Coca/Cocaine, Crime, Insurgency, Law & Justice, Politics, Provinces

Humala: Operation Saves 10 Children From Shining Path Camp

Peruvian police have rescued 10 children who were being trained in a camp by remnants of the Shining Path rebels, during an operation that President Ollanta Humala called a “victory” over the guerrillas.

Authorities say the Shining Path, which still has a presence in some isolated regions of the high jungle in eastern Peru, has kidnapped children from local communities, bringing them back to camps to be trained by the rebels. 

“They are victims of the bad circumstances,” Humala said during televised comments. 

Humala said that during the operation, police also captured 11 Shining Path rebels in the district of San Martin de Pangoa, near Satipo in the Junin region, daily El Comercio said.  The area is located within the strategic VRAEM, which includes the Apurimac and Ene River valleys and now also the Mantaro valley.

Among the captured rebels was a Shining Path military leader known as “Jorge,” who was the right-hand man of Victor Quispe Palomino, alias “Jose,” according to El Comercio.

The rebels have a strong grip on the VRAEM where they provide security to coca growers and drug traffickers, and where experts say they also have a role in producing cocaine.

In April, the Shining Path showed its strength in the VRAEM by kidnapping 36 natural gas workers in the southeast, in the north of Cusco. A joint military and police operation to rescue the workers resulted in the deaths of at least nine state security personnel at the hands of the Shining Path.

Shining Path attacks against police and military in the VRAE are common.

Humala’s announcement follows the attack on a military base this week in the VRAEM by the Shining Path, which resulted in the death of one soldier.

The government has pledged to wipe out the remnants and increase state presence in the isolated mountainous jungle region.

One Comment

  1. Richard E Ax

    The only way to get rid of them is to remove them from there, nothing else works, you have had them too long send a few good men after them

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