In addition to the information attached, please refer to Responses to Information Requests PER2217 and COL2418 for reports on possible links between the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and Colombian rebels. Various previous responses on the Shining Path quote cooperation between drug traffickers and rebels in the coca-producing Upper Huallaga valley which may include arms smuggling (as explained in previous responses, the term "narcoterrorist" is related to this cooperation and the involvement of both traffickers and rebels in terrorist acts). Although the drug traffickers involved may include Colombians, the reports quoted in the previous responses do not indicate cooperation in armed actions outside Peru.

Response to Information Request No. PER5824 contains a reference to the assassination of a Peruvian navy captain in Bolivia by the Shining Path in late-1988. Response to Information Request BOL8748 contains information on alleged links between the Shining Path and the Bolivian rebel group "Z rate Willca." Additional information on armed actions by the Shining Path outside Peru could not be found among the sources currently available to the IRBDC. For other Shining Path activities outside Peru, please find attached a document which constitutes the most detailed report currently available to the IRBDC on the subject (see list of attachments). The eight-page article in Spanish, published in the Peruvian weekly newsmagazine Caretas of 15 April 1991, lists with detail a number of individuals and organizations affiliated or cooperating with the Shining Path, indicating the countries in which they operate.

The countries mentioned in the report include France, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Mexico, the United States and Bolivia. The report adds that many of the organizations have a small but vocal constituency that includes students on scholarships and people who were granted refuge by governments (Caretas 15 Apr. 1991, 95). The article indicates that one member of a group based in Mexico visited Canada and the United States in 1988 making speeches, selling souvenirs and organizing fund-raising rallies and meetings (Ibid., 94). A later visit to Canada by Luis Arce Borja (a person allegedly linked to the Shining Path, also mentioned in the attached report) which included public speeches was reported in various Canadian newspapers. Copies of the pertinent reports can be sought upon further request.

One report states that "evidence has been found to suggest a link between Sendero Luminoso and insurgent movements in Bolivia," adding that the Shining Path has penetrated northern Argentina (Tarazona-Sevilla 1990, 134-135). The source adds:
[The Shining Path] staged a meeting in Tucum n in April 1989, as announced by the secretary of the Argentinean National Security Council. It is believed that Sendero seeks to control the Corredor Salteño-Jujeño, a territory connecting Argentina with the Bolivian Chaco (in Salta, the departments of General San Martín and Or n; in Jujuy, the departments of Ledesma and Santa B rbara). According to its doctrine, Sendero Luminoso may also be seeking to expand north into Ecuador (Ibid., 135).

Additional and/or corroborating information on the requested subject could not be found among the sources currently available to the IRBDC.

Caretas [Lima]. 15 April 1991. "Sendero en Cinco Continentes: La Conexión Internacional."

Tarazona-Sevilla, Gabriela and John B. Reuter. 1990. Sendero Luminoso and the Threat of Narcoterrorism. Washington, D.C./New York: The Center for Strategic and International Studies and Praeger Publishers.

Caretas [Lima]. 15 April 1991. "Sendero en Cinco Continentes: La Conexión Internacional."