Comrade Jose (Victor Quispe Palomino): Leader of Peru’s Shining Path
Comrade Jose (Victor Quispe Palomino): Leader of Peru’s Shining Path
Comrade Jose (a.k.a. Victor Quispe Palomino) is the leader of 350 to 500 guerillas in the faction of the Shining Path located in the River Apurimac and River Ene Valley (VRAE) of Peru (El Comercio, December 21, 2011). The leader of the Shining Path’s soon-to-be-defunct other faction, Comrade Artemio, was captured and nearly mortally wounded on February 12, 2012 after an informant revealed his coordinates to Peruvian security forces (Dialogo, February 16, 2012). Comrade Artemio’s faction of 150 fighters is based 1,000km north of the VRAE in the Upper Huallaga Valley. Compared to the 1980s when the Shining Path had 10,000 fighters operating in half of Peru’s 183 provinces, both current factions are only shells of the Shining Path’s former power.
Controlling the VRAE
Comrade Jose’s brother, Comrade Raul (Jorge Quispe Palomino), is second in command of the Shining Path in the VRAE, and third in command is Comrade Alipio (a.k.a. Orlando Borda Casafranca). All three are native to the VRAE, which encompasses 31 districts in the departments of Ayacucho, Cuzco, Huancavelica and Junin, and has a population of approximately 200,000 people, 80 percent of whom live in poverty. The VRAE is Peru’s top coca growing region with nearly 50,000 acres used for coca. According to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, Peru has the potential to produce 325 metric tons of pure cocaine per year, compared to 270 metric tons in Colombia, and nearly half of Peru’s coca cultivation takes place in the VRAE. [1] The guerillas in Comrade Jose’s area of responsibility protect the strategically important and inhospitable terrain around the town of Vizcatan. Drug traffickers who pass through Vizcatan pay Comrade Jose “war taxes” in the form of $30 per kilo of cocaine that they transport (El Comercio [Lima], February 6, 2011).
Comrade Jose’s faction is trying to win over the VRAE’s population by building “popular schools” to educate future senderistas, though human rights groups accuse him of indoctrinating child soldiers (Dialogo, July 1, 2011). According to a U.S. State Department cable from October 2009, “…[t]here is no doubt that the [Shining Path] has adopted a ‘kindlier, gentler’ approach towards the local population. In the VRAE, [the Shining Path] prefers to bribe peasants and local officials, rather than to terrorize them and even execute them, as they did in the past.” [2]
To keep the state out of the VRAE—and to avoid the fate of the now incarcerated Comrade Artemio—Comrade Jose’s fighters are sabotaging “Plan VRAE,” an adaptation of “Plan Colombia” in which the state intends to build up the infrastructure in the VRAE and support coca farmers with crop substitution programs. Since 2008, in the VRAE 60 Peruvian soldiers and contractors have been killed and nearly 25 government helicopters have been ambushed by the Shining Path, usually during takeoff or landing when helicopters are most vulnerable (Caretas September 22, 2011).
Plan VRAE also seems to have backfired, according to a Peruvian anti-terrorist official, because “Victor Quispe [Comrade Jose] used small coca farmers’ resistance to forced eradication of coca plantations in order to expand his power… The Senderistas ambush the armed forces and the police, and they tell the campesinos, ‘We defend your interests, we are the people’s army, we aren’t going to kill you.’ Apparently their strategy has changed, because when [Abimael] Guzman was the commander, they killed the campesinos who opposed the Senderistas (IPS News, May 9, 2008).”
While the state labels Comrade Jose’s faction as a “tool of drug traffickers with no ideology” and accuses him of exploiting the “Shining Path” brand to gain legitimacy (LA Herald Tribune, April 9, 2009) and Abimael Guzman and Comrade Artemio call Comrade’s fighters “mercenaries,” the Shining Path in the VRAE still clings to the Marxist and anti-imperialist message to recruit new members in the VRAE and as far as Bolivia. On August 1, 2011, for example, four Shining Path recruiters were arrested at a university in La Paz, Bolivia offering “apprenticeships” in Peru where students could receive training in weapons and explosives. The recruiters also handed out pamphlets that said, “Warning, say no to el gasolinazo! Expel Evo’s partners, the transnational companies in Bolivia. Long live Marxism, Leninism, Maoism” (Radiofides, August 1, 2011).
