Peru: 18 dead in an armed attack attributed to the Shining Path

2021-05-25T22:22:54.168Z

In Peru, 18 people were murdered Sunday evening in the area known as Vraem, the country's main drug production area. The Peruvian armed forces attributed this massacre to ...

Peru: 18 dead in an armed attack attributed to the Shining Path

A massacre of 18 villagers took place in the dangerous region of Vraem in Peru (Illustrative image).

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

In Peru, 18 people were murdered Sunday evening in the area known as Vraem, the country's main drug production area.

The Peruvian armed forces attributed this massacre to the Shining Path, a Maoist guerrilla born in the 1970s and which has since evolved into a narcoterrorist movement, some of which are still active in this area under military control.

Publicity

With our correspondent in Lima,

Wyloën Munhoz-Boillot

After finding the charred remains of fourteen people Monday morning near the village of San Miguel del Ene, the toll increased on Tuesday May 25 to 18 villagers killed.

According to the head of the anti-terrorism police Oscar Arriola on television, the victims are ten men and six women, in addition to the two children.

They were killed in the Vraem, the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro rivers, the scene of regular clashes between drug terrorists and the military.

In a statement, the armed forces attributed the massacre to the

Shining Path organization

, led by Victor Quispe Palomino, alias "

José

", which still has a few hundred active members in Vraem.

Through his Twitter account, the Peruvian Head of State Francisco Sagasti condemned these assassinations and ordered the deployment of the armed forces and the national police in the area, so that “

this terrorist action does not go unpunished

”.

For his part, the public prosecutor instructed a unit specializing in terrorism to open an investigation.

Condeno y repudio enérgicamente el asesinato de 14 personas en el Vraem.

He ordenado el despliegue de patrullas de las FFAA y la @PoliciaPeru en la zona, para que esta acción terrorista no quede impune.

(1/1)

- Francisco Sagasti (@FSagasti) May 24, 2021

Fear of increased political tensions

Some fear that this massacre will aggravate tensions, while the country is already very divided by the campaign for the second round of the presidential election.

Because according to the armed forces, flyers calling on Peruvians not to participate in the presidential election on June 6 were found at the scene of the crime.

However, since the start of the campaign, the candidate of the populist right Keiko Fujimori accuses her rival, the candidate of the radical left, of links with the political arm of the Shining Path, which Pedro Castillo firmly denies.

Following the massacre, the latter also condemned what he described as a "

terrorist attack

In addition, several voices were raised within the Peruvian political class to call for avoiding the instrumentalization of this crime for electoral purposes.

►Also read: Report - Peru: thousands of demonstrators against the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori

Peru: 18 dead in an armed attack attributed to the Shining Path

Peru: 18 dead in an armed attack attributed to the Shining Path

Fear of increased political tensions

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