Peru Ex-Defense Chief Slain by Maoist Rebels

Sendero Luminoso rebels shot and killed a former defense minister Tuesday morning in a shopping center parking lot, the most prominent person slain in 10 years of guerrilla war in Peru, officials said.

Enrique Lopez, shot at close range as he was parking his car in the Lima suburb of San Isidro, was the first person who had reached Cabinet level to be killed in the escalating guerrilla violence that has claimed the lives of hundreds of federal and local officials.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, who asked not to be identified, said four men with submachine guns fired at least 10 bullets into Lopez at 10 a.m., two miles south of downtown Lima. He said Lopez was alone in the vehicle.

Lopez, rushed to a nearby military hospital, died in surgery, officials said.

Lopez was named Peru’s first defense minister by President Alan Garcia, taking office in 1987 when the ministry was formed. He had served as minister of the army until the armed forces were joined under one ministry that year.

He was replaced last May by army Gen. Julio Velasquez.

Officials blamed the attack on the fanatical Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), a radical Maoist terrorist group that has been fighting to topple Peru’s elected governments since 1980.