In addition, Comrade Jose’s brother, Comrade Raul, has written Andean folk music with Marxist lyrics, including a video posted on YouTube in 2009 titled “For Socialism” in which he sings:
Comrade Jose’s faction is most dangerous from a pan-American perspective because of the alliance his faction has built with the one of the most powerful drug cartels in the Americas—Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. Since January 2011, the Sinaloa Cartel has had representatives permanently based in the VRAE’s Chehua River zone where third-in-command Comrade Alipio’s column provides for their security (RPP Noticias, December 8, 2011). However, as Comrade Jose is the overall leader of the Shining Path in the VRAE, the United States offers a $5 million reward just for his capture (La Prensa [Washington], July 20, 2010). In January 2012, the United States also delivered to the Peru Minister of Defense more than $2 million worth of equipment to support Peruvian security forces’ counter narco-terrorism and illicit drug trafficking efforts principally in the VRAE. [4]
Shining Path by Birthright
Comrade Jose, born on August 1, 1960, and his brother, Comrade Raul, were destined to become senderistas. Their hometown, Chuschi, is where on the eve of Peru’s May 17, 1980 presidential election Shining Path guerillas carried out their first “act of war” by burning electoral ballot boxes in a public plaza and proclaiming their desire to overthrow the state. Comrade Jose’s parents’ hometown, Umaro, is the city that in 1980 Abimael Guzman (Comrade Gonzalo), the Shining Path’s founder, chose to be the base of the “Democratic People’s Republic of Peru” —the Peruvian equivalent of Mao Zedong’s Yan’an.
Comrade Jose’s father, Martin Quispe, was the Shining Path’s first commander in Umaro, and in 1980 he sent Victor, then 20-years old, and Jorge (Comrade Jose and Comrade Raul) to “popular schools” in order to receive the tactical and ideological training to become senderistas. Victor had been a student of anthropology at the National University of San Cristobal de Huamanga from April 1977 to December 1979, but his grades were consistently in the “C” and “D” range with his only high grade a “B” in Quecha—the Quispe family’s native language (La Republica, August 16, 2009). At the time when Victor was a student at the university, it was a breeding ground for Communist ideology. Years earlier, one of the university’s professors was Abimael Guzman, who taught philosophy with a distinct Marxist-Leninist-Maoist bend.
After two years as a “pioneer” in the “popular schools” from 1980 to 1982, Victor officially joined the People’s Communist Party of Peru (PCP)—the political name for the Shining Path—under the alias and nom de guerre “Jose.” His first operation was on August 7, 1982 when he accompanied his father on a mission to seize control of Umaro. His second operation was an attack on a police station in Vilcashuaman. On April 3, 1983 he earned the status of “military commander” when he took part in the “Lucanamarca massacre” in which Shining Path guerillas killed 69 villagers—including children, pregnant women and seniors—on direct orders from Abimael Guzman in order to avenge the killing of a Shining Path commander by ronderos, or government-supported peasant patrols, in Lucanamarca one month earlier (La Republica [Lima], August 16, 2009).
Break with the “Old” Shining Path
Although in an interview in 2009 Comrade Jose cited the Lucanamarca massacre as the point when he began to lose faith in Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman, he took part in Shining Path attacks on police stations in Sacsamarca in May 1983, in Cabana, Andamarca and Anucara in October 1983, and in Huancanascos in July 1984. [5] He also stayed with the Shining Path after Abimael Guzman was captured in 1992 and remained until July 14, 1999 when Comrade Feliciano (Oscar Ramirez Durand), the then commander of the Shining Path’s Central Regional Committee, was captured.
