Shining Path Faction Leader Artemio Is Captured in Peru

The captured leader, Florindo Eleuterio Flores Hala, who is known as Comrade Artemio, was found hiding in a hut in Puerto Pizana, a small village in the rain forest of north-central Peru. He was captured without resistance in a joint operation by the Peruvian police and armed forces, officials said.

Mr. Flores was wounded in a shooting on Thursday, although the details have not been made clear. He fled after being wounded, only to be captured Sunday.

Officials in Peru said that Mr. Flores was flown to the capital, Lima, and was undergoing surgery Sunday night at a police hospital.

“We have eliminated the head of this terrorist movement,” Mr. Humala said during a televised news conference from the region where Mr. Flores was captured.

Mr. Flores is believed to be a member of the inner circle of Abimael Guzmán, the founder of the Shining Path, who has been in prison in Peru since 1992.

Terrorism and narcotics experts say there are two factions left of the Shining Path, the largest guerrilla group involved in a bloody war that left about 70,000 Peruvians dead in the 1980s and 1990s. The factions were formed after the main body of the group was defeated, and they have relied on drug trafficking to generate revenue and to continue terrorist attacks aimed at the police, the military and drug eradication efforts.

Mr. Flores ran the faction in an area known as the Huallaga, Peru’s second-largest coca producing region.

Peruvian authorities said his group was responsible for more than 500 terrorist attacks and 1,000 deaths of police officers and civilians in the last 25 years.

Estimates of the number of his group’s members who remain active range from about a dozen to 100.

The other major faction of the Shining Path operates in a region of east-central Peru near Ayacucho. That group is believed to have 500 members.

Andrea Zarate contributed reporting from Lima, Peru.

View the original article here