Shining Path Commander Killed

(Lima, Peru) During a weekend raid of a guerilla jungle stronghold, Shining Path leader Hector Aponte, aka Comrade Clay, was killed by Peruvian police. The Maoist rebel group has been decimated over recent years after the capture of its founder, Abimael Guzman, in 1992.

Although only a few hundred die-hard members remain active in the communist group, one has to assume that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has reached out to them for support in furthering his wider political goals in South America. Also, Shining Path is likely the template followed by Nepal's Maoist guerillas and continues to be listed as a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Shining Path was responsible for over half of an estimated 70,000 violent deaths in Peru.