A complete listing of attacks or armed actions by the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) in Huancayo from 1992 to 1998 could not be found or compiled within the time constraints of this Response. However, in addition to the references provided in previous Responses such as PER21216.E of 27 July 1995 ("Information on whether Sendero Luminoso is currently active outside Lima and jungle regions") and PER21983.E of 6 October 1995 ("Information on the areas under a state of emergency in 1995"), the following information provides some instances of reported Shining Path action. Please note that some of the reports refer to towns or areas in the province of Huancayo, which also includes the city of Huancayo, a provincial and departmental capital.

A publication of the United States Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS), citing 1993 reports on abuses committed by the Shining Path, states that "in 1992, guerrillas murdered ... Verónica Pérez de Mantari, president of a neighbourhood group in Chilca, Huancayo"(Peru Profile June 1995).

The United States Department of State reported that "police arrests helped disrupt Sendero's terrorist plans for the national elections in April 1995," adding that "in a major coordinated operation, counterterrorist police arrested approximately 20 members of Sendero Luminoso in the cities of Lima, Callao, Huancayo, and Arequipa"(Patterns of Global Terrorism 1996).

In 1996 a publication that openly supports the Shining Path reported on the group's alleged actions on or around the date of the 1995 elections, stating that "in Piura (Huancabamba) and Huancayo there was a blackout and then an immense explosion in a military barracks" (Revolutionary Worker 13 May 1996).

Another issue of the same publication stated that, according to press reports, on 29 April 1996 "six soldiers and four ronderos are killed in a clash [with the Shining Path] near Huancayo, Junín department" (ibid. 16 June 1996).

The journal Ideele reported that in 1996 the Shining Path killed a policeman in Tambo, Huancayo, one of at least 39 Shining Path actions (acciones) reported for the Department of Junín that year (Dec. 1996, 88, 92).

In July 1999, AFP reported that a military operation in the Huancayo region was underway, against two Shining Path columns led by Oscar Ramirez Durand, also known as "Feliciano" (13 July 1999). Additional reports on the subsequent pursuit and arrest of Feliciano can be obtained at Regional Documentation Centres.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Agence France Presse (AFP). 13 July 1999. "Opération péruvienne contre l'infiltration de la guerrilla colombienne." (NEXIS)

Ideele [Lima]. December 1996. No. 93-94. "¿Dónde ha habido más acciones de Sendero en 1996?" and "Zona Selva."

Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS), Washington, DC. June 1995. Peru Profile. (REFWORLD)

Patterns of Global Terrorism 1995. April 1996. "Peru." Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State. http://www.usis.usemb.se/terror/rpt1995/TERLAT.HTM#Peru [Accessed 3 Sept. 1999]

Revolutionary Worker [Chicago]. 13 May 1996. "Peru: Electoral Farce Played Out in the Midst of the Intense Boycott of the PCP." http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp/misc/election.htm [Accessed 3 Sept. 1999]

_____. 16 June 1996. "News From the People's War in Peru." http://csrp.org/rw/rw861.htm [Accessed 3 Sept. 1999]