Peru: deprived of its leaders, the Shining Path is still present

A farmer on a motorbike next to coca plants in the Vizcatán del Ene district, Peru, in September 2021. AFP - ERNESTO BENAVIDES

Text by: Igor Gauquelin Follow

5 mins

We hear again about the vestiges of the Shining Path, a communist party of Maoist obedience which upset the history of Peru by terror, before being defeated militarily at the cost of blind repression.

On Friday July 15, the Peruvian Ministry of Defense claimed that a soldier had been killed by " 

 ", suspected members of the last remnants of the guerrillas.

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The facts took place in a major place of coca, on the heights of the district of Vizcatán del Ene, province of Satipo, in the region of Junin.

In a press release, the joint army command reports that a soldier died during a clash with " 

 ".

“ 

 ”,

.

The patrol was made up of members of the infantry and the national police.

The joint command " 

 ", can we read in the press release of the army.

Vestiges of a struggle from another time

This area is part of a valley where the active remnants of the Shining Path are sheltered, which the authorities accuse of being accomplices of the drug traffickers.

It was in the same district, in

, that fighters claiming to be guerrillas sadly made headlines in May 2021.

Nearly twenty people, including children, had perished in this village of 300 souls;

rebels burst in and fired.

Some bodies had been burned.

We found on the spot virulent leaflets claiming to be the militarized Communist Party of Peru, the MPCP, vestiges of the Path.

The founder of the true Shining Path, Abimael Guzmán, was arrested in 1992, under the brutal presidency of Alberto Fujimori, which had considerably weakened the organization. 

at age 86 in the high security prison where he was serving his life sentence, in September 2021.

►To re-read: In Peru, the body of Abimael Guzman cremated after an intense controversy

Comrade Artemio, Florindo Eleuterio Flores Hala of his real name, then took over, but he was arrested in turn, in 2012, during an operation from which he emerged injured, although he had recognized the year earlier that the struggle had become futile, and that he was looking for a political way out of the conflict. 

In the region of Valle de los Ríos Apurímac, Ene y Mantaro, known by its acronym "VRAEM" in Peru, the MPCP has since moved away from the thought of Abimael Guzmán to follow its path, while almost all the leaders of the Path are dead or behind bars.

For twenty years, all the successive governments of Peru have admitted the survival of the guerrillas.

But Abimael Guzmán, during his three decades in prison before his disappearance, always denied any connection with drug trafficking, standing out from the remnants of his movement.

Coca plants in the district of Vizcatán del Ene, in September 2021. AFP - ERNESTO BENAVIDES

The Vizcatán region has been monitored for more than two decades.

In January 2021, number two of the Sentier remains on site died.

His name was Jorge Quispe Palomino, known as “ 

 ”, and he was part of the leadership of the central committee of his brother Víctor Quispe Palomino, alias “José”.

The remnants, led by José, still operate in what is Peru's largest coca valley.

The authorities have been able to suggest in the past that the armed struggle could still number some 350 members, of whom perhaps 80 were armed under the command of the Quispe Palomino.

The country is a major global producer of coca leaves, but also of cocaine.

In the first quarter of 2022, authorities eradicated more than 10,000 hectares of illegal crops there, according to the government's National Commission for Development and Drug-Free Living (Devida).

►Archive

According to the commission, the areas cultivated with coca reached 54,655 hectares in 2019, then 61,777 in 2020. 90% of the 120,000 tons of coca leaves cultivated each year are used for drug trafficking.

Peru would produce some 400 tons per year.

" 

 ", considers Ricardo Soberón, the head of Devida.

Europe and North America use places “ 

 ”, he adds.

While the government accuses the combatants from the guerrillas of ensuring the protection of drug traffickers in Peru, for the peasants, the problem remains the same:

abandoned, and explain that they have no other choice but to cultivate coke to resell it to the narcos.

The specter of guerrilla warfare

We are far from the self-proclaimed "people's war" launched in May 1980, but which left 69,000 dead and missing, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in twenty years of struggle with the army to overthrow power.

Nevertheless, the specter of the Maoist organization remains in the background.

The inhabitants of the city of Huaraz, in the region of Áncash,

that last July 3, in different streets of the neighborhood, paintings had appeared in favor of the Shining Path.

" 

", in particular.

The police were quick to arrive on the spot.

An executive explained to the press that it could be fans wanting to attract attention, perhaps to create “ 

 ”.

Sign that destroyed or not, the Maoist organization has retained all its power of nuisance in Peru.

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