Peru s Shining Path rebel group kills 16 ahead of presidential elections, says military
By Jimena De la Quintana and Claudia Rebaza, CNN
Updated 6:07 PM ET, Tue May 25, 2021 (CNN)Peruvian authorities say members of the Shining Path rebel group have killed 16 people, including two children, in a poverty-stricken, coca-growing region southeast of the capital, Lima.
According to a statement released by Peru s Armed Forces on Monday, the group carried out the killings in a region known as VRAEM (Valle de los Rios Apurimac, Ene y Mantaro) on the night of May 23, burning some of the victim s bodies. This type of action [massacre] is called by the terrorist organization as social cleansing and was carried out with firearms, the military statement said.
First Posted: May 24, 2021 08:51 PM EDT
Peru s military confirmed at least 14 deaths in the massacre that took place in a remote region of the country, weeks before the upcoming polls of presidential elections. Al Jazeera reported that the massacre took the lives of 14 people on Sunday, including two children.
Peru s military blamed the group Shining Path for being responsible for the killings which they label as an act of genocide. However, the Military also reassured Peruvians of a secure electoral process in the coming weeks. The military furthered that the group responsible for the killings labeled such acts to be social cleansing.
At least 14 people, including two children, have been killed in a remote region of Peru known for coca production, the military said on Monday, less than two weeks before voters head to the polls for a presidential runoff.
Peru’s police chief, César Cervantes, told local television channel N that at least 18 people were killed, while the military said in a statement there were 14 victims.
“I strongly condemn the murders of these 14 people,” interim Peruvian President Francisco Sagasti tweeted on Monday, saying that he had ordered army and police patrols in the area “so that this terrorist act will not go unpunished”.
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LIMA Socialist candidate Pedro Castillo continued to regain ground among voters, a poll showed on Sunday, boosting his lead over conservative contender Keiko Fujimori two weeks ahead of Peru’s presidential election.
Castillo, an elementary school teacher seeking to implement new taxes and royalties on the mining sector, obtained 44.8% support in the survey of the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP), while Fujimori, a business-friendly conservative, netted 34.4%.
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The poll of 1,208 people was conducted for Peru’s La Republica newspaper on May 20-21 and had a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - The far-left candidate Pedro Castillo has increased his lead to more than 10 points over the authoritarian right-wing Keiko Fujimori, his rival in the second round of the presidential elections to be held next June 6 in Peru, according to the latest poll released this Sunday.
According to the poll conducted by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP) and published by the newspaper La República, the candidate for Peru Libre managed to increase the distance between himself and Fujimori by obtaining 44.8% of the votes, 10 points more than the leader of . . .
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