Content area
Full text
LIMA, Jul. 3 (IPS/GIN) -- The recent brief occupation of the village of Huran Marca in northern Peru by Sendero Luminoso guerrillas, who after routing the police brought the local residents together to listen to a political harangue, shot down government denials that the insurgent group is making a comeback.
Analysts say the occupation of the village and the earlier kidnapping of 71 employees of the Argentine oil company Techint point to a resurgence of the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) rebels, although the group's strategic and political aims are not yet clear.
In February, the group began to step up its armed activity in the highland jungles of the northern regions of Ayacucho and Apurimac and in tropical valleys in Peru's central jungle region, sociologist Raul Gonzalez told IPS.
Political analyst Benedicto Jimenez believes the resurgence of Sendero has been fomented from prison by the group's founder, Abimael Guzman, in order to strengthen Sendero's position with the aim of forcing the government to negotiate his release. According to Jimenez, Guzman is still frustrated that he was not freed after a peace deal was signed in 1993.
The guerrilla war launched by Sendero in 1980, inspired by the Maoist concept of "encircling the cities from the countryside," and the consequent crackdown by security forces, had left a death toll of 50,000 - including both dead and "disappeared" - by 1992, when Guzman was captured.
A year later, the guerrilla leader yielded to pressure from the government of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) and agreed to appear in a video recording in which he urged fellow "Senderistas" to give up the armed struggle and become a legal political party.
But his message triggered a split in the group. Most of the 12,000 members laid down their arms and gave up...