Military in the VRAEM region, where the Shining Path Maoist guerrilla is present.EL COMERCIO / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO / Europa Press
On the eve of the general elections in 2011 and 2016, and in the regional elections of 2014, armed columns from the clan of brothers Jorge and Víctor Quispe Palomino, who once belonged to the Maoist terrorist group Sendero Luminoso, claimed ambushes and murders in the area. with the highest coca leaf production in Peru, the Valley of the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro rivers (VRAEM). This Monday, two weeks before the ballot, the military and a justice of the peace reported that a column linked to Víctor (alias José) murdered 14 people on Sunday night in two canteens in the San Miguel del Ene town center, in the Amazon province of Satipo, Junín region.
For 17 years, the Quispe Palomino brothers settled in a VRAEM stronghold, in a geographically difficult area for law enforcement to operate, to engage in drug trafficking, extortion and provide security for other drug operators.
Jorge, alias 'Raúl', was killed in a confrontation with the forces of order in October, in an area of the province of Huanta (Ayacucho) belonging to the VRAEM, but the authorities confirmed his death in March of this year.
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The justice of the peace Leonidas Casas denounced the multiple crime on Monday to the prosecution and the police in the Natividad town center, and reported that, alerted by the president of a self-defense committee and another citizen, he found 18 bodies in two canteens at the foot of the Chimpinchariato stream, in the VRAEM. Hours later, a statement from the Joint Command of the Armed Forces reported that there were 14 dead - from rifle shots - including the bodies of two minors burned. The justice of the peace added that some of the wounded were treated at a medical post and asked the authorities for support to return to the scene of the massacre so that the removal of the bodies is carried out. "Nobody wants to go," he said.
A military source with knowledge of the facts, consulted by EL PAÍS, indicated hours later that the Joint Command provided support for Casas to return accompanied to the crime scene. The head of the joint command of the armed forces, Army General César Astudillo, commented on Radioprogramas radio station that on May 10 the armed group under the command of Víctor Quispe (alias José) distributed flyers in the VRAEM warning that they would carry out a “clean-up social ”of what they consider“ people outside the law or who behave in a libertine manner ”. "Nothing justifies what those criminals have done," he added. In a press conference, Justice Minister Eduardo Vega added that some victims were killed with a knife and described the incident as "a typical act of terrorism."
The headline of the flyer distributed on May 10 reads: “Enough of social ills, we must start cleaning up! Enough of the cucumber [for cucumber] (...) "Clean the VRAEM and Peru of dens, elements of bad living, parasites and corruption." At the crime scene, the justice of the peace also found a leaflet left by the criminals, but the image that circulated in the press was not legible. The military source consulted recalled that in March the same group kidnapped a family and murdered four of them in Huanta, Ayacucho region. “After the death of the leader 'Raúl', the cadres seek to rise and demonstrate their qualities as 'commanders' with these actions. Middle managers have an abusive mentality, ”he noted.
The Joint Command of the Armed Forces calls the Central Committee of the Shining Path VRAEM the group headed by Víctor (alias José) Quispe Palomino, despite the fact that its objective is not to seize power, but to earn money through extortion, surveillance of narcopists and the transfer of narcotics loads on foot.
The Maoist group that took up arms in May 1980 called the Shining Path and that sought to destroy the State and democracy in Peru, caused 54% of the more than 69,000 fatalities in 20 years of internal armed conflict in Peru, between 1980 and 2000.
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