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LATIN AMERICA |
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Peru
Guerrillas Growing Stronger, Former Top Cop
Says
LIMA – The Shining Path guerrilla group “is
increasingly improving its firepower” in the
Valley of the Apurimac and Ene rivers, known
as the VRAE region and considered Peru’s
principal cocaine-producing area, the former
chief of the counter-terrorism police said.
Gen. Marcos Miyashiro, one of the key men
involved in the 1992 capture of Shining Path
founder Abimael Guzman, made the comment in
an interview published Sunday by the daily
La Republica.
The expansion of the guerrilla group’s
firepower explains “why they dare to
directly attack the military bases located
in the VRAE,” where more than 40 soldiers
have died in ambushes and attacks staged by
the Shining Path in recent months, the
retired general said.
The current incarnation of the Shining Path
in the VRAE is not the same as the group
that launched its armed struggle against the
Peruvian state nearly 30 years ago, with the
main difference being that the
organization’s current leader, “Comrade
Jose,” limits attacks to the security
forces, establishing links to local people
instead of murdering them, Miyashiro said.
The Maoist-inspired Shining Path launched
its uprising on May 17, 1980, with an attack
on Chuschi, a small town in Ayacucho
province.
A truth commission appointed by former
President Alejandro Toledo blamed the
Shining Path for most of the nearly 70,000
deaths the panel ascribed to politically
motivated violence during the two decades
following the group’s 1980 uprising.
The guerrilla group also caused an estimated
$25 billion in economic losses, according to
commission estimates.
“For the people of the VRAE, who mainly work
in drug trafficking and related activities,
Shining Path is their protector. That is why
they do not cooperate with us, because we
are trying to put an end to that protector,”
the retired general said.
Comrade Jose’s capture is a long way off,
with many lives being lost between now and
the time he is brought to justice, Miyashiro
said.
The Shining Path operates in the
northeastern Upper Huallaga Valley, a center
of coca cultivation and cocaine production,
under the command of “Comrade Artemio” and
in the VRAE region under Comrade Jose.
The guerrilla group’s “remnants” operate in
both valleys, working with drug traffickers
and staging attacks on the security forces.
One of the main problems with the current
military strategy against the rebels in the
VRAE is the shortcomings of the intelligence
service, an essential element in fighting
groups like Shining Path, Miyashiro said.
“We have not seen any arrests in the VRAE.
That’s something that requires an
explanation,” Miyashiro said.
Defense Minister Rafael Rey, for his part,
said in an interview published Sunday by La
Republica that the armed forces’ top
objective was to “capture the main terrorist
chiefs.”
Rey refused to confirm or deny press reports
that came out Saturday about the government
hiring an Israeli firm to train special
patrols and help craft a new
counterinsurgency strategy. EFE
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