Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09LIMA543
2009-04-13 20:27:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Lima
Cable title:  

SHINING PATH IN THE VRAE

Tags:  PGOV PREL PINR PETR PE 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHPE #0543/01 1032027
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 132027Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY LIMA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0399
INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION PRIORITY 2294
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA PRIORITY 6496
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 8231
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 3796
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 1373
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ APR 5150
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO PRIORITY 9706
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO PRIORITY 2475
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO PRIORITY 2318
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUMIAAA/USCINCSO MIAMI FL PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 000543 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/05/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR PETR PE
SUBJECT: SHINING PATH IN THE VRAE

REF: A. LIMA 329

B. LIMA 7

C. LIMA 1678

D. LIMA 1809

E. LIMA 1699

Classified By: Amb. P Michael McKinley for reasons 1.4b and d.

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 000543

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/05/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR PETR PE
SUBJECT: SHINING PATH IN THE VRAE

REF: A. LIMA 329

B. LIMA 7

C. LIMA 1678

D. LIMA 1809

E. LIMA 1699

Classified By: Amb. P Michael McKinley for reasons 1.4b and d.


1. (C) Summary: The Apurimac and Ene River Valley (VRAE),a
remote jungle area east of the Andes straddling northern
Ayacucho and parts of several other regions, is home to the
most resilient of the remaining two armed factions of the
Shining Path (SL). The SL faction in the VRAE is led by
three veteran SL commanders, who most observers estimate lead
about 250 hardcore fighters backed by a network of some 350
collaborators. Most officials and analysts consulted by
Poloff in Ayacucho argued that these SL remnants are
primarily a narcotrafficking organization focused on
self-preservation and making money whose political goals are
now secondary. (We do not fully agree with this view.) To
survive, the faction has adopted tactics designed to woo
local communities and transform their image as hardened
terrorists, and may be seeking to increase its contacts with
the outside world. A recent spike in killings by SL,
including the deadly April 9 attack (septel),probably
reflects a reaction to the government's military push into an
SL stronghold (refs) rather than the oft-repeated
"resurgence" of the organization. End Summary.

Background on the VRAE
--------------

2. (C) The Apurimac and Ene River Valley (VRAE),a
subtropical area east of the Andes straddling northern
Ayacucho and parts of several other bordering regions, is
home to the most resilient of the remaining two armed
factions of the Shining Path (SL) terrorist organization.
(Note: The other armed faction holds out in the Upper
Huallaga Valley in northern Peru. End Note.) In the 1990s,
SL retreated to the remote jungle-covered valley under
pressure from the Peruvian military and established a refuge
in an area called Vizcatan from which it has launched strikes
throughout the VRAE and surrounding areas (ref A). The
valley has roughly 250,000 inhabitants dispersed among small
communities and farms, according to a local contact, and the
main agricultural product is the coca leaf, which is
reportedly grown openly throughout the VRAE.

SL Leadership in the VRAE

--------------

3. (C) SL in the VRAE is led by Victor Quispe Palomino (aka
"Jose"),his brother Jorge (aka "Raul"),and his military
commander "Alipio", who is believed to be Leonardo Huaman
Zuniga. Jose is in his early 50s, according to a security
consultant that operates in the VRAE, and has been a member
of SL since at least the mid-1980s when he was briefly
arrested by police. Jose is accused of leading SL fighters
in a massacre of 69 peasants at Lunamarca in the 1980s.
Raul, like his brother, has been an SL member for over two
decades and is accused of leading several small attacks in
the VRAE in recent years. Alipio, described in press reports
as a cold-blooded killer, is in his 70s and suffers from
tuberculosis, according to the security consultant. The
three commanders describe their SL faction in pamphlets as
the "Peruvian Communist Party -- Marxist-Leninist-Maoist" and
their VRAE command as the Central Regional Committee. Most
analysts label them the SL "proseguir" faction because it
broke with SL founder Abimael Guzman and determined to fight
on against the government when Guzman called for a negotiated
settlement in the mid-1990s. An Ayacucho regional government
official told Poloff that Jose and Alipio have so much blood
on their hands that they could never reintegrate into
society, but continue the fight out of lack of options and
desperation. They would much rather go into exile abroad
than live in the jungle, the official speculated, but they
have no choice.

SL Forces in the VRAE
--------------

4. (C) Most observers estimate that Jose, Raul, and Alipio
command about 250 hardcore fighters, backed by a network of
some 350 collaborators. According to a local Interior
Ministry official with informants throughout the valley, only
a few dozen SL fighters remain permanently mobilized, while
most live among the communities of the area. When SL wants
to launch a major attack using thirty or more men, the
mobilized units go from community to community collecting
their comrades for battle. SL terrorists use a wide variety
of weapons of differing makes mainly in 9 mm, 5.56 mm and
7.62 mm caliber sizes, which observers say suggests they do
not have consistent suppliers. SL leaders claimed in a
recent manifesto that they get their weapons primarily by
ambushing and robbing military patrols. The Interior
official alleged that SL is also seeking (without success) to
purchase a shoulder-fired rocket to knock down government
helicopters. The same official also told us that his sources
said SL fighters had fathered some 150 children who they keep
under tight protection in a cave where they store obsolete
weapons.

Dogmatic Terrorists or Criminal Narcotraffickers?
-------------- --------------

5. (C) The majority of officials and analysts consulted by
Poloffs in Ayacucho argued that SL in the VRAE is primarily a
drug-trafficking rather than a subversive organization.
According to this argument, Alipio and Jose still have their
communist ideals and political dreams, but neither
realistically believes they can achieve the power that SL
enjoyed at its height. With no other options for survival,
the SL leaders turned to protecting drug traffickers and coca
growers for payment. Asked why SL continues to proselytize
about Communism in pamphlets and directly to locals, one
analyst argued that this was just a smokescreen to convince
communities that the group is not simply a gang of criminals.
Another analyst observed that SL in the VRAE exhibits some
characteristics of both a subversive and drug-trafficking
group and cannot be described exclusively as one or the
other. But as time goes on, he argued, new recruits
increasingly care about the financial and criminal aspects of
the group rather than its political ideals. Few true
believers appear to remain.


6. (C) (Note: Although the argument that SL is a
narcotrafficking organization was prevalent in Ayacucho, we
continue to believe that SL holds political views and follows
military tactics more akin to a terrorist group. And at
least one prominent analyst argues compellingly that SL
remains a terrorist group with scaled-down political goals.
This analyst told Poloff that Jose had recently claimed
publicly he wanted to start a new stage of combat targeting
US counter-drug interests. Anti-US rhetoric was also a marked
component of the VRAE faction's recent manifesto. We will
explore this argument more fully in septel. End Note.)

Kinder, Gentler SL Thugs
--------------

7. (C) To adjust to their comparatively isolated and weakened
state, the SL remnants have adopted tactics designed to woo
the local population and to transform their image from
battle-hardened terrorists and killers to something less
menacing. Although SL continues to use violence against both
the security forces that confront them and "traitors" in the
community, the group generally does not kill locals, innocent
bystanders or outsiders passing through. One contact said
the SL briefly kidnapped a local mayor in 2005 to inform him
that they believed in development and would accept the
planned construction of a new road in the area as long as
security forces did not use it. Another contact told Poloff
that SL once stopped him at a roadblock and lectured him and
others for several hours on Communism and how SL no longer
harmed civilians. In October 2008, SL fighters reportedly
entered the exploration camp of a US mining company, lectured
the workers on Communism, stole munitions, and left without
harming anyone (ref D). Several local contacts also reported
that SL fighters regularly enter communities and pay several
times the going price for local products.

Seeking Contact with the Outside World
--------------

8. (C) Shining Path leaders in the VRAE may also be seeking
to increase contact with the outside world. The Interior
Ministry official in Ayacucho told Poloff he had established
indirect communication with some SL leaders via an informant
in the VRAE. SL requested that the official provide
medicines and 230 identity documents to allow some of their
fighters to come and go from the VRAE without risking arrest.
The official said he provided some medicines to build trust,
and showed Poloff a letter in which an SL fighter thanked him
personally. He added that he had convinced the fighter to
give him radio frequencies so he could locate his SL contacts
in the future. The security consultant operating in the VRAE
told Poloff that in an effort to gather intelligence he had
even contacted and met with Jose and Alipio, who had
delivered him a video and requested that he show it to the
outside world. (Note: We have not yet seen the video and
cannot confirm its existence. End Note.) In late March 2009,
Jose provided a media interview to a prominent counter-drug
analyst in which he claimed that Abimael Guzman -- not Jose
and his faction -- was responsible for all past human rights
violations committed by SL.

Comment: Shining Path More Entrenched Than Resurgent
-------------- --------------

9. (C) SL has long been entrenched in the VRAE, enjoying
nearly a decade of free reign to operate across the area
undisturbed by the presence of state security forces. In
August 2008, when the GOP began military operations to pacify
the valley (ref),the SL's entrenched and powerful position
enabled it to actively resist and respond to the incursion
with high-impact violence. In our view, this fact, rather
than a "resurgence" per se of SL (as media and other reports
have claimed) best explains the recent spike of terrorist
violence, including the deadly April 9 ambushes against
military forces, in the zone. Whatever the case, SL in the
VRAE remains and should remain a priority concern for a
government interested in eliminating Peru's terrorist threat
once and for all.
MCKINLEY