Peru announces the death of number two of the Shining Path

Jorge Quispe Palomino, one of Peru’s most wanted men, died at the end of January, the Peruvian army announced on Tuesday (March 30). He was number two in the Shining Path Maoist guerrillas.

“The work of the intelligence services confirmed that on January 27, 2021, Comrade Raul died”, nom de guerre of Jorge Quispe Palomino, wrote the Joint Command of the Army in a statement. His death is here “Consequence of chronic kidney disease”, “Aggravated by the wounds inflicted during the attack on 29 October [2020] against the camp where he was “, in the valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro rivers, the main coca production sector in Peru. During the attack, use was made of“Weapons from a helicopter against terrorist camps”, adds the army.

Jorge Quispe Palomino, for whose capture the authorities had promised a reward of 2 million sols (470,000 euros), was part of the leadership of the Shining Path central committee, headed by his brother, Victor Quispe Palomino.

The majority of jailed leaders

If almost all of the leaders of the Maoist guerrilla that came into conflict with the Peruvian state in 1980 are now behind bars, there are still a few fighters scattered in isolated forest and mountainous areas. Authorities estimate their number at 350 and accuse them of cooperating with drug traffickers.

In 2003, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR) estimated at some 70,000 the number of dead or missing during the twenty years of conflict (1980-2000) between the army and the guerrillas of the Shining Path and the Revolutionary Movement Tupac Amaru. (MRTA, Guévariste).

According to the CVR, the Shining Path is responsible for 54% of the victims of this internal conflict. Among its bloodiest actions, the assassination, in 1984, of 117 peasants of Soras, in the region of Ayacucho (south), for refusing to support the movement.

Peru is one of the world’s leading producers of coca and cocaine.

Read also Peru: leaders of a group linked to the Shining Path freed

The World with AFP