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Peruvian Police Puts Down Shining Path Captives Riot
Peruvian police put down Thursday a riot launched by members of the Shining Path group in a Lima jail who demanded to close a naval base prison where their leaders are locked up.
Local press reported that the police threw tear gas bombs against 700 political prisoners that had occupied for over three hours roofs of six blocks of top security jail "Miguel Castro Castro."
People can see dense clouds of white smoke over the prison from a distance. And amidst the smoke, many rioters can be seen going down from the roofs, but the signs showing their demands can still be seen clearly.
The rioters demanded that their Shining Path group leader Abimael Guzman to have an opportunity to address in the public and closure of the prison functioning in nearby Callao province, west of Lima.
Guzman and other national leaders of the Shining Path group as well as some leaders of Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement are now jailed to serve their life-long sentence. They are found guilty of conducting terrorist activities and betraying their motherland.
Family members of the rioters assured the press that the inmates are also asking for a reconsideration of their cases and amnesty for political prisoners.
Since January 25, a spokesperson for the Shining Path group said, a group of prisoners in the jail have been going on