Counter-Terrorism: Shining Path's Faint Shadow

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November 6, 2007: Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori will be tried on murder and kidnapping charges. Fujimori returned to Peru in September 2007. Fujimori is accused of ordering security forces to killed unarmed civilians in 1991 and 1992. Fujimori's supporters, however, contend that Fujimori is a hero because his administration all but crushed the Shining Path "Maoist" insurgent/terrorist movement. Approximately 70,000 people died during the Shining Path's campaign of terror. Shining Path remnants continue to fight in the Andes, but have become a "drug army," and are no longer a major threat to the rest of Peru. The remnant Shining Path faction is sometimes called "the Proseguir." The Peruvian military estimates that the Proseguir has at most 200 to 300 fighters. The remnant faction has no real political program. Last month, the Peruvian military claimed that its troops killed seven members of the Shining Path terror group in a firefight in the province of Huanta. The report said a Peruvian Army special "counter-insurgency battalion" was conducting the operation. �- Austin Bay