At least 14 people die in Peru in an attack that authorities attribute to the Shining Path
At least 14 people died Sunday in Peru in an attack that authorities attribute to still active members of the group Shining Path.
“Shining Path, led by the criminal Victor Quispe Palomino, in a genocidal act, murdered the night of 23 May to 14 people not yet identified, including two children, who were found burned and unrecognizable, “he said through a statement. the Joint Command of the Armed Forces.
The President of the Republic, Francisco Sagasti, condemned the murders and announced that he ordered the deployment in the area of patrols of the Armed Forces and the National Police.
The event occurs two weeks after the second round of the presidential elections between the right sta Keiko Fujimori and the leftist Pedro Castillo, whom his detractors have tried to link with Shining Path.
According to the authorities, leaflets were found at the scene of the attack that urged Peruvians to refrain from participating in these elections scheduled for June 6 and Anyone who voted for Fujimori was described as a “traitor”.
In a message posted on his Twitter account, Castillo expressed his rejection of the attack and his solidarity with the families of the victims .
“I strongly condemn this terrorist attack and I urge the courts to apply the full weight of the law,” he said.
My solidarity with the families of the 18 victims in the cowardly attack that occurred in Pichari, VRAEM. I strongly condemn this terrorist attack and I urge the courts to apply the full weight of the law. We will not tolerate any act of violence.
– Pedro Castillo Terrones (@PedroCastilloTe) May 24, 2020
In a dialogue with local journalists, Keiko Fujimori conveyed his condolences to the victims’ families, rejected the massacre and expressed his support for the Armed Forces, the National Police and the Sagasti government.
“I deeply regret that once again bloody acts are taking place in our country,” he said. “What the terrorist groups are looking for is to paralyze us, it is to generate fear and we should not allow it,” he added.
The attack occurred on Sunday night in a town in the region called Valle de los Ríos Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro (Vraem), in the center of the country.
In that area there are pockets of the Shining Path, supposedly allied with drug trafficking groups, according to the Ministry of Peruvian Defense.
Known as “the valley of cocaine”, Vraem is an area the size of Puerto Rico in which it is estimated that m more than half of the coca produced by Peru
.
According to the authorities, in the leaflets found at the scene of the events the “Militarized Communist Party of Peru” , which brings together the still active members of the Shining Path, claims the action.
César Cervantes, general commander of the Peruvian Police, said that the event was notified p or the authorities of the town of San Miguel, of the district of Vizcatán; and he warned in statements to RPP radio that “there are likely to be more deaths.”
The victims were attacked when they were inside a bar.
Electoral boycott
From According to the text of the pamphlets published by local media, the objective of the attackers was to “cleanse Vraem and Peru of caves of bad living, parasites and corrupt people” and call for a boycott against the presidential elections.
Peter Castillo and Keiko Fujimori will face each other in the second round of the presidential elections.
“Peruvian people: Boycott the bourgeois elections, because it is not your way: Do not go to vote. Vote blank. Vote null or flawed! “, Read the pamphlets.
” Whoever votes in favor of Keiko Fujimori is a traitor , he is the murderer of the VRAEM, he is the murderer of Peru! “, says the text.
” Never again Fujimorato. Never again Fujimori. Never again Keiko Fujimori. ”
The Fuerza Popular candidate is the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, who ruled Peru between and the year 2000, and is currently in prison after being convicted of various crimes, including serious human rights violations.
During the Fujimori government, Shining Path received several strong blows, including the imprisonment of its founding leader Abimael Guzmán.
The fact that the attack took place two weeks before the elections and that the message found in the pamphlets called for the abstention and against the vote for Keiko Fujimori are two elements that have immediately fueled the political tirade.
Vladimir Cerrón, founder of Peru Libre, the party that nominated Pedro Castillo, posted a message on his Twitter account suggesting that the target of attack was favors r Fujimori’s candidacy.
“Is it the left that needs SL [Sendero Luminoso] to win the elections or is it the right that needs it? In the end the opposites are needed, the opposites are identical , the dialectic elucidates the doubt. Our Party condemns any act of terrorism, ”he wrote.
With the massacre in the VRAEM, Sendero seeks to intimidate the population so that they will not vote for Keiko. Terrorism does not want Keiko to be a government, because it was already once defeated by my father . This time the same thing will happen, as Fernando Rospigliosi said yesterday in the debate. pic.twitter.com/F8RkSSXO6N
– Kenji Fujimori (@KenjiFujimoriH) May 24, 2021
On the other side of the street, Kenji Fujimori, brother of the Fuerza Peru candidate, took the opportunity to outline Keiko’s candidacy as the way to end this type of action.
“With the massacre in the VRAEM, Sendero seeks to intimidate the population so that they will not vote for Keiko. Terrorism does not want Keiko to be a government , because he was already once defeated by my father “, he wrote On twitter.
The capture of Abimael Guzmán was one of several blows that Shining Path suffered during the Fujimori government.
Shining Path was one of the most violent groups in South America. Under an especially Maoist ideology, he sought to seize power by armed means and unleashed an internal war in Peru that between 1980 and the 2000 may have left around from 69. dead and missing , according to estimates by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR).
Since then, the majority of Sendero leaders have been imprisoned, but there are armed groups in Vraem that claim to be part of the organization.
According to experts, since 1999 the brothers Víctor and Jorge Quispe Palomino assumed the control of these armed groups operating in the V raem identifying himself as part of the Shining Path.
At the end of last March, the Joint Command of the Armed Forces reported that Jorge Quispe Palomino had died on 27 from January this year as a result of a kidney condition that had been aggravated by injuries sustained during an attack in October 2020 against the camp where he was.
In any case, the relationship between both brothers and Abimael Guzmán was broken since 1999, when the Quispe Palominos publicly broke with the founder of Shining Path and called him a “coward” for their proposal to seek an amnesty and a peace agreement with the government.
Guzmán, for his part, ignores them as followers of the Shining Path.
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