HomeNewsAnalysisPeru's Shining Path Expand Reach, Ties to Drug Trafficking
ANALYSIS

Peru's Shining Path Expand Reach, Ties to Drug Trafficking

PERU / 8 FEB 2011 BY JEREMY MCDERMOTT EN

The game of cat and mouse between the Peruvian security forces and the country's chief rebel group may be having the perverse effect of forcing the guerrillas into the arms of organized crime.

The Shining Path, under pressure in their strongholds from army offensives, have spread out their forces and deepened their ties to drug trafficking, continuing to deliver their Communist message to the remoter hamlets and villages of the Peruvian highlands.

An article in the Peruvian daily El Comercio looks at how the most belligerent of the two remaining Shining Path (or 'Sendero Luminoso' in Spanish) factions, led by aliases ‘José’ and ‘Raul’ (believed to be brothers with the surnames Quispe Palomino), has expanded its reach beyond the Apurimac and Ene river valley (Valle de los Rios Apurimac y Ene – VRAE) in the departments of Ayacucho and Apurimac, and been spotted in the department of Junin further north.

The El Comercio article is complemented by another published in La Republica, dealing with an alleged money laundering network based around the VRAE, with links to the Shining Path, showing how the rebels tentacles are stretching out and interwining with organized crime.

The VRAE is home to some of the densest cultivations of coca in Peru and the heart of much of the country's drug trafficking. Peru is seeing an increase in coca cultivation, as it threatens to dislodge Colombia from its position as the world's number one producer of cocaine. In 2008 coca production increased 4.5 percent while it dropped 18 percent in Colombia, according to United Nations figures. The U.S. government statistics (from the 2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report) have Peru producing 225 tons of cocaine in 2009, compared with 270 tons in Colombia.

The new reach of the Shining Path has also allowed the rebels to diversify the routes they use to smuggle cocaine out of the Peruvian highlands on their way down to the Pacific Coast, where shipments are bought by the Mexican drug cartels and smuggled northwards through the Pacific. The article reveals how the Shining Path rebels escort shipments across stretches of Peru, charging drug traffickers up to $30 a kilo. The rebel columns are not only marching through the mountainous terrain but have access to vehicles and are able to cover large distances quickly.

Another effect of the army offensives against the rebels has been to force them to better arm and equip themselves, using the proceeds from drug trafficking to buy weapons on the black market.· Police intelligence sources are cited tracking more than 100 rifles (mostly AKMs, the upgrade of the basic AK-47 Kalashnikovs produced in the 1960s) and some rocket-propelled grenades used to target military helicopters, one of which was hit in 2009 in Santo Domingo de Acobamba (Huancayo province).

While the Shining Path deepen their links with drug trafficking organizations, it seems they have not abandoned their ideology or political work.· There are regular seizures of Shining Path propaganda material, while the hammer and sickle is to be seen daubed on huts around the Upper Huallaga and VRAE.

It is also clear that the Sendero faction in the VRAE is growing in strength and sophistication thanks to involvement in the drug trade, mimicking the position taken by both Colombian rebels groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - FARC) and the National Liberation Army (Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional - ELN)

The goverment has had some success against the Shining Path but principally against the faction entrenched in the Upper Huallaga Valley (in the northern department of San Martin, commanded by alias ‘Artemio’ (whose real name is believed to be Florindo Eleuterio Flores), and not against those based in the VRAE.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ECUADOR / 14 FEB 2022

Peru has convicted a gang of shark fin traffickers for the first time in history but more is needed to…

COCAINE / 5 JUL 2022

European-bound Peruvian cocaine is usually moved by foreign gangs. But now homegrown criminals are muscling in on the action.

COCA / 27 SEP 2022

Increased coca cultivation in Peru provides the raw ingredient cocaine traffickers use when pushing into developing markets like Australia.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…