Document #1220849
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) is a
Maoist guerrilla group reportedly founded in 1970, which made
public its existence through acts of sabotage in 1980, when
democratic elections were held in Peru for the first time in 17
years. [ Europa Year Book 1988: Peru, (London: Europa
Publications, 1988), p. 2136; Human Rights in Peru, p. 1;
Latin American Political Movements, (London: Longman, 1986),
pp. 231-232.] It is based on radical Maoist ideas and is engaged in
what the group calls a "people's war" from the countryside to the
cities. [ Dissident and Revolutionary Movements, (London:
Longman, 1988), p. 291; Latin American Political Movements,
(London: Longman, 1986), p. 233.] Leaders of the organization have
publicly vowed to "overthrow the government and to eliminate the
bourgeoisie and persons who do not accept political re-education".
[ Andean Group Report, (London, Latin American Newsletters),
23 June 1988, p. 2; "Senderista", in The New
Internationalist, July 1989, p. 10.]
The group's original centre of operations
was the province of Ayacucho, in the south-central Andes, where
Abimael Guzman Reynoso a.k.a. "Gonzalo", leading figure and
ideologist whose whereabouts are unknown, worked as a teacher in
the local university. Osman Morote Barrionuevo a.k.a. "Remigio", is
reportedly the director of operations; he was captured last
year
and is now in prison. [ Tolerating Abuses: Violations of Human
Rights in Peru, (Washington: Americas Watch, October 1988), pp.
33-34.]
In the rural areas, most actions consist of
ambushes, raids on towns and acts of sabotage, while in urban
areas, it is mostly bombings and selective killings. Americas Watch
indicates that most of Sendero's victims are democratically elected
officials, union and community leaders and policemen who are killed
after they surrender. [ Tolerating Abuses, p. 20.] Sendero
is also reported to have eliminated numerous development workers,
as the group opposes all development programs in the regions where
it operates. [ Ibid.] Last year, killings of development
workers included, for the first time, foreigners: two young French
technicians and a United States engineer, killed in mountain
villages where they worked. [ "Le Pérou se
Décompose", in Le Monde Diplomatique, January 1989,
p. 13.]
Since it began its activities, Sendero
Luminoso has been held responsible for the death of more than three
thousand local officials, many of them mayors of rural villages, as
well as damages amounting to more than US$10 billion; Sendero has
not made any efforts to negotiate peace, and the leadership has
publicly defended the practice of murdering those viewed as
Sendero's political or class enemies. [Tolerating Abuses,
p.15.]
Suffering setbacks in the area of Ayacucho,
Sendero is now reported to have concentrated its operations in the
Upper Huallaga valley, the cocaine-producing area of the high
jungle, cooperating with drug-trafficking organizations; this
cooperation, according to Sendero Luminoso, is due to the group's
defense of coca-growers' income, but it is reported the Sendero
receives weapons and a percentage of the traffickers' income,
allegedly in exchange for keeping security forces out of the area.
[ Latin American Weekly Report, (London, Latin American
Newsletters), 2 March 1989, p. 4; "Drugs, guerrillas a potent
combination in Peru", in The Toronto Star, 22 January 1989,
p. H4; "With the Shining Path", in Newsweek, 24 April 1989,
pp. 44-45, 49.]
Since 1987, Sendero reportedly
increased its attacks on prominent individuals, including foreign
bankers, Peruvian businessmen and non-government figures. [
"Sendero Luminoso guerrilla activity", Keesing's Record of World
Events, (London: Longman, 1988), Vol. 34 No. 2, p. 35704.] An
attempted attack against a meeting of businessmen on the outskirts
of Lima was foiled by the police in November 1988, who captured
three terrorists armed with automatic guns and explosives, while
four others fled. [ Latin America Daily Report, 20 December
1988, p. 9.]
