A member of the Shining Path Maoist guerrillas was killed Monday (September 13th) in a clash with law enforcement in an isolated region of central Peru, the armed forces staff said.
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"The Armed Forces and the police shot this afternoon a terrorist offender from Comrade Pucañahui's column, during a clash in the district of Vizcatan del Ene,"
a coca-producing area, the staff tweeted.
Weapons and communications equipment were seized during this incident, the same source added.
This is the first clash between Peruvian forces and isolated Shining Path fighters since leftist President Pedro Castillo took power on July 28.
On May 23, a Shining Path attack in the same region left 16 people dead.
Read alsoPerpetuity for the founder of the Shining Path
The founder of the Shining Path, Abimael Guzman, nicknamed the "Pol Pot of the Andes", died in detention on Saturday at the age of 86.
Incarcerated since 1992, he was serving a life sentence.
His movement is responsible for one of the bloodiest conflicts in Latin America, which rocked Peru between 1980 and 2000 and left more than 70,000 dead and missing, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
If almost all of the leaders of the Maoist guerrilla are now dead or behind bars, there are still a few fighters scattered in isolated forest and mountainous areas.
Authorities estimate their number at 350 and accuse them of cooperating with drug traffickers.