Andean Group - December 2007 (ISSN 1741 4466)
PERU: Military strikes Sendero
The military registered a notable success against the remnants of Sendero Luminoso on 27 November by taking out Mario Epifanio Espíritu Acosta, the commander of one of the two remaining active units in the guerrilla outfit. The military intensified its actions against Sendero after a gang of some 50 armed men obliterated a police station in Ocobamba, Apurímac, with rocket-propelled grenades on 1 November. The commanding officer, Héctor Zegarra Bernaola, was killed in the attack and the other three officers on duty were seriously injured. Initially the government blamed "narcoterrorists"; it has since included Sendero within that term.
The military operation which led to the apprehension of Espíritu Acosta - also known as JL - took place in the Huallaga jungle. Eight other guerrillas and an assortment of weapons were also captured. No soldiers were injured. The interior minister, Luis Alva Castro, underlined that Sendero is in league with drug-traffickers and was behind the Ocobamba raid, as well as the subsequent killing of four policemen in an ambush (see sidebar).
Ocobamba was the most audacious attack since Sendero kidnapped 71 employees of Argentina's company Techint in June 2003. The area is situated on a drug transit route out of the Apurímac-Ene valley (known by its Spanish acronym, VRAE). Indeed, the local police seized 82kg of cocaine base paste (CBP) there on 18 October.
The authorities argue that SL mounted the Ocobamba raid in response to recent police successes against the drug trade: according to the defence ministry, nine "narcoterrorists" carrying CBP were killed in two clashes with the police in the two weeks prior to the attack.
In an interview with the national daily La República, Rómulo Pizarro, head of the anti-drug agency Devida, warned that there could be further similar attacks at Ocobamba. The government has frequently accused Sendero of acting in concert with or on behalf of drug traffickers.
- Tackling the gangs
The interior minister, Luis Alva Castro, said that by the end of 2007 a new 300-strong special unit to combat narcoterrorism would be deployed to Ocobamba and Andahuaylas, the scene of serious social unrest in recent years. He said that this would complement the special operations branch of the police, Diroes.