PERUVIAN troops have captured the badly maimed leader of a remnant of the once-powerful Shining Path rebel group that lives off the cocaine trade, the defence minister says."His right arm is practically lost and at the moment he's receiving medical attention," Defence Minister Alberto Otarola has said in a TV interview.
He provided few other details, including when the rebel, Comrade Artemio, was found.
President Ollanta Humala said in a radio interview that he was headed to the Upper Huallaga Valley, the remote coca-growing region where authorities said Comrade Artemio was maimed early Thursday.
The 50-year-old Artemio commanded about 150 rebels, and the circumstances of his wounding remain unclear.
Mr Otalora said on Friday that it was in combat with government forces in the village of Puerto Pizana, but local journalists have reported that at least one of his own men may have turned on him.
| Fortunately for the defence minister's honour, the second does not preclude the first. |
She said that after he was treated, subordinates took him down the Mishoyo river, a tributary of the Huallaga.
The United States had offered a $US5 million reward for information leading to his arrest. Such rewards have proven highly effective in neighbouring Colombia in persuading some rebels to turn against their leaders.
Comrade Artemio's group represents about half of what remains of the Shining Path, which killed thousands during the 1980s and 1990s. The other, also involved in the drug trade, is centred further south.
Comrade Artemio, whose given name is Florindo "Jose" Flores, told visiting journalists in December that his cause was lost and he was seeking a truce with the government.
| It seems, however, that the government insisted on total surrender. Oh well. |
He said the only way to change the capitalist system was through a socialist government, "but at this moment that is not possible".
Peru is the world's No. 2 producer after Colombia of coca, the basis for cocaine, although the US Drug Enforcement Administration says it has now surpassed its Andean neighbour in potential cocaine production.
DEA officials say that's because comparatively little coca crop eradication occurs in Peru, where plantations tend to be more mature and higher-yieldling.