Peru: A “timely” Sendero attack in the middle of the camp …

From Lima

Two weeks before the second round of the presidential election, in which left-wing candidate Pedro Castillo and right-hander Keiko Fujimori clash, an attack attributed by the authorities to the remnants of the Maoist armed group Sendero Luminoso left at least fourteen dead. Between them two children. Messages left at the scene of the massacre call for a boycott of the June 6 elections. The government of President Francisco Sagasti called what happened a “terrorist act” and ordered the dispatch of military and police forces to the area where the massacre of civilians took place. There was widespread condemnation of these murders.

The attack took place in the town of San Miguel, in the province of Vizcatán, in the area known as El Vraem, in the valley of the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro rivers. It is an isolated mountainous region between the Andes and the Amazon, in the south-east of the country, which has become the main coca leaf production area and where drug trafficking is very present. Sendero’s last dissident column operates in this region. Although some versions speak of eighteen victims, at the time of sending this note, fourteen deaths had been confirmed, but not their identities.

The massacre took place at a bar next to a stream on Sunday evening, but it was not known until Monday. The victims, residents of the area, were riddled with bullets and their bodies burned. Among the charred corpses and bullet casings were pamphlets signed by Sendero in which the murdered residents are described as “people of bad life”. “Cleanse Vraem and Peru from the caves of bad life, parasites and corrupt”, is the threat left by the assassins in place of the mascare. The authorities point out that what happened in San Miguel is part of the criminal actions that the remaining Senderistas define as “social cleansing”.

The message calls for a boycott of the presidential elections by not going to the polls or by voting blank. The text claims that “voting for Keiko Fujimori is treason”, which raised suspicion due to the convenience of the candidate, whose campaign quickly emerged to take advantage of the situation, using these killings and the pamphlet attack. to strengthen his speech. , amplified by all the right and the mainstream media, which seeks to link his rival in these elections to the remains of Sendero. Keiko took the opportunity to express his “full support” for the armed forces.

Professor, trade unionist and progressive candidate Pedro Castillo has repeatedly rejected this link that the right attributes to him with the little that remains of the hike, with which he intends to strike his candidacy. As soon as the attack became known, he spoke out to condemn the massacre, which he described as “cowardly”, to show solidarity with the victims and demand an investigation and the arrest of the culprits. “Let the full weight of the law fall on them, whoever they are,” the candidate said during a public demonstration. This left the door open to doubt about the authorship and intentions of the San Miguel attack. “We cannot allow the people to be a victim of these things, we cannot afford to be a victim of wanting to silence the voice of the people and there cannot be assemblies,” Castillo said, s ‘addressing his supporters.

In an electoral environment marked by strong polarization and a massive campaign of fear against the left led by the right and the media machine, Fujimori seeks to earn electoral revenues by raising fear of terrorism in his favor. This is when the polls do not favor your candidate. Two recent polls give Castillo an advantage. The Peruvian Studies Institute gives the leftist candidate 44.8% and the authoritarian rightist candidate 34.4%, while pollster Ipsos, in a poll released Sunday night, gives Castillo 45 percent and Keiko 40.7 percent. In both cases, the advantage of the professor on the left increases compared to previous polls.

The Shining Path took up arms in 1980, which opened up an internal armed conflict that lasted until the 1990s with around 70,000 victims, most of them indigenous. There have been assassinations and massacres of peasant communities by Sendero and the security forces. The leader of the Sendero, Abimael Guzmán, was arrested in 1992 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Imprisoned, Guzmán negotiated with the Fujimori dictatorship and called on his supporters to lay down their arms.

But some dissident groups remained who distanced themselves from the surrender and remained in arms. The last column that works is that of the Vraem wild coca growing area. Led by Víctor Quispe Palomino, alias “José”, it would have between 100 and 150 members. Earlier this year, the government announced the death of Jorge Quispe Palomino, “Raúl”, his brother’s right-hand man. Authorities and specialists agree that there is a close alliance between this remnant and the drug trafficking that dominates the region.