Censorships in the defense of memory: The desterruqueo of the Piraq Causa ("Who Is Still to Blame") paintings in postwar Peru.

The article focuses on the censorship and contested memory surrounding the Piraq Causa art collection, a series of paintings by the Association of Popular Artists of Sarhua (ADAPS) depicting the impact of Peru's internal armed conflict (1980–2000) on the Sarhua community. In 2017, the collection was confiscated and investigated under Peru's Law of Defense of Terrorism for alleged "defense of terrorism," reflecting the practice of terruqueo—stigmatizing dissenting voices as terrorists—used by conservative elites to suppress critical narratives of the war. Efforts to defend the artwork, termed desterruqueo, successfully secured its release and recognition of Sarhua painting as intangible cultural heritage, but also contributed to the depoliticization and historical simplification of the conflict by emphasizing victimhood and sidelining the community's complex roles. Despite these challenges, contemporary Sarhua artists continue to use their art as a platform for social denunciation and collective activism, resisting both overt censorship and subtler forms of silencing embedded in memory politics in postwar Peru.