The Last Ever Interview with the Leaders of Peru's Shining Path Guerrilla Army

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I really enjoyed reading this story. It seems like we never get to here about this anymore in the news media. Peru is a very mystical place and i am always interested in reading about that part of the world weather its about a guerrilla army, crystal skulls, machu pichu, or pyramids, im fascinated.

This August, newspapers in Peru splashed headlines across their front pages about the huge blow the government had dealt to what is left of the infamous Shining Path—a brutal Maoist guerrilla group that has spent the past 20 years hanging out in the jungle slaughtering peasants and smuggling coke. The headlines announced to the world that Comrade Alipio, the group’s military leader, had been killed.

Alipio's death was as cartoonish as it was dramatic. A coc aine trafficker who had links to Shining Path, but who'd turned informant for the police, lured an armed column of rebels towards a hut that he owned. Most of the fighters stayed outside, guarding the building while Comrade Alipio and two other Shining Path bigwigs, Comrades Gabriel and Alfonso, went into what was meant to be a safe house, expecting to meet some ladies of the night, all organized by the drug trafficker.

Crucially, what Alipio and company didn’t know was that the army had rigged the house with ANFO explosives. As soon as the three rebels had made themselves comfortable, the whole hut went up in one big blast. The charred bodies had to be identified through DNA tests.

As soon as news of the killing came out, my phone wouldn’t stop ringing: I have the arguable privilege of being the only journalist to have met Comrade Alipio, and the local media were desperate for a soundbite.

Back in September 2010, I received a call on behalf of the leadership of the Shining Path, who had agreed to meet me if I travelled, unaccompanied, to Peru's Valley of the Apurímac, Ene, and Mantaro rivers, known by the acronym VRAEM. It's a jungle region that routinely serves as the battleground between armed forces and drug lords. The Shining Path contacted me after I sent them a message while I was reporting in the area, tailing some anti-narcotics police patrols a few months prior.

Its sad that they use kids like this. I really dont know enough about the Shining Path to say anymore but im at least aware of its existence now.

reply to post by onequestion


I worked in Lima from '87-'89 during Alan Garcia's fiasco in power. My girlfriend's brother had a friend that was one of Garcia's bodyguards and the stories of this president dancing on tables in brothels coked out of his head while his country spiraled into 2000% hyperinflation just added to the all-ready surreal atmosphere of the place.

But the Shinning Path were very prevalent at that time; in fact, they were the reason that Lima had a curfew during my first year there. I can clearly remember hearing, from my bedroom window, gunfire nearly nightly and at least once a month a bomb going off. The terrorists were usually bombing the power pylons between the electric stations which were located outside Lima and the shanty outskirts of the city. This would cause 3 days of power outage each time they did this which meant no running water in a tropical setting.

The Path also targeted banks and other institutions and I was actually outside of a factory in Callao when it blew up killing several people inside. The panic was pretty bad and it took me hours to calm down afterwards. The bombings were so often that I eventually became used to the distant sound of one going off.

Our salaries became worthless during this time and life was extremely difficult, particularly for families. Peru went thru 2 currencies during the late '80s and it was an incredible experience living through that and it can never be forgotten.