Comrade Jose’s faction officially considers the capture of Comrade Feliciano the new beginning for the Shining Path because, according to Comrade Jose’s 2009 interview, only then did the Shining Path in the VRAE break from the “old” leadership of Abimael Guzman. After 1999, the “old” PCP was led by Comrade Feliciano’s successor, Comrade Artemio, who kept the legitimacy of the Shining Path name because of his lineage to Abimael Guzman. Comrade Jose’s faction in the VRAE, however, has openly called for Abimael Guzman’s execution and called the “old” Shining Path sellouts because Abimael Guzman signed a truce with the government in 1993 and as recently as December 2011—two months before his capture—Comrade Artemio called for political negotiations with the government. The reason for Comrade Jose’s antagonism towards the “old” Shining Path may also be aimed at winning the support of the campesinos in the VRAE’s coca-growing region who blame Abimael Guzman and Comrade Feliciano for the deaths inflicted by the Shining Path between the 1980s and 1990s.
Conclusion
Comrade Jose was a Marxist who stayed loyal to the Shining Path from 1980 when he first entered the Shining Path’s “popular schools” until 1999 when Comrade Feliciano was captured. By 1999, the fight for a Marxist revolution had become futile and Comrade Jose turned to narco-trafficking. His denouncements of Abimael Guzman, Comrade Artemio and the “old” Shining Path may be genuine, but they are also part of a broader strategy to distance himself and the Shining Path in the VRAE from the “old” Shining Path’s “excesses” in the in 1980s and 1990s and win the hearts and minds of the people in the VRAE whose support Comrade Jose depends on today.
With his rival Comrade Artemio captured and the possible collapse of Comrade Artemio’s faction in the Upper Huallaga valley, Comrade Jose may seek to expand his faction’s area of operations from the VRAE to the Upper Huallaga valley and incorporate some of Comrade Artemio’s former fighters into his narco-trafficking enterprise. Comrade Jose would become Peru’s number one narco-trafficking boss and an increasingly major player in the regional drug-trafficking trade. At the same time, the Marxist ideology espoused by Comrade Jose and the Shining Path in the VRAE still has enough appeal in the Andes to win over new recruits from the villages in Peru and Bolivia and contribute to the overall strength of Comrade Jose’s forces.
Given the Shining Path in the VRAE’s connections to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, the inroads his faction has made within the Andean region, the retreat of the Peruvian army from certain zones in the VRAE due to successful Shining Path ambushes, and the demise of Comrade Artemio’s faction, it appears that Comrade Jose is a leader whose power is on the rise. Neither a pure narco-terrorist nor a pure senderista, Comrade Jose is something of a hybrid—a narco-senderista. His ability to run a militant drug trafficking enterprise while maintaining credibility as a Marxist presents a unique ideological and security threat for Peru, the Andean region and the Americas.
Notes
1. Statement for the record of Rodney G. Benson, Assistant Administrator Chief of Intelligence Drug Enforcement Administration, before the Senate Caucus on International Drug Control, “U.S.-Andean Security Cooperation,” October 19, 2011, https://drugcaucus.senate.gov/hearing-10-19-11/DEA%20testimony%20on%20U%20S%20–Andean%20Security%20Clean%2010-17-2011.pdf.
2. Viewing cable 09LIMA1620, PERU: SUPPLEMENTAL TO FY’10 1206 COUNTER-IED, https://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/10/09LIMA1620.html.
3. See Comrade Raul’s song at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4Kgfg3fCIk&feature=BFa&list=PLCA9AF6213CEA83A9&lf=results_main.
4. Press Release, Public Affairs Office Embassy of the United States—Lima, January 12, 2012, “U.S. Equipment Donation Will Support Peru Counter Narco-Terrorism and Drug Trafficking Efforts in VRAE,” https://photos.state.gov/libraries/peru/144672/Press%20Releases/011212%20MOD%20CN%20Equipment%20Donation%20VRAE.pdf.
5. An excerpt from Comrade Jose’s interview available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM65f3P99lU.
