Profile Shining Path

Profile= Shining Path

Late News ~
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060221/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/peru_shining_path

Shining Path Guerrilla Commander Killed= Mon Feb 20, 2006

LIMA, Peru - A Shining Path guerrilla commander believed responsible for an ambush that killed eight policemen in December has died in a shootout with authorities in Peru's jungle, police said Monday.

Hector Aponte was killed Sunday in a jungle hamlet in the Huallaga Valley, Police Gen. Luis Montoya told Canal N television. The valley is a prime coca-producing region where remnants of the guerrilla group protect cocaine traffickers. Montoya said two other guerrillas were captured and that police seized "an abundance of armaments and printed material of the guerrilla group."
Aponte was a top commander under Comrade Artemio, one of the last original Shining Path leaders still at large.

Two years ago, Artemio announced a renewal of "armed activity," including spreading propaganda, sabotage and assassinations, after President Alejandro Toledo's government refused to negotiate an amnesty for the rebels. Eight police were killed by about 20 guerrillas in December on an isolated jungle highway near the town of Aucayacu, 220 miles northeast of Lima.

The Shining Path launched a campaign of car bombings, political assassinations and massacres in 1980, but its activity dropped sharply after the 1992 capture of its founder, Abimael Guzman.
++++++++++++++++
http://cfrterrorism.org/groups/shiningpath.html

Shining Path, Tupac Amaru
Peru, leftists

What kind of terrorists operate in Peru?
There are two main rebel groups operating in Peru, both leftist: the Maoist Shining Path (known in Spanish as Sendero Luminoso) and the Cuban-inspired Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru). Their attacks terrorized Peru for decades before they were beaten back in a 1990s crackdown, but a March 2002 car bomb attack near the U.S. embassy in Lima summoned up old Peruvian fears of terrorism. The State Department still identifies both groups as terrorist organizations.

What types of attacks do they commit?
In the 1980s and early 1990s, vicious terrorist attacks were daily occurrences across Peru. Shining Path and Tupac Amaru were notorious for indiscriminate bombings, assassinations, brutal killings, kidnappings, bank robberies, and attacks on Western embassies and businesses. The human and economic toll was devastating, and Peruvians have a particular dread of terrorism to this day. Human rights groups estimate that more than 30,000 people have died since the rebels took up arms two decades ago.

What has Peru done to combat terrorism?

Car bombing outside U.S.
Embassy, Lima, Peru, Mar. 2002.
The bombing was reminiscent of
previous Shining Path attacks.
(AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori waged an aggressive and highly successful campaign against Shining Path and Tupac Amaru. Fujimori, originally an elected leader, seized near-dictatorial powers in April 1992, with military support, and disbanded Peru’s congress and courts, which he said were limiting his ability to crack down on terrorism. Within a few years, Fujimori had captured most of the leaders of the rebel groups, and terrorism subsequently declined sharply. Thousands of Peruvians were convicted of terrorism-related charges and sentenced to life imprisonment by military courts. Human rights activists accuse the Peruvian military of committing widespread human rights abuses during the crackdown, including the jailing of thousands of innocent Peruvians.

A Peruvian military tribunal convicted an American, Lori Berenson, of terrorism in 1996 and sentenced her to life in prison. After protests by the U.S. government, Peru retried Berenson in a civilian court in 2001. She was convicted of aiding Tupac Amaru and sentenced to 20 years in prison, where she remains.

How did Shining Path and Tupac Amaru form?
Experts say the groups arose in response to Peru’s entrenched system of race- and class-based discrimination, which has deeply impoverished most of the country's population, especially citizens of indigenous descent.

What are their goals?
Both groups seek to topple the existing Peruvian government and impose their own communist regimes.

How do the groups differ?
Shining Path, established in the late 1960s by the former university professor Abimael Guzman, is a militant Maoist group that seeks to install a peasant revolutionary authority in Peru. The group took up arms in 1980, and its ranks once numbered in the thousands. Experts consider it one of the world’s most ruthless insurgencies; Shining Path often hacked its victims to death with machetes. The group, which now has only several hundred members remaining, operates mainly in jungle areas.

