Article

2005-12-22 Caribbean-Latin America

Peru's president declared a state of emergency in six jungle provinces and promised to stamp out the nation's remaining Shining Path guerrillas after suspected rebels killed eight police officers in an ambush. 'They will pay. My government is prepared to provide everything that our police and our armed forces need professionally,' President Alejandro Toledo said Wednesday in a speech at a police barracks in Lima. 'The eight officers fell at the cowardly hands of terrorists who today are in the service of drug trafficking.'

Later, Toledo decreed a two-month state of emergency in six coca-producing provinces in the central jungle and said his Cabinet had also approved the creation of an emergency commission to bring urgently needed social development to the area. Under Peruvian law, a state of emergency suspends civil rights, such as the right to assembly, and gives police and the military sweeping powers to enter homes and conduct searches.

'This supreme decree will allow the armed forces and the police to jointly enter and take action in this zone for 60 days,' Toledo said in an address aired on state-run television. The goal, he said, was to provide 'a greater state presence, within the law, respecting human rights.'

The attack by an estimated 20 guerrillas happened Tuesday on an isolated jungle highway near the town of Aucayacu in Leoncio Prado province, 225 miles northeast of the capital, authorities said. Leoncio Prado province is one of those included in the state of emergency. Toledo's government says cocaine traffickers have established ties with remnants of the Maoist insurgency to thwart Peru's programs to eradicate coca, the raw material for cocaine.

The Shining Path almost brought Peru's government to its knees in the 1980s and early 1990s with a campaign of massacres, political assassinations, bombings and sabotage. But the group faded dramatically after the 1992 capture of its founder, Abimael Guzman.

Posted by Steve 2005-12-22 08:56|| || Front Page|| [6 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 'They will pay.'

I like this Peruan dude. ;-)

Posted by twobyfour 2005-12-22 09:27|| 2005-12-22 09:27|| Front Page Top

#2 A girlfriend of mine who grew up a member of the Lima oligarchy told of returning home in the mid-90s for a visit, and being at a party where half the guests were not introduced because they were bodyguards. The thing that struck me was that the guards were at the party with their protectees (can someone give me the correct word for that? Thanks!) and not hanging out down in the kitchen being fed by Cook until their responsibilities were ready to be escorted home again. My girlfriend was struck by how much she preferred the freedom of the civilized world, even if she did have to do her own housekeeping. ;-)

Posted by trailing wife 2005-12-22 22:40|| 2005-12-22 22:40|| Front Page Top

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