It’s clear that he fought against the true enemy, the Jewish people, against the people who kill and poison millions.
– Hitler murdered six million Jews.
– That’s a lie invented by the Jewish press.
– But there are gas chambers and concentration camps.
There were never any gas chambers; these were furnaces for cremating the bodies.
Hitler did not kill Jews, this is a libel invented by the Jews.
And why, in your opinion, did the Jews supposedly want to slander Hitler?
– What’s happening is that 90% of the property in the world belongs to the Jews.
– How did you reach this conclusion?
– Look at the statistics. Clarify the matter.
– But, what are your sources?
– Well then… I can’t for the moment recall the names of the journalists who wrote that 90% of all the property belongs to the Jews.
I see. And why do you believe specifically that what these journalists have written is correct as opposed to the findings of all those researchers who have proved that Hitler committed genocide?
Because I’m being logical, all the others are only lackeys who utter praise for their Jewish masters.
– What have the Jews done to you, Martin? Have any of them ever harmed you?
– No, not at all.
– Then why do you hate them so much?
– Tell me, can you sit by idly when you turn on the TV and see that people have stopped thinking? When you see homosexuals and former prostitutes being broadcast on stations owned by Jews? It’s a matter of principles.
(The discussion continued fruitlessly in the same direction for about another half an hour)
Political ambitions
Fiorella, who is 23, met Marin eight months ago through a friend who was familiar with his books, and she is now runs the movement’s Rimac office. Ángel, a hospital doctor whose real name I was asked not to disclose, has been a friend of the movement’s founder since the 1990’s, when Martin used to sell clothes on Garo Bolevard. Manuel will only say that he has been a member of the organization for the last eight years. Andrew joined up a month and a half ago and is already the movement’s “youth officer”. All of them claim to identify with the (bizarre) doctrines of their leader.
All of them wear a uniform, on the left sleeve of which is printed the numeral 7 as a formal logo. All of them are engaged in gathering the approximately 800 thousand signatures required in order to register the party with the appropriate ministry and run in the forthcoming elections. They began collecting signatures about six months ago and until now have barely gathered 15 thousand. Martin Quispe says that he wants to be the President of the Republic. What will be your first act after taking office as President? I ask. “To expel all of the Jews from Peru! To confiscate their property!” he replies with eyes twinkling. The small group look at him without saying a word.
A portrait of Hitler on the wall seems to be watching us with an intransigent facial expression. The scene appears to be hallucinatory, as if the thing was a joke, but it’s real.
