The Centre of Labour Advice of Peru (Centro de Asesoría Laboral) provided the DIRB with recent Peruvian newspaper articles that provide the following information, which adds to that contained in Responses to Information Requests PER21214.E of 26 July 1995 and PER21216.E of 27 July 1995.

The first document is an article from the daily La República (14 Aug. 1995), which provides the information that follows.

The National Directorate Against Terrorism (DINCOTE) states that Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) has reorganized. The group is reportedly preparing for its "Second National Congress," where the new leaders would be "legitimized" (legitimar a los dirigentes). Intelligence sources indicated that the group's new plan reverts to the strategy applied by the Shining Path in the phase it called "beginning of the armed struggle" (Inicio de la Lucha Armada, ILA) or "first great plan of developing the popular war" (Primer Gran Plan de Desarrollar la Guerra Popular).

The strategy is described as an "invisible war" (guerra invisible) centred on "work with the masses" (trabajo de masas), which includes proselytization, indoctrination and recruitment of combatants in the populated centres and areas where the group previously had an "intense and active presence" (presencia y actividad intensa). DINCOTE reportedly stated that the "work with the masses" gives priority to psychological and ideological warfare, and secures a presence in universities and impoverished urban settlements. In these places, Shining Path members would use front organizations (organismos de fachada) with the purpose of controlling the leadership of the universities' and settlements' "popular sectors" (sectores populares) to secure a support base in them.

The DINCOTE intelligence report states that the Shining Path has reactivated its intelligence apparatus by increasing infiltration, mostly in universities, neighbourhoods and security forces. The source names as known targets of infiltration the national (public) universities of La Cantuta, San Marcos and San Antonio Abad (in Cusco), the shanty towns or urban settlements (asentamientos humanos) of Laura Caller and Confraternidad, and the riding school of the army (Escuela de Equitación del Ejercito) in La Molina. The main goal of this infiltration is to determine an intended target's movements before planning an assassination.

The DINCOTE report also states that the Shining Path has reorganized its forces in the Metropolitan Regional Committee (which covers the city of Lima), the Huallaga Regional Committee (covering coca-producing areas where the group has increased its activity fourfold), the North Regional Committee (covering mostly the departments of Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad and Ancash) and the Principal Regional Committee (in Ayacucho, Apurimac and Huancavelica, with most of its activity in the latter department).

Finally, the La Republica article states that a previous DINCOTE intelligence report of July 1994 indicated that the new leadership or Central Committee of the Shining Path consisted of hard-core, highly-committed, recalcitrant militants ("cuadros" militantes de alta preparación ideológica y política recalcitrantes). DINCOTE's warning that these militants would likely opt for a violent approach to the "popular war" were apparently confirmed by the group's recent actions, which included a car-bomb in the Lima district of Miraflores, the bombing of congressman Joy Way's house, the takeover of the town of Tocache in the Huallaga valley and the killing of nine policemen in Huancavelica (ibid.).

An article from the daily El Mundo (10 July 1995) provides the following information.

The beginning of an offensive among union and neighbourhood organizations by the dissident branch of the Shining Path was exposed with the recent murder of Pedro Díaz Maldonado, leader of a union in the Central Highway (Carretera Central refers to the highway that stems eastward from Lima to the mountains, and the industrial and urban settlements surrounding on in the outskirts of Lima).

According to reports seized by DINCOTE, the so-called "Leftist Liquidation Line" (Linea Liquidacionista de Izquierda, LLI) is once again operating with unions and urban settlements in the district of Ate-Vitarte. Its activities include the selective assassination of those who oppose the group. The police have learned of a distribution of Shining Path cadres (cuadros) in factories and impoverished neighbourhoods along the Central Highway. A resurgence of Shining Path activism has been detected in unions of the textile, paper, metal and brick industries. Some of their unions have been "surrounded" (cercados) by groups that carry out recruitment and harrassment.

The Shining Path presence in the Central Highway area had been quite weakened since 1993, and the few groups that the antiterrorist police had under surveillance seemed to favour the line adopted by the founder of the group who publicly supported a government peace proposal. However, since early 1995 the police have detected the return of cadres that were believed to be dead or outside the country. These cadres have begun a silent but effective work (un trabajo silencioso, pero efectivo).

Testimonies of workers and inhabitants of the area's settlements confirm that the Shining Path is reactivating in the "urban and industrial belt" of the Central Highway. The group reportedly has the assistance of labour lawyers who advise the unions on labour issues, and who at the same time try to recruit the most active union leaders.

Persons familiar with the subject told El Mundo that the Shining Path faction led by "comrade Feliciano" intends to establish so-called "popular schools" (for a description of the Shining Path's "popular schools," please see Response to Information Request PER9827 of 13 December 1991). The police have already discovered three such "popular schools" around the Central Highway.

The problem seems to be arising in the settlements of Raucana, Amauta, Fundo Barberillo, and Horacio Zevallos, where the feeling of conflict and intimidation of years past seems to be reappearing. Until early 1993, Shining Path members flaunted their presence and influence in the area by painting graffitti on the walls of settlements, schools and medical posts, as well as by distributing their fliers and literature, sometimes openly. Now their tactics have changed: walls are not painted and fliers are not distributed; rather, banners are sporadically placed on hills and very brief marches are held in the middle of the night.

Labour and neighbourhood leaders have expressed their concern about the renewed signs of Shining Path presence in the Central Highway area, fearing also that the murder of Pedro Diaz Maldonado might signal a new wave of attacks.

In the district of San Juan de Lurigancho, the largest and most populated of Lima, and its area of Canto Grande, the Shining Path seems to have chosen the educational system to establish its presence. Leadership elections for the district's teachers' union (SUTEP local) were won in June 1995 by an allegedly pro-Shining Path list of teachers who had convened an alliance with Pucallacta sympathizers. Police and other sources say that many teaching positions in the district's public schools are now occupied by pro-Shining Path elements. Officials of the local Unit of Educational Services (Unidad de Servicios Educativos) were recently threatened in an attempt to force them into hiring certain applicants.

National Intelligence Service (Servicio Nacional de Inteligencia, SIN) reports estimated (at the time of the article's publication) that the "military force" of the Shining Path in Lima totalled sixty men who had fighting experience, plus light weaponry and explosives. The men would have been sent by the Huallaga Regional Committee.

The source is aware of two special detachments known as "mobile network" (red móvil). At the time of the report (July 1995), one of the detachments, covering the areas of the Central Highway and El Agustino, was led by Abdón Cruzat Cárdenas, regarded as the most experienced fighting cadre in Lima. The other detachment, which covers the Southern Cone (Cono Sur) of the city and the district of Villa El Salvador in particular, with a detachment in San Juan de Miraflores, was led by Carlos Hidalgo Marchand. Both leaders, under the command of Jenny Rodriguez Neyra (aka) "Rita," had relatives who figure prominently in the Shining Path.

The Shining Path appears to have changed its modus operandi: the tasks of targeting and surveillance (reglaje), planning, execution and containment (contención, which could include backup and cover), are performed by different groups that do not know each other. This has been established to prevent any detained members from providing information that could damage the organization. The targeting and surveillance is carried out by the Department of Organizational Support (Departamento de Apoyo Organizativo, DAO), a branch of the Neighbourhood Class Movement (Movimiento Clasista Barrial, MCB) and the Workers and Labourers Movement (Movimiento de Obreros y Trabajadores, MOT). The latter two are spinoffs of the Shining Path's Socorro Popular support organization (referred to in previous Responses to Information Requests).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB 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.

El Mundo [Lima]. 10 July 1995. José Luis Reyna. "Sendero Quiere Seguir Matando Dirigentes Sindicales en Lima."

La República [Lima]. 14 August 1995. "Dincote Admite Reorganización de Sendero."