Who Wants to Know? Rumors, Suspicions, and Opposition to Truth-telling in Ayacucho.

The Peruvian Truth Commission was one of the most successful of its kind, collecting over 16,000 testimonies about the dirty war between the Maoist rebels of the Shining Path and the state. Yet, in Ayacucho, some of the rural villagers hardest hit by the violence refused to testify to the official investigation. This article explores the apparent indifference of one indigenous Quechua-speaking village to the Commission. I argue against explanations that reduce the villagers' reticence about testifying to an irrational symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder. Instead, I focus on the other kinds of talk-informal rumors and conspiracy theories-that circulated throughout the village, questioning the intent of the Commission's project. I show that the rumors expressed rational insecurities that were impossible or unsafe to articulate within the boundaries of the Commission and pointed to the persistence of state-sanctioned violence against Peru's indigenous peasantry. Instead of dismissing village rumors about the Truth Commission as obstacles in the road to democratic nation-building, I suggest they be seen as an indigenous political struggle that is part of the transparency process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]