Tupac Amaru, named for an 18th-century rebel leader who fought Spanish colonial control, was founded on many of the communist principles that led to the Cuban revolution. The group, which is Marxist and wants to rid Peru of all imperialist elements, took up arms in 1984 and at its height had close to 1,000 members, mainly in rural areas. Experts consider Tupac Amaru less violent than Shining Path. Tupac Amaru members, who normally conceal their identities by wearing bandannas, have tried to promote a Robin Hood image of stealing from the rich to help the poor. The group is best known for its 1996 takeover of the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima. Most of Tupac Amaru’s leaders were killed in 1997 when Peruvian forces raided the Japanese compound and freed the hostages. The group has fewer than 100 members today.

Do Shining Path and Tupac Amaru have ties to other terrorist groups?
Shining Path is not sponsored by any state and has no known links to other terrorist groups. It considers itself the only remaining true communist revolutionary movement. According to David Scott Palmer, a professor of Latin American studies at Boston University, Tupac Amaru initially received support and some training from Cuba and has historical ties to two leftist insurgent groups, the FARC in Colombia and the FMLN in El Salvador, where some Tupac Amaru rebels fought. These associations waned with the end of the Cold War and Tupac Amaru's own decline. Shining Path and Tupac Amaru have no known ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Do these two groups cooperate with each other?
No. There is bad blood between them. Shining Path sees Tupac Amaru’s fighters as traitors to communism. In the past, the two groups have fought each other for members and for the “taxes” that they both collect from cocaine smugglers operating in jungle areas under rebel control. Peru is the world's second-largest producer of cocaine (after Colombia), and such “taxes” are a major source of revenue for the insurgents.

Are the rebels popular in Peru?
No. Most Peruvians regard Shining Path and Tupac Amaru as terrorists who caused thousands of deaths and untold suffering. But despite the Peruvian government’s successful antiterrorist campaign, the rebels retain a small number of sympathizers among the rural poor.

Do these groups still pose a threat?
Peruvian and American authorities say that since Fujimori’s crackdown, terrorism has not been a problem in Peru. But in March 2002, just days before President Bush became the first sitting American president to visit Peru, a powerful car bomb exploded in a shopping arcade across from the U.S. embassy in Lima. U.S. and Peruvian officials say the bombing, which killed nine people and injured 30 others, was reminiscent of past Shining Path attacks. Some terrorism experts have warned that Shining Path is regrouping and recruiting new members, but few Peru-watchers believe that the group can regain its prior scale.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/sendero_luminoso.htm

Sendero Luminoso (SL)
Shining Path Description

Former university professor Abimael Guzman formed SL in Peru in the late 1960s, and his teachings created the foundation of SL’s militant Maoist doctrine. In the 1980s, SL became one of the most ruthless terrorist groups in the Western Hemisphere approximately 30,000 persons have died since Shining Path took up arms in 1980. The Peruvian Government made dramatic gains against SL during the 1990s, but reports of recent SL involvement in narcotrafficking and kidnapping for ransom indicate it may have a new source of funding with which to sustain a resurgence. Its stated goal is to destroy existing Peruvian institutions and replace them with a communist peasant revolutionary regime. It also opposes any infl uence by foreign governments. In January 2003, Peruvian courts granted approximately 1,900 members the right to request retrials in a civilian court, including the imprisoned top leadership. Counterterrorist operations targeted pockets of terrorist activity in the Upper Huallaga River Valley and the Apurimac/Ene River Valley, where SL columns continued to conduct periodic attacks. Peruvian authorities captured several SL members in 2003.

Activities: Conducted indiscriminate bombing campaigns and selective assassinations. In June 2003, an SL column kidnapped 71 Peruvian and foreign employees working on the Camisea gas line in Ayacucho Department.

Strength: Membership is unknown but estimated to be 400 to 500 armed militants.

Location/Area of Operation: Peru, with most activity in rural areas.

External Aid: None.

Sources and Resources: During 1992 at the height of the Sendero insurgency in Peru, FAS put together an emergency response to raise awareness about the threat of Maoism in Peru and its implications for US foreign policy. A newsletter followed events leading up to the capture of Guzman and outlined the most important characteristics of the organization. It also gives pointers to other sources.

Sendero File: July, August, September, October, November
GUERRA POPULAR EN EL PERU El Pensamiento Gonzalo (on the Communist Party of Peru) [1 MB in Spanish]
Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru (pro-Communist support group)
Committee Sol Peru (London)
Peru's People's Movement
Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003 Report
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/sendero_luminoso.htm

Created by John Pike / Maintained by Steven Aftergood
Last Updated December 07, 2005 11:38:15 A.M.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3639041.stm

New 'Shining Path' threat in Peru= Monday, 19 April, 2004

Ten people were killed in a blast at the US embassy in Lima in 2002

A man claiming to be one of the last remaining leaders of Peru's Shining Path rebel group still at large has threatened to resume violence. The masked man, known as Artemio, said the group would renew its armed struggle if the government did not grant an amnesty to jailed leaders.

