Followers of jailed Shining Path leader want to participate in regional elections in Peru
By APMonday, June 21, 2010
Jailed rebel’s followers seek to be in Peru vote
LIMA, Peru — Followers of jailed Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman said Monday they want to participate in regional and municipal elections scheduled for October.
A Cabinet minister said the government would try to block the group’s plans.
Manuel Fajardo, secretary general of the Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights, which is linked to the Maoist guerrillas of Shining Path, said it will back candidates for the regional presidency of Ayacucho and for mayorships in the highland province.
The group has formed an alliance with a nationalist movement of former military reservists led by Antauro Humala, a jailed former army major who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a 2005 failed takeover of a police station that killed four officers.
Fajardo told The Associated Press by telephone his movement will participate in the elections at the invitation of Humala’s party.
The alliance’s candidate for Ayacucho’s leadership will be Walter Humala, cousin of Antauro and Ollanta Humala, the losing presidential candidate in 2006 elections.
Fajardo said his party’s main platform is a general amnesty for combatants in Peru’s internal war, not just Guzman and jailed rebels, but also for former President Alberto Fujimori, Antauro Humala and soldiers linked to human rights abuses.
From jail, Guzman has urged his supporters to join Peru’s political process after prison.
The government rejected the possibility of the Shining Path participating in elections when Fajardo first spoke of their intentions last year.
Justice Minister Victor Garcia said Monday that his office would present a legal initiative to block the registration of violent or terrorist organizations as political parties.
Peru’s war with Maoist guerrillas killed almost 70,000 people between 1980 and 2000, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The violence waned following Guzman’s capture in 1992, but isolated guerrilla bands are growing with the drug trade.
