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Pilar Olivares / Reuters
'Comrade Artemio', one of the top leaders of Peru's Shining Path guerrilla group, raises his arm as doctors take him away after his arrival at a police airport in Lima on Sunday.
The most important leader of Peru's leftist Shining Path insurgency has been captured by security forces after being shot in a remote jungle rife with drug trafficking, President Ollanta Humala said on Sunday, announcing his first major victory against what remains of the rebel group.
Artemio, the nom de guerre of Florindo Eleuterio Flores, was seriously wounded and receiving medical attention, Humala said.
The rebel boss led a remnant group of several hundred guerrillas who went into the cocaine trade after the founder of the Maoist insurgency was imprisoned in the 1990s - all but ending a bloody war against the state that killed nearly 70,000 people.
Though the rebels no longer pose a potent risk to the stability of the state, Artemio still claims allegiance to jailed Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman.
"We can tell the country today that the terrorists in the Huallaga Valley have been defeated, having captured alive Artemio," Humala said at a military base in the jungle.
Humala initially had said Artemio was dead.
Artemio was wounded early on Thursday and suffered a punctured lung and a severe wound to one of his hands that caused heavy bleeding.
Defense Minister Alberto Otarola said special forces attacked Artemio but gave no details about the operation. One local media outlet said Artemio had been shot by one or more members of the Shining Path who conspired with the government to turn against him.
After the shooting, some of Artemio's aides took him to a medical clinic and a nurse who was forced at gunpoint to bandage his wounds later said he was mortally wounded. His aides fled with Artemio as army helicopters chased them, but eventually they abandoned him on a riverbank, to weak to go on.
Peruvian anti-drug police tried for years to arrest Artemio and the United States two years ago offered a multimillion dollar reward for information leading to his capture.
Peru is the world's top grower of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine.
Humala, who fought against the Shining Path when he was a military officer in the 1990s, has vowed to step up efforts to catch what the government calls "narco-terrorists." His predecessor, former President Alan Garcia, failed to stamp out several hundred rebels, who have yet to surrender their arms.
"With this, I think we can now begin to pacify the Huallaga," Humala said referring to the major cocaine trafficking area.
Humala's approval rating rose 7 percentage points to 54 percent in January after he shuffled his cabinet to give it a more law-and-order bent and to crack down on protests against big mining projects.
In December, the reclusive Artemio emerged briefly from hiding to ask the government for a truce and for amnesty after years of fighting. His pleas were rejected and government officials said they would hunt him down.
Besides the Shining Path group in the Huallaga Valley, another faction of the rebels is active in a knotted bundle of river valleys in southeastern Peru known as the VRAE, which is the world's most densely-planted coca-growing region.
Security analysts say the group in the VRAE no longer espouses Maoist ideology and is basically a criminal enterprise engaged in the drug trade.
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sent him to see his master mao the sicko
They said he's not dead. - yet anyway.
Everybody is after Master Dollar. You make me sick, "buchumlai".
Nice to hear success against terrorism and real drug trafficking at the same time. I wish the U.S. would hurry up and legalize marijuana so we can focus on drugs like terrible addictive drugs like crack, cocaine, and heroine.
Always has to become about the US, doesn't it? I have a feeling your wanting it legalized is more about you getting pot easier. Sound like you're Jonesing a little bit.
Pursuing marijuana is a complete waste of taxpayer money. It is the equivalent of going after people that smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol. It should be treated in a similar manner to both of those other drugs. Legalize it, regulate it and tax it. Move it under the jurisdiction of the ATF. Clear up the backlog of cases in the criminal and civil courts. Let those out of jail and prison that do not pose a threat to their communities.
Stop wasting money on public defenders, district attorneys, judges and juries. Stop filling up county jails and state and federal prisons. Stop growing the prison population and requiring more prison guards. Stop wasting money housing and feeding people for possession of marijuana. If people are illegally selling it under a regulated market then those individuals should be prosecuted.
The tax revenues for the sale of marijuana should be put into a fund that cannot be robbed by politicians. Use the funds to pay for drug education programs in middle school or at the appropriate age based on research showing when children are first using controlled or illegal drugs. The goal of the program should discourage use by providing accurate information. Use the tax revenue to pay for recovery programs for people addicted to drugs. Finally the funds should be used to help cover the cost of medical bills related to illegal dug use.
Legalizing marijuana would also free up hundreds to thousands of DEA agents that would no longer have to pursue marijuana related federal laws. One option is to shrink the size of the agency and decrease the deficit. Another option is to have a portion of the DEA agents pursue other drugs and re-train the remaining agents to investigate medicare fraud. Other then the cost of re-training, it would be budget neutral as no additional workers would be added to the government roles.
Not only would there be a new tax revenue, but there would also be the potential to free up government assets to pursue other illegal actions that result in waste and abuse in the medicare and medicaid programs. So it would be a double windfall. Tax revenue and medicare fraud reduction.
Put it into a fund that cannot be robbed by politicians. You mean like the tobacco settlement?HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Well, I do live in the U.S. So, the topic does tend to come up once in a while. And no, I don't smoke pot. I don't smoke anything. I don't drink. I also am devastated by the endless stream of deaths in the war on drugs. If people want to smoke it, they're going to smoke it. I'd rather them get it legally and work to cut off demand on the black market in the same way it was cut off when the U.S. reversed the prohibition.
I'll never be able to get out of my head the footage of a state trooper who was killed by a car full of guys from Mexico because they had it packed with marijuana.
This all goes back to the original story which is about a terrorist organization that gets its funding by trafficking drugs here - to the U.S., which is why I mentioned the U.S.
This is good news for Peru. But he is only one man. And in a lot of narco-terrorist organizations like Shining Path there will be loads of thugs eager to take his place. Please Peru, keep the pressure on.
Let the Arab League solve Arab problems. Tell the Russians and the Chinese and the Persians to stay the he-- out and let the folks who live THERE solve their own problems. The Chinese and Russians have already rejected world help. The Sauds, Kuwaitis, Emirates and Yemenis have a lot more at stake than we do. Give our Navy a free fire zone to ensure freedom of the seas and keep this one isolated. This may be a WONDERFUL opportunity for the new government of Iraq to help somebody. Let'em get it done!
William? Wrong article, I think.
Another terrorist group funded by American drug addicts. Why don't they just all overdose once and for all, they don't like life anyway, nor deserve it.
Score another victory for the United States pharmaceutical companies!