Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 - Peru

Peru's primary counterterrorism concern remained fighting remnants of the militant Maoist Sendero Luminoso (SL or Shining Path), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization that wreaked havoc on the country in the 1980s and 1990s at a cost of more than 69,000 lives. SL remnants in the Upper Huallaga River Valley (UHV) sought to regroup and replenish their ranks following significant setbacks suffered in 2007. Separately, the SL organization in the Apurimac and Ene River Valley (VRAE) maintained its control over the area. Both groups continued to engage in drug trafficking, and during the year carried out 64 terrorist acts in remote coca-growing areas that killed at least 12 police, four civilians, and 15 members of the military.

Although the Fujimori government nearly eliminated SL in the 1990s, the organization, now entwined with narcotics trafficking, remained a threat in 2008. The two SL organizations combined were thought to number several hundred armed combatants. While today's SL is shorter on revolutionary zeal than in the past, analysts believed leaders continued to use Maoist philosophy to justify their illicit activities.

Involvement in drug production and trafficking provided SL with funding to conduct operations, allowing it to improve relations with local communities in remote areas and to recruit new members. While SL in the UHV worked during the year to recuperate from losses suffered in 2007, insufficient government presence in the more remote VRAE allowed the organization there to continue operating:

• On March 5, five armed attackers killed two Peruvian National Police (PNP) officers near the town of Chanchamayo in Junín department.

• On March 23, an estimated 30 SL members ambushed an anti-drug police unit near Quinua in Ayacucho department, killing one.

• On April 30, SL attackers killed two civilians who were acting as guides for military personnel, near the town of Ancoin in Ayacucho department.

• On June 27, SL members attacked troops on a counternarcotics operation near Sivia in Ayacucho department, killing one.

• On October 9, in northern Huancavelica department, SL triggered a remotely activated bomb underneath a truck returning Peruvian Army soldiers to a nearby base. The attackers then opened fire from both sides of the road, killing 14 soldiers and two civilians. Sixteen others were wounded, three of them critically. It was the deadliest SL attack since the 1992 capture of SL founder Abimael Guzmán.

• On November 16, an SL ambush killed three PNP officers in the town of Huanta in northern Ayacucho.

• On October 14, suspected SL elements attacked a PNP vehicle traveling on the highway north of Tingo María in Huánuco department, firing on it from both sides of the road. Two of the five officers inside were injured, one of whom later died.

• On November 26, suspected SL attackers ambushed a PNP convoy on the highway some 20 kilometers north of Tingo María in Huánuco department, killing five police and wounding four others.

• On December 27, SL insurgents attacked a military helicopter in Vizcatan killing one soldier and wounding two others.

In late August, the Army began an offensive called "Operation Excellence," aimed at taking control of the Vizcatán region in northern Ayacucho department. While there were unconfirmed reports of SL casualties, the military suffered losses in a number of SL attacks in response to the offensive.

Implementation of the García government's "Plan VRAE," which called for 2,000 troops and 19 counterterrorism bases operated under a central command was still evolving. Plans for new health, education, and infrastructure investment in these isolated communities where the state lacked presence were not implemented, although new Prime Minister Yehude Simon led a full cabinet delegation to the VRAE in November to evaluate the situation.

During the period June 2007 to November 2008, the "Huallaga Police Front" (an initiative begun in 2006 under then-President Toledo), prosecuted a counterterrorism campaign in the UHV and captured more than 100 alleged SL members, including one national-level leader. It also destroyed 27 SL camps, broke up an urban cell that served as an intelligence link, and seized dozens of weapons, explosives, and ammunition.

Government efforts to improve interagency cooperation, especially in intelligence, and to strengthen prosecutorial capacity were somewhat successful. Police units specializing in counterterrorism and counter-narcotics conducted some joint operations with the Peruvian Army in the UHV.

President García continued reauthorizing a 60-day state of emergency in parts of Peru's five departments where SL operates, suspending some civil liberties, and giving the armed forces additional authority to maintain public order. There was no movement on President García's 2006 proposal calling for the death penalty for those convicted of acts of terrorism.

The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) has not conducted terrorist activities since the 1996 hostage taking at the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Lima. Efforts to reconstitute an organizational structure were not in evidence in 2008, though former MRTA members were working to establish a political party called the Free Fatherland Movement ("Movimiento Patria Libre") to compete in future elections.

SL founder and leader Abimael Guzmán and key accomplices remained in prison serving life sentences on charges stemming from crimes committed during the 1980s and 1990s.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) continued to use remote areas along the Colombian-Peruvian border to rest, regroup, and make arms purchases. Experts believed the FARC continued to fund coca cultivation and cocaine production among the Peruvian population in border areas.