Shining Path on the Offensive in Peru, Again

A dozen people are dead in Peru since February amid escalating violence involving the Shining Path guerrilla group.

How Peru's Coca Production is Helping the Global Cocaine Boom

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

Felled and Burned: Deforestation in Peru's Amazon

Rich in resources, Peru's Amazon is being plundered at an accelerated rate, losing more than 26,000 square kilometers of forest since 2001.

3 Security Challenges Facing Peru’s Incoming President

In arguably the most polarizing election Peru has seen in its history, voters have selected, by a razor-thin margin, a leftist rural school teacher over the daughter of a former…

Peru Massacre Highlights Desperation of Weakened Shining Path Rebels

Authorities in Peru have sent troops to an isolated river valley at the heart of the country’s cocaine trade after the massacre of more than a dozen individuals, raising fresh…

Shining Path

The Shining Path or the Militarized Communist Party (Militarizado Partido Comunista - MPC) is the last remnant of Peru’s guerrilla movement from the end of the 20th Century. Although the…

Shining Path Commander’s Death Strikes Blow to Peru Rebel Group

Military officials in Peru have announced the death of a top Shining Path commander more than five months after an operation in which they claim he was injured in a…

Peru in Familiar Stalemate With Shining Path Rebels

Yet again, Peruvian security forces are seeking to force Shining Path guerrillas out a jungle region that produces most of the country’s cocaine, but military operations have long failed to…

Peru's Shining Path Plots Unlikely Return to Power

A 400-page document by Peru's Shining Path guerrillas details the group's elaborate plans to increase drug trafficking operations and attacks on the military. But its long-held ultimate goal -- to overthrow…

Chemicals for Cocaine Production Hidden in Sugar and Beer in Peru

Peruvian authorities managed to identify close to 20 methods for hiding illegal chemical components being sent to criminal groups in the VRAEM, the country’s top cocaine-producing region.

High-Profile Arrests Won't Stem Cocaine Production in Peru’s VRAEM

Authorities have arrested two prominent drug traffickers in Peru’s largest coca-producing region in recent months, but the dentitions alone are unlikely to help remedy the country’s shortcomings in combating coca…

Weekly InSight: Narco-Terrorism in Latin America, How Real Is the Threat?

In our August 10 Facebook Live session, Senior Editor Mike LaSusa spoke with Simon Fraser University Research Associate Benoît Gomis about the myths and realities of the threat…