Peruvian Justice Minister Juan Jimenez said that Florindo Flores, the captured leader of the Shining Path remnants in the Upper Huallaga Valley, will be transferred to a maximum security prison following investigations by police and prosecutors.
“According to the Constitution, there are 15 days to carry out investigations, and later he will come before a judge who will decide to which prison he will be transferred,” state news agency Andina reported Jimenez as saying.
“The possibilities for detention will be those established in the current regulations. There are various prisons that offer maximum security to guarantee the protection of democracy and the security of the detainee,” Jimenez added.
Based on preliminary investigations and data gathered over several years, Flores will be tried on charges of terrorism and of drug trafficking.
A badly injured Flores, whose alias is Artemio, was captured by Peruvian security forces on Sunday in the Upper Huallaga and was brought to Lima and hospitalized in the police hospital.
The arrest is a major blow to the Shining Path faction in the Upper Huallaga Valley, where Flores led the Proseguir, “or to continue,” group’s remaining 200-300 insurgents.
The group, which bears little resemblance to the original Shining Path, had been weakened in recent years and Flores had given interviews to media saying that he recognized the Shining Path’s military defeat and was seeking a truce with the government.
The government rejected a request to hold talks with Flores, who is accused of being closely linked to the country’s flourishing drug trade. Peru is the world’s biggest producer of cocaine, the U.S. government said last October.
The U.S. government said that it would transfer $5 million reward to those responsible for the capture of Flores.
