Posted on 12/14/2006 3:28:14 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Troops have been dispatched to the central Andean valleys of Peru in recent weeks to counter renewed guerrilla activity by re-equipped leftist rebels of the Shining Path, according to high level government officials. ...
Twenty-three members of the group have been arrested since Shining Path resumed operations at the beginning of the year with a road ambush that killed eight police officers. In a videotape released at the end of last month, a hooded leader using the pseudonym of Comandante Artemio said the group would resume large-scale attacks in three months. ...Comandante Artemio threatened to renew attacks unless the government granted an amnesty for imprisoned Shining Path members...
"We are rising. We are starting to grow. We are working clandestinely for the future," Comandante Artemio said from his hide-out in the Alto Huallaga Valley between the Andes Mountains and the Amazon Basin. The video showed a column of about 100 insurgents armed with AK-47 rifles. ...
Shining Path provides security for coca plantations as well as cocaine production and transport routes, according to senior government officials in Peru, who say that the group charges a tax to narcotraffickers based on the volume of drugs produced.
Some analysts have warned that Shining Path could be copying tactics used by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which grew into a major terrorist organization controlling large swaths of Peru's northern neighbor by protecting narcotraffickers.
Bolivia's former army chief, Gen. Marcelo Antezana, has said Shining Path elements have also been detected in Bolivia, where there has been a major increase in cocaine production.
Suspected Peruvian terrorists have been linked to criminal activities including a string of bank robberies in Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. Security officials say some of the stolen money has gone toward reactivating guerrilla operations.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
They should kill every one they encounter. Those that they capture should be killed after getting what information they have.
Take a wild guess who is their patron.
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