PERUVIAN REBELS' INFLUENCE
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This document is an article from the Washington Post discussing the presence of the Shining Path guerrilla group in Lima, Peru. The article highlights the concern that the economic crisis in Peru is benefiting the guerrillas, as people living in poverty and desperation may turn to them for support. The article also mentions that Shining Path has launched a major new offensive in the countryside and has increased its activities in metropolitan Lima. There is a debate about the group's intentions, with some believing they aim to surround and strangle the capital, while others think they are attempting to provoke a military coup. The article also provides insight into the ideology and tactics of Shining Path and highlights the government's efforts to combat the group.
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Approved For Release 2000/08/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R003700660002-8
- r-s of Guerrillas Gaining Popular-Support
PPr~ ~i an :Economic Crisis Feeds Fea
r . Rannhlira "What to whom all of Peru's leftist factions much of a presence, Shining Path
t__
;there might not be one Huaycan,
'but hundreds.
"That's what I worry about," said
'l Carlos Ivan Degregori, a scholar
" with ' the ? Institute of Peruvian
Studies. "We're in such a hypercrisis,
such a situation without hope,, that
many people see no exit. I fear that
Shining Path can get neutrality or
even sympathy from some poor sec-
tors, especially young people."
Until now mostly a rural phenom-
enon, the guerrilla insurgency not
only has launched a major new of-
fensive in the countryside in recent
months but has stepped up its ac-
tivities in metropolitan Lima, where
nearly a third of Peru's 20 million
people live.
Shining Path is held responsible
for assassinating 17 mayors of An-
dean towns last year and has
stepped up killings of soldiers and
policemen. The guerrilla group also
has shown a new presence in coast-
al regions to the north and south of
the capital, and along the length of
the Central Highway heading east.
The pattern formed is a rough
semicircle around Lima.
Some see the campaign as a gen-
uine attempt to surround and stran-
gle the capital. Others scoff at the
notion that Shining Path is that
powerful, and see instead aq effort
to provoke a military coup-which
the guerrillas would see as hasten-
ing their intended revouution.
losophy as the fullest development of -'''we have to no is innuence Litt: MILES r -
in Townspeople know the guerri as
Shining Path originated
h
h
e
at t
"scientific" communist thought, a people, ... convince them t
COLOMBIA Ayacucho, a mountain city of will protect them if they cooperate
step beyond Maoism. It addresses current system is better." Hua- ECUADOR 100,000 residents who are more and kill them if they do not.
Peru's racial divisions by claiming to man's view of the problem as pa- likely to speak the Indian language Few believe that Shining Path
s."
champion the poor Indian minority. litical rather than military was.
me to can "win," in a classic military
As difficult as the group's ideas largely responsible for his losing his Qtheuechua than University Spanish. It It is is home to sense. But the same time, few.
and methods might be to under- command nearly five years ago. venerable school that in the late believe the insurgency can be elim-
developing even for Peruvians, there is ,a Shining Path has spread from its BRAZIL 1960s and 1970s came under the inated anytime soon.
developing consensus here that the birthplace in the mountain city of control of a formal, rather author- And since the capital is assumed
government of President Alan Gar- Ayacucho, southeast of Lima, up itarian academic named Abimael to be Shining Path's ultimate goal,
cia is losing ground in the war the spine of the Andes into northern PERU g
against Shining Path. Most of the Peru and the Upper Huallaga Val- Guzman. in many ways the most important
country's population lives under a ley-source of up to half the ; x Lima Guzman is now known by the nom battles now being fought are in'
?Huaycan de guerre "Comrade Gonzalo." Some places like Huaycan.
state of emergency, and Garcia has world's supply of cocaine. There. eQ think him dead, but most believe he
d to act as Few in the bootstrap shantytown
t
e
given the armed forces and police a the guerrillas are repor
virtual free hand in the battle. intermediaries, winning for the Ocean is alive and at the helm of the insur- of 24,000 are willing to talk about
This month, the government peasants higher prices for their gency he created. His ideology was Huaycan's notoriety as a haven for
tried to regain the initiative by an- coca leaves from drug traffickers. rooted in Chinese communism. Shining Path. People seem more
nouncing a "total war" against sub- The drug trade is potentially a Shining Path, according to the concerned with daily life. The gov-
version and appropriating $21 mil- vast source of funds for Shining Path, ' scant public record, considers the co conncen provides Huaycan with
lion for arms and equipment. Primes and the weaponry the group might ERU SOUTH 4 "Gang of Four" of Cultural Revolu-
AMERICA virtually nothing. Townspeople are Minister Armando Villanueva said . be able to purchase is of great con- tion fame as heroes and the current
on their own, and are proud, for
a~;I~c Vie? f Chinese leadership "revisionist." h 1
about 14,000 lives have been lost to ' cern to the 15 to 20 U.S: Drug En-
t
political violence since 1985 and
called on all political parties to join a
national effort against Shining Path
and smaller guerrilla groups.
Sh' . Path is thought to include
m
s
forcement Administration agen
who are actively supporting Peruvian
authorities in their campaign to erad-
icate coca in the valley.
The nine U.S. helicopters used in!'
m
g
no more than 3,000 armed guerrilthe campaign "get shot at all the-'
las but to have 10 times that many time," by both traffickers and Shin-
sympathizers. The government has ing Path, said Craig Chretien, chief
been accused of repeated human DEA agent here. But so far, he said,
rights violations in which innocents agents have not encountered so-
are killed. The guerrillas' influence phisticated weaponry. "We really
continues to spread. wonder where . the money's going,"
"We will not win with the rifle,"t Chretien said.
said retired Gen. Adrian Huaman,,:. Shining Path's weapons of choice'
former leader of the war against are dynamite-plentiful in this min-
Shining Path, in an interview with ing nation-and arms that they
steal from soldiers and police. The
group is not known to receive any
aid from outside the country.
The history and evolution of
Shining Path are complex..
The full name of the group is the
Communist Party of Peru for the
Shining Path of Jose Carlos Maria
tegui. Mariategui was a journalist
and political, scientist of the 1920s
The group's first violent action, de- example, of the t ree communa
struction of ballot boxes, occurred dining rooms they have built.
on May 17, 1980. "It's a shame this reputation has
Shining Path uses Peru's ethnic to come to us, we who are already
divisions and racism to advantage, suffering so much," said Miguel Es-
proclaiming itself the avatar of the pejo, 22, who works for the Roman
disadvantaged Indian millions, long Catholic parish. "We would like to
ignored or oppressed by Lima's concentrate on the positive things
Spanish-origin elite. It also seeks to~ we are doing, but people in Lima
evoke the da's of the Inca empire's now automatically say Huaycan and
glory. Shining Path in the same breath.
Shining Path operates through "Yes, Shining Path is here. Not a
small cells, and tries both to win the majority, just a few, but they are
loyalty of villagers and to intimidate here. But what I think is that this
them. In some remote areas, where place is like everywhere else. I think
the Peruvian state has nfer had you can find Shinirig Path anywhere. "
Approved For Release 2000/08/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R003700660002-8