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South America - Peru - General Information
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Conflict Summary
Preceded by an episode of armed conflict in 1965, the current conflict in Peru started in 1980 and the two active dyads have been the one between the government and Sendero Luminoso (the Shining Path) and the one between the government and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). Since 2000 the conflict in Peru has been considered terminated due to low activity in both dyads. However, in 2007 SL has resurged and become active again. The Maoist insurgent group, Sendero Luminoso, was formed in the late 1960s by university professor Abimael Guzmán with the stated goal of destroying existing Peruvian institutions and replacing them with a peasant revolutionary regime. During presidential elections in May 1980 Sendero Luminoso initiated a strategy of "people's war" with the burning of ballot boxes in the rural community of Chuschi (in Ayacucho department). The leader of SL, Abimael Guzmán, was captured on 12 September 1992 and since then violence by the rebel group has dropped dramatically. On 10 January 1994 it was reported that Sendero Luminoso had divided into two factions - "the pacifists," supporting the imprisoned leader Abimael Guzmán and a new group, "the hardliners," led by Oscar Ramírez Durand, known as Feliciano. While Guzmán had made written appeals for peace in 1993, Ramírez advocated the continuation of armed struggle. Sometimes the "hard-line" Sendero faction has been referred to as "Sendero Rojo" but most frequently the original name Sendero Luminoso has been used. Feliciano was captured and placed in prison in July 1999 and in 2000 this dyad did not reach 25 battle-related deaths. The hardliners were in 2006 led by José and Alipio, political and military leaders respectively, and have been mainly active in the Apurímac-Ene River Valleys (VRAE). Artemio, regional leader active in Huallaga Valley, have been mainly loyal to Guzmán and the pacifists. However, after years of neither negotiating with the government nor being crushed by it, in April 2004 the Artemio faction gave the government a two-month deadline to begin talks or the Huallaga group would otherwise return to armed struggle in late 2004. No talks took place and the Artemio faction decided to join the hardliners. The difference between the Huallaga- and the VRAE-group diminished at that point and the reunification of Sendero Luminoso begun. Several meetings were held between the two factions between December 2004 and March 2005. They agreed that 2006 would be the year of the II Congress of the Shining Path to reconstitute the party and to initiate the 'Flowering of the Revolution', the fifth phase of the long struggle to take place between 2006 and 2008. The end of 2005 saw an upswing in activity, with ambush attacks leading to the death of 13 policemen. The dyad, however, did not reach the level of being considered active and in 2006 the number of battle related deaths reduced. Sendero Luminoso is benefiting from a growing social movement, mainly consisting of coca growers or 'cocaleros', opposing the government's anti-narcotics strategy. In the area where Sendero Luminoso operates, the main economic activity is growing coca for cocaine production. One such social movement, which appeared in 2005, was the Etnocacerista movement, a loose alliance of small political parties, NGO's and cocaleros. Sendero Luminoso is benefiting from these social movements' frustration with the authorities. Sometimes Sendero Luminoso also incites protests (and participates in them) against the government hoping for the government to respond harshly so that the social movements and the frustration will grow stronger. It has also been reported that they seek collaboration from converted peasants in the form of informants of Police and Army activities. In October 2006, the founder of Sendero Luminoso, Abimael Guzmán, was sentenced to life in prison. MRTA, formed by the radical university students Nestor Cerpa and Victor Polay in 1983, was a traditional Marxist-Leninist revolutionary movement, which aimed to rid Peru of imperialism and establish a Marxist regime. Tupac Amaru was active until mid-1993 and thereafter the political organisation of the group became unclear, although the group engaged in violence in forms of bombings in 1994. Activities have been reported sporadically since then, the most infamous being the hostage drama of 1996-1997 when MRTA rebels stormed the Japanese ambassador's residence and took 500 persons hostage. All 14 rebels involved, including the leader Nestor Cerpa, as well as three of the hostages, died in the release action. The 126-day long hostage drama ended on 23 April, and with it the MRTA guerrilla movement was more or less wiped out; only some 150-200 rebels still existed deep in the Peruvian jungle. In March 2006, Victor Polay was sentenced to 32 years in prison in a civilian retrial. In July 2001, Peru's Interim President Valentin Paniagua formally established a truth commission to investigate human rights abuses committed by leftist rebels and government forces over the last two decades. The aim of the commission was to clarify causes and responsibilities for political violence that left 30 000 people dead and at least 4 000 missing since 1980. The final report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was made public on 28 August 2003 at a ceremony in the Palace of the Government. The number of estimated victims between 1980 and 2000 totaled 69 280.The truth commission blamed Sendero Luminoso for more than half of the deaths, while MRTA was deemed responsible for less than 2%. The report described, among other things, the victims of the conflict, actors, the violence and human rights abuses. It also delivered recommendations of how to reach a compromise for national reconciliation, one of which was that the government pay reparations to survivors. A few such steps towards reconciliation were taken in 2007. President Alan Garcia handed out checks as compensation to hundreds of communities in the highland and jungle regions ravaged by Peru's 20-year conflict with the Sendero Luminoso insurgency. The ceremony was held in Ayacucho, the epicentre of guerrilla violence and the site of the worst atrocities in a brutal state-sponsored counterinsurgency campaign. The Peruvian government also publicly apologized for the La Cantuta massacre in 1992, to which the Inter American Court of Human Rights in 2006 found the Peruvian government responsible. According to the president of the Truth Commission this ceremony was a new beginning in Peruvian history. Moreover, former President Fujimori, standing trial on corruption and human rights abuse charges, apologized for two death squad massacres that took place in the early 1990s. Sendero Luminoso active again since 2007 consists of a few hundred guerrillas who stage sporadic ambushes on security forces and provide protection to cocaine traffickers. They are strengthening their presence in the La Mar Province, Ayacucho, thanks to the vast resources obtained through their support for drug trafficking, an alliance which is not new and is growing stronger daily. Sendero Luminoso has threatened to expand its revolutionary war to other parts of Peru in 2009
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