Political Violence Escalates in Peru

An average of 18 people a day died in political violence in Peru in June in one of the most violent months in 11 years of guerrilla war, a Senate commission said Friday.

Five hundred and forty people, including 149 civilians and 29 members of the armed forces, died in political violence related mostly to attacks by Peru’s two guerrilla groups or at the hands of counterinsurgency forces, said a report by the special commission on violence.

Nationwide, guerrillas carried out 191 attacks, about half of which took place in Lima, the capital. Of the total, 148 were carried out by Maoist Shining Path guerrillas and the rest by the pro-Cuban Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, the report said.