Soldiers Capture Rebel Commander

Hungry and limping from an old bullet wound, the top commander of Peru’s Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, guerrilla movement was snared by army commandos after a two-week pursuit through rugged mountains and jungle. Soldiers captured the elusive Oscar Ramirez Durand, 46, at dawn Wednesday with three female rebels near the highland city of Huancayo, 125 miles east of Lima, the capital. Ramirez Durand, also known as “Comrade Feliciano,” was the last national leader of the Maoist Shining Path insurgency still at large. “This is the beginning of the end for Shining Path,” President Alberto Fujimori said. “The capture means Shining Path is beheaded. There are still small, remnant groups, but it no longer has the ability to organize attacks like before.” More than 30,000 people, including soldiers, rebels and noncombatants, have died in political violence in Peru since Shining Path took up arms in 1980. But in recent years, the death toll has dropped to a few hundred a year.