The threat came in an interview taped in the jungles of central Peru.

But Peru's Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi said the government would respond "drastically and swiftly".

In the interview, broadcast by America Television and RPP radio, Artemio wore a ski-mask which completely covered his face, as well as camouflage trousers and a black t-shirt. He appeared in the company of several men dressed in the same way.

'Armed activities'

He called on the government to find a political solution to the conflict and said: "We're giving the government 60 days to respond."

He threatened "the renewal of armed activities", which he said included sabotage and assassinations.

The broadcasters said the interview had been carried out at a rebel camp which took several hours to reach, but gave no indication of how they could prove Artemio's identity. However, the television station said it had been contacted after Artemio issued a similar threat in a British TV interview and got no response.

Shining Path rebels launched a campaign of violence 24 years ago, but their activities declined significantly after the capture of the group's founder, Abimael Guzman, in 1992. Sporadic attacks have been carried out on security forces in recent years. In March 2002, the Shining Path was blamed for a car bomb attack near the US embassy in Lima that killed 10 people.
++++++++++++++++
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2982020.stm

Analysis: Peru's Shining Path= Wednesday, 11 June, 2003

By Julian Duplain= BBC News Online  

The release of 71 hostages who were kidnapped near a gas pipeline under construction in southern Peru marks the return of rebel activity to the country's rural areas. Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said the "remnants of the Sendero Luminoso" were behind the attack. Remote pipeline projects make easy targets If so, it was the biggest attack by the group, known in English as the Shining Path, for at least a decade.

When all the hostages were freed unhurt, it was a welcome piece of good news for President Toledo, who has come under severe pressure from strikes in recent weeks. But now a revamped Shining Path could cause more headaches for the president.

Takeover fears: In its heyday in the 1980s, the Shining Path was the most formidable rebel movement in Latin America, waging a war against the state which left an estimated 30,000 dead.
Not only did the rebels win control of large areas of the countryside, but they also struck repeatedly at targets in the capital, Lima, giving rise to fears the group would eventually succeed in taking over the country.

After a series of high-profile attacks, the worst single incident came in July 1992, when two car bombs went off in the middle-class district of Miraflores, killing 20 people and injuring more than 250 others.

Guzman is serving a life sentence: Yet just two months later, the Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman was captured in Lima along with six other rebel leaders. He was tried by a military court behind closed doors and sentenced to life imprisonment, and this dealt a decisive blow to the movement. He is due back in court after a retrial was ordered earlier this year.

New priorities: In Guzman's absence, and despite his subsequent call for a ceasefire, Oscar Ramirez Durand spearheaded an underground resurgence of the movement in the mid-1990s.
Ramirez, alias Feliciano, could only count on the backing of a few hundred rebels, compared to the several thousand who had belonged to the organisation a few years earlier. This rump faction of the Shining Path was largely confined to coca-producing regions in eastern Peru and no longer had the power to undermine the foundations of the state. But in 1999, Ramirez was also captured, leading to hopes that the rebel movement might be condemned to total oblivion after seven years of increasingly limited activity.

Tough line: Some observers suggested that the threat of Shining Path insurgency was kept alive principally by then President Alberto Fujimori, to boost his political profile.

Villagers were often killed by Shining Path rebels: President Fujimori had ordered the storming of the Japanese embassy in Lima after it was seized by another militant group, Tupac Amaru, in December 1996. Taking a tough line against unrest played well for President Fujimori.
But in November 2000 he fled the country in the wake of a corruption scandal involving his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos. His departure paved the way for Alejandro Toledo to win power in 2001, after an earlier defeat by Mr Fujimori in elections which were widely seen as fraudulent.
But now President Toledo may have to deal with the rebels in his turn.

Coca focus: Under Guzman, the Shining Path was a ruthless organisation, killing villagers whom it said sided with the government as part of a plan to create a new social order. It controlled many areas of the countryside, and had an active membership of up to 10,000.

Toledo faces a number of challenges: But by 1994, about 6,000 guerrillas had surrendered under a government amnesty programme. However, although it is probably only a few thousand strong, the Shining Path still has local power bases in several rural areas of Peru. The group's focus now seems to be on local coca farmers - defending them against possible government intervention.

President Toledo's government has not taken the kind of direct action seen in neighbouring Bolivia, where the army were sent in to destroy coca fields. The United States is backing anti-coca campaigns in a number of Latin American countries to try to control the cocaine trade. But analysts say that after the disgrace of the final Fujimori years, President Toledo may have more room for procrastination because he inevitably looks good by contrast with his predecessor.

"If he comes under pressure, Toledo covers himself in the flag of democracy," says John Crabtree, a researcher at St Anthony's College, Oxford.

New methods: Faced with strikes by teachers, farmers and health workers, President Toledo has more pressing problems in the cities than in rural areas. The main opposition party (Apra) "doesn't want to bring the government down" before the end of Mr Toledo's term in 2005, according to John Crabtree. And the United States may be more lenient with the president than with some neighbouring leaders, even though it is not happy with his record against drug cultivation so far. This may all allow the Shining Path more freedom to continue building up their strength in the countryside.

But are the rebels now turning to new methods?

If the kidnapping was indeed carried out by the Shining Path, it would be the first time that they have sought to raise money with ransom demands. So far, the 20 armed rebels involved in the latest operation have evaded capture. And the key question is whether such incidents are repeated.
"Toledo could have nipped it in the bud, and then the kidnapping could have proved a window of opportunity for him," says John Crabtree.

But if the Shining Path launches more attacks, the Peruvian president could be facing a new and more militant challenge to add to his other woes.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/395370.stm

Thursday, 15 July, 1999, 19:22 GMT 20:22 UK
Peru's Shining Path - who are they?


Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman was captured in 1992

By BBC Americas Regional Editor Robert Plummer
The dwindling band of Shining Path guerrillas, who were led by Oscar Ramirez Durand popularly known as Comrade Feliciano until his capture, are a far cry from the organisation, which in its heyday was the most formidable rebel movement in Latin America.

During the 1980s, the Shining Path, or Sendero Luminoso in Spanish, waged an armed struggle against the Peruvian state in support of its hardline Maoist ideology. Some 30,000 Peruvians were killed in the conflict.

Not only did the rebels win control of large areas of the countryside, but they also struck repeatedly at targets in the Peruvian capital, Lima, giving rise to fears the group would eventually succeed in taking over the country.


President Fujimori: hard line against the guerillas
After a series of high-profile attacks, the worst single incident came in July 1992, when two car-bombs went off in the middle-class district of Miraflores, killing 20 people and injuring more than 250 others.

Yet just two months later, the authorities dealt a decisive blow to the Shining Path movement, when its founder, Abimael Guzman, was captured in Lima along with six other rebel leaders. He was tried by a military court and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In Mr Guzman's absence, and despite his subsequent call for a ceasefire, Oscar Ramirez Durand spearheaded an underground resurgence of the movement, frustrating President Alberto Fujimori's attempts to declare a definitive victory in the war on terrorism.

Mr Ramirez, alias Feliciano, could only count on the backing of a few hundred rebels, compared to the several thousand who had belonged to the organisation a few years earlier.


Oscar Ramirez Durand: rebel leader since 1992
This rump faction of the Shining Path was largely confined to coca-producing regions in eastern Peru and no longer had the power to undermine the foundations of the state.

Now, even this much-diminished incarnation of the rebel movement seems consigned to oblivion. Yet the apparent ease with which the army captured Feliciano has prompted one former President, Fernando Belaunde, to ask what took them so long.

Cynical observers have raised the possibility that it suited President Fujimori's interests to keep the threat of insurgence alive and so boost his chances of a third term in office. Presidential elections are due to be held next year.

The dangers posed by the Shining Path have certainly allowed Mr Fujimori to get away with some highly authoritarian behaviour in the past.

Many voters remain grateful to him for restoring order to the country and are prepared to forget his so-called "auto-coup" of 1992, when he dissolved Congress and the judiciary in order to force through changes to the constitution.

Even under this revised constitution, Mr Fujimori's right to a third term in office remains unclear. Moreover, as the 2000 elections draw nearer, the President may find that memories of Comrade Feliciano will fade in the public mind - and with them, his reputation as the man who brought peace to Peru.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
http://third-world-history.blogspot.com/2006/02/profile-shining-path.html
  
Edit PSL= 02-20-06