A Shining Path leader killed this week by Peruvian security personnel was not on a list of victims from the country’s internal conflict, according to Cabinet chief Juan Jimenez.
On Wednesday, President Ollanta Humala announced that security forces killed “Comrade William,” a Shining Path leader who was believed to be fourth in the group’s overall command and second in its military command.
“William” is said to be Rolando Cabezas, who local media, including leading daily El Comercio, said was reported on a list of missing persons that was compiled following Peru’s internal conflict during the 1980s and 1990s.
According to La Republica, DNA samples were taken from the Cabezas family in Huanta, Ayacucho in 2009, when police suspected that Comrade William was Rolando. In 1989, the family had reported that Rolando and two cousins were kidnapped by Sendero. Rolando was 20 at the time, and was never seen again.
“Any list always has to be verified or revised, but about him in particular, I urge you not to generate any type of alarm because this person does not figure on the list of victims of terrorism,” Jimenez said, according to El Comercio.
The Shining Path leader was about 43 years old and a sharpshooter who targeted police and military helicopters. He was said to be involved in attacks since the late 1990s. He is attributed with leading the recent ambush and killing of five soldiers near Satipo on August 15, and the attack much further south several months ago on a police helicopter that included the killing of police Capt. Nancy Flores.
Some 70,000 people were killed during the conflict as the Shining Path, a Maoist-inspired rebel group, tried to overtake the Peruvian state. Some 46% of the killings were attributed to the Shining Path, although the Peruvian military was also responsible for a significant number, according to Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, CVR.
