The New Shining Path
We look at the reinvention of a Maoist guerrilla group and narcotics trade in Peru.
According to the United Nations, Peru now leads its neighbours, Colombia and Bolivia, as the world’s leading producer of coca leaf, the source plant for cocaine.
Peru’s government disputes this assertion but admits that production is increasing despite the best efforts of law enforcement.
It blames the rise in part on the protection given to coca growers by remnants of the Maoist Shining Path insurgency, which fought a brutal war against capitalism in Peru during the 1980s and 1990s.
Most of the leadership of that insurgency have long since been captured and are now serving lengthy prison terms, but deep in Peru’s remote forests leftover elements of the Shining Path are carrying on the fight.
Filmmaker Fernando Lucena has been investigating the claim that they have also become hired guns for the narcotics trade.
This episode of People & Power can be seen from Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at the following times GMT: Wednesday: 0600, 1230; Thursday: 0130, 1400, 1930; Friday: 0630, 1630; Saturday: 0330, 2030; Sunday: 0030, 0530; Monday: 0830.