Comrade “Artemio,” the only known Shining Path leader from the group’s original directorate, was wounded during an armed confrontation with police before managing to escape Tuesday morning in the Huánuco district of Yanajanca.
According to police, in his race to get away, Artemio left behind flyers, personal documents, and a CD filled with sensitive information including organization techniques and guard rotation schedules, as well as information about uniforms, weapons and medicine stocked by members of the Shining Path.
Alberto Cerrón Palomino, or “Camrade Artemio,” is the only known Shining Path leader from the group’s original directorate never killed or imprisoned. He still commands the Proseguir — or “to continue” — wing of the guerrilla’s remaining 200-300 insurgents in Peru’s central jungle region.
Yanajanca is located 45 kilometers north of Aucayacu in Peru’s coca-producing Huallaga Valley.
The zone, which is located in remote northeastern Peru on the slopes between the Andes and the Amazon in the departments of Huánuco and San Martín, was the center of the global coca boom that began in the 1970s.
