Peru to Probe Violence That Killed 30,000 in ‘80s
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LIMA, Peru — Peru will establish a truth commission to investigate human rights abuses committed by leftist rebels and government security forces in the 1980s and early ‘90s, the justice minister has said.
The commission will aim to clarify the causes of the political violence that left 30,000 people dead and at least 4,000 missing, Justice Minister Diego Garcia Sayan told reporters Friday.
The Maoist-inspired Shining Path insurgency terrorized Peru for much of the ‘80s and early ‘90s, planting car bombs in Lima, assassinating politicians in the countryside and regularly blowing up electric pylons, plunging the capital into darkness.
Peru’s military and the Shining Path guerrillas had regularly attacked rural communities that were seen as sympathetic to the other side.
Rebel violence dropped off dramatically in 1992 after the capture of Shining Path founder and leader Abimael Guzman.
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