Peru Captures Key Shining Path Member

The Shining Path guerrilla movement’s second-in-command has been captured with 19 other rebels, President Alberto Fujimori said Thursday.

Police caught four key members of the organization’s central committee Wednesday, including Margie Clavo Peralta, second to leader Oscar Ramirez Durand, Fujimori said.

Ramirez, who remains free, took over the Maoist guerrilla group after the capture of its founder, Abimael Guzman, in September 1992.

Ramirez rejected Guzman’s call in 1993 for peace talks with the government, and now heads a hardline faction that carries out sporadic violence, mostly in rural areas.

The Shining Path has increased its attacks in recent weeks.