Many state and private projects for
peasants and communities have been terminated because several
professionals and technicians in charge of these projects have been
murdered, and others have left because of death threats by
Sendero. [Latin America Daily Report, 20 December
1988, p. 9.] Sendero has reportedly undertaken actions
throughout Peru, [Latin America Daily Report, (Washington,
D.C.: Foreign Broadcast Information Service), various
issues.] and extended its activities to Bolivia, [
Caretas (Peruvian weekly newsmagazine), 12 December 1988,
pp. 28-29.] where it has reportedly associated with Colombian and
Bolivian guerrilla groups. [ 1986 and 1987 International
Yearbooks on International Communist Affairs: Bolivia,
(Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1986 and 1987).] A
co-operative farm in the department of Junin (central Peru), the
Socially-owned (co-operative) Agro-Industrial Society (SAIS)
Tupac Amaru, has also suffered many Sendero-initiated
attacks; the most devastating one, in December 1988, resulted in
the death of site engineers, destruction of milk processing
facilities and the burning of live cattle of adapted imported
breeds. [ "Sierra de Fuego", in Caretas, 19 December 1988,
pp. 32-34, 80.] In January 1989, the bodies of a Marxist
anthropologist and a community leader were found by a road, after
they had been openly abducted by a Sendero unit following a
raid on a nearby milk-processing plant. The anthropologist, who had
been organizing Andean communities, had denounced Sendero's
attempts to dominate the communities and its use of Huancayo
University as a recruiting ground. [ "Lid Comunal", Caretas,
23 January 1989, pp. 32-36.]
Sendero is also held responsible for
numerous infiltrations into unions and during demonstrations,
having killed miners' union leaders who had settled disputes with
management, while threatening teachers and education workers who
refused to continue prolonged strikes. [ Americas Watch, Human
Rights, p. 32; "Violence Accelerates and Extends", Andean
Newsletter, January 16, 1989, p.5; "Terrorists exploit labour
unrest", Andean Group Report, December 12, 1988, pp. 1-3;
Keesing's, p. 35704.] Sendero often imposes "armed
strikes" which include attacks on businesses and transport as well
as threats even before the date for which the strike is ordered, as
a warning. [Andean Newsletter, August 1989, p. 6.]
Violent attacks attributed to
Sendero increased in 1989, accounting for the death of 38
members of the police during the first twelve days, while
continuing attacks on energy supply lines for the capital and other
regions, mining centers and food suppliers. [ "Violence accelerates
and extends", in Andean Newsletter, January 1989, p. 5.]
Recent examples of assassinations
attributed to Sendero include a priest in Jauja in mid-1989,
and two civilians in the coastal city of Huacho on June 27 who were
accused by the Maoist group of "robbing the people". [ "Exaggerated
death count", in Andean Newsletter, July 1989, p.6.] On June
3, a bomb placed by Sendero under a bus carrying soldiers of
the Presidential Guard in downtown Lima killed six persons and
injured 14. [ "Sendero takes the offensive", in Andean
Newsletter, June 1989, p. 6.] In May, a British backpacker was
killed by Senderistas in a town square of Huaraz, as well as
a United Left municipal candidate in Puno and the head of the
sanitation department and an APRA militant in Ayacucho, while
Peru's leading environmental journalist, Barbara D'Achille, and a
development engineer were abducted by a Sendero column in
Huancavelica and killed afterwards by stoning and firearms. [
Ibid.]
Throughout 1989, Sendero has
continued to claim or be attributed responsibility for the killing
of numerous mayors of different political parties, particularly of
small Andean towns, as well as local authorities. [ Andean
Newsletter, January-August 1989 issues; The Lima Times,
June-August issues; Caretas, January-August issues.] In
June, a record count of 470 people died because of political
violence in Peru, mostly due to Sendero and
counter-insurgency actions, bringing the total for 1988's first
semester to 820 politically-motivated deaths. [Andean
Newsletter, July 1989, p. 5.]
In July 1989, the Peruvian armed forces
launched an offensive against Sendero in the Upper Huallaga valley,
the largest cocaine-producing area of the country which had been
under Sendero's control. Reports indicate about 500 members
of Sendero may have been killed in battles in the area
during that month, in some 39 confrontations. However, the
pro-Sendero weekly El Diario reported that the
organization had attacked the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
headquarters in the valley and destroyed three helicopters,
claiming DEA personnel were killed in the attack.
A spokesperson for the international
division of the corporate headquarters of Purina in St. Louis,
Missouri confirms that a company named Purina Peru S.A. exists in
Peru. According to this source, the company is a subsidiary of the
American company and in fact, is exactly the same type of operation
as Ralston-Purina Canada. An agricultural feed manufacturer, Purina
Peru S.A. has a general office in Lima and chow plants in Lima and
Chiclayo.