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LATIN AMERICA |
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Soldier
Killed in Clashes with Rebels in Peru
LIMA – A soldier was killed and another
wounded in clashes between army troops and
Shining Path guerrillas over the weekend in
the strife-torn Valley of the Apurimac and
Ene rivers, known as the VRAE region, where
drug traffickers and the so-called
“remnants” of the rebel group operate, the
Armed Forces Joint Command said.
The guerrillas attacked the
counterinsurgency base in Vizcatan on
Saturday night, wounding Sgt. Clemente
Tirado Raurraico in the arm.
The soldier was evacuated by helicopter and
is recovering at the base in Pichari.
Sgt. Euler Sanchez Ipushima was killed when
he stepped on a landmine as his unit, which
was providing covering fire for the
helicopter evacuating Tirado, pulled back
while under attack by the guerrillas.
It is not known whether the guerrillas
sustained any casualties, the Armed Forces
Joint Command said.
The Peruvian government said last month that
it planned to spend $866,000 to build sports
facilities in the VRAE region.
The goal is to expand the state’s presence
in the region, where additional army troops
have been deployed to bolster security.
A total of 15 sports complexes will be built
in Ayacucho, Cuzco and Junin provinces,
offering facilities for indoor soccer,
volleyball, basketball, a running track and
stands with the capacity to hold 300
spectators, Peruvian Sports Institute
president Arturo Woodman said.
The Shining Path has been blamed for an
increase in violence in Peru’s interior in
recent months.
The guerrilla group has a presence in both
the Upper Huallaga Valley and the VRAE
region. The Upper Huallaga Valley is a
center of coca cultivation and cocaine
production.
The guerrilla group’s remnants operate in
both valleys, working with drug traffickers
and staging attacks on the security forces.
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.
Founder Abimael Guzman, known to his fanatic
followers as “President Gonzalo,” was
captured with his top lieutenants on Sept.
12, 1992, an event that marked the “defeat”
of the insurgency.
Guzman, who was a professor of philosophy at
San Cristobal University before initiating
his armed struggle in the Andean city of
Ayacucho, once predicted that 1 million
Peruvians would probably have to die in the
ushering-in of the new state envisioned by
Shining Path.
The group became notorious for some of its
innovations, such as blowing apart with
dynamite the bodies of community service
workers its members killed, or hanging stray
canines from lampposts as warnings to
“capitalist dogs.”
The Shining Path’s remnants did not comply
with Guzman’s order more than a decade ago
to end the armed struggle, and he does not
recognize them as members of the group. EFE |
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