In fight with Shining Path, Peru's President Humala takes a page from Colombia
(Read article summary)Peru's new president has vowed to take a hard line against the country’s Shining Path guerrillas, and appears to have modeled his strategy on Colombia's counterinsurgency successes.
Within days of taking office, Peru's President Ollanta Humala called on the country’s armed forces to step up efforts against the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso). In an Aug. 3 speech to commanders of the Peruvian Armed Forces, Army, Navy, Air Force, and National Police, the president called for a radical shift in strategy in the fight against the rebel group. He singled out the embattled Apruimac and Ene Valley region (VRAE), which is the major hotspot of rebel activity in Peru.
President Humala, himself a former army major, had stern words for the military leadership. "Security starts with the results. The country will feel safe if its armed forces manage to defeat the enemy. But what we see now is that the enemy is in the same place as always, striking any time it wants. That must end," Mr. Humala told the commanders. He then said he would provide military forces in the VRAE region with the resources they needed to finally rout the guerrillas, but that this would be conditional on results.
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