The head of the Directorate against Terrorism (Dircote), José Zalava, details how Shining Path operates in Ayacucho through a regional committee, whose members were arrested on January 12. One of them is Rocío Leandro, comrade Cusi, but, according to Zavala, she is only the bishop of a network commanded from prison by the terrorist Elena Iparraguirre.
How did they come to identify the regional committee of SL in Ayacucho?
We have been working for six months, intelligence actions were carried out under the leadership of the Prosecutor’s Office and it was possible to find elements valued by the judge who issued preliminary detention; The work we have done is the analysis of all the information extracted from the seized mobile devices, which has allowed us to establish that the people captured belong to this regional committee.
At first it was reported that those investigated were part of the New Red Fraction of SL; the visible face was Comrade Cusi. Now we are talking about the regional committee, what difference is there?
We have two factions: the New Fraction, which is this group of detainees, and the militarized Communist Party of Peru Shining Path, which is in Vraem. The Red Fraction group is aimed at attracting the masses, influencing people’s minds, especially students, to gain followers; They have an organization established and regulated by their historical documentation: they have a political command, a military command, a first member, a press and propaganda officer, and members of the Popular Guerrilla Army.
How did they establish that Alex Gómez was at the head of the Ayacucho regional committee?
After the capture (on January 12) abundant information was obtained from the mobile equipment and electronic devices that they stored. In the case of Alex, the national plan of how SL should act was found, that plan is conditioned for Ayacucho and other smaller ones stem from that plan. Each is assigned a task, a tactical operational plan.
You reported that, from prison, the terrorist Elena Iparraguirre issues directives to the regional committee, what evidence do you have of this?
The Ayacucho committee feeds on what is available from the historical central committee of SL. In the public hearing on March 17, 2022 (Perseo case), Elena Iparraguirre, comrade Miriam, showed a sign before the cameras that read “No to impunity for the murder of Dr. Abimael Guzmán”, for the common people can be a personal claim; However, on September 8 of the same year, two members of the regional committee were detected taking measurements at a whereabouts in Ayacucho, and on September 11, one year after Guzmán’s death, a banner appeared with the exact measurements of the poster shown by Iparraguirre, placed in the same place with the message that ‘Miriam’ wrote; that relates them directly to the historical committee of SL.
Did the Ayacucho committee coordinate marches in other regions?
We have detected communications with Puno, Arequipa, Ica, troubled areas; there are WhatsApp groups called “Cantuta”, “Barrio Chino”, “Coordinadora de la Nueva Constitución” where only these issues are discussed; we are able to say that they coordinated with their similar terrorist groups in different areas of the country (…) Many people who go out into the streets to make a valid claim are sticking to a Senderista discourse, and suddenly they don’t know it. If we go back to the year 2000, Abimael Guzmán was the first to propose changing the Constitution.
But asking for a new Constitution is not a terrorist idea. How do you make the distinction with the request of a common citizen?
It’s okay, anyone can request a change to the Constitution, to the Penal Code, there may be people against it, who don’t like it or think it’s wrong; but what I am saying is that this starts from the year 2000, when it was raised by the Shining Path through Guzmán.
In what other places in Peru does SL have a presence?
Sendero is present throughout the country through these organizations generated as the Movadef, more linked to the field of education. With this I am not saying that all teachers are terrorists, but there are teachers who were recruited.
There are people who point to Dircote as a “terruqueadora” because it only appears in marches and they criticize them because they have been persecuting SL for 30 years and they do not reduce it.
Dircote has never lowered its arms, in the 90s we defeated SL, we dismantled its criminal organization by 90% (…) that these people, after having been imprisoned, have been released due to legal arguments, it is no longer Dircote’s fault .
Keep in mind
-José Zavala maintained that Sendero Luminoso continues to apply the strategy of recruiting young people to propagate its terrorist ideology.
-“This is a job that SL has always practiced, they start at universities with young people who arouse hatred towards social classes, parents must be careful where their children study and what literature they consume”, he said.
-The PNP general also said that in order to combat SL, the State must carry out a more integrated work to make clear to the population the risk that this terrorist organization represents.
