Peru: controversy over the fate of Abimael Guzmán’s remains | The body of the founder of Shining Path remains in the morgue in custody

Peruvian justice continues to hold the body of the founder of the Peruvian Maoist guerrilla Sendero Luminoso, Abimael Guzmán, despite the family’s claim, which demands to receive the remains to be buried. The body of Guzmán, who died on Saturday at the age of 86 in a maximum security prison where he had been serving a life sentence since 1992 on the same count as his wife Elena Yparraguirre, remained on Sunday at the morgue in the city of Callao in police custody. The prosecution indicated that Guzmán’s cause of death is bilateral pneumonia caused by pathological agent and added that your remains must be handed over to a direct relative, even if the decision is in the hands of the third prosecutor’s office in Callao.

The authorities of Pedro Castillo’s government have come out in favor of his cremation to avoid that there is a tomb where the pilgrimage of his sympathizers takes place. In turn, the justice ministry warned that tributes to guerrilla leaders such as Guzmán would be tried under the crime of apologizing for terrorism, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Crown said in a statement on Sunday that the General Health Law and Code of Criminal Procedure establish that “the remains must be handed over to duly accredited direct members of the family”. In this sense, he confirmed that Citizen Iris Quiñonez asked the Third Office of the Provincial Corporate Criminal Prosecutor of Callao to hand over Guzmán’s body, expressing that she had a power of attorney granted by his wife Elena Iparraguirre, considered Sendero’s number two and also sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism.

Founder of the Shining Path, Guzmán died of pneumonia on Saturday, as determined by his autopsy. The conclusion is subject to the results of pathological, toxicological and chemical tests, among others ordered by the prosecutor. The guerrilla leader was serving his sentence at the Callao naval base, but was due to be transferred to a joint prison in the coming months.

A former philosophy professor at the university, Guzmán suffered from health problems in July this year. He has spent his last 29 years in prison, convicted of being one of the intellectuals responsible for one of the bloodiest conflicts in Latin America, which left more than 70,000 dead and missing between 1980 and 2000, according to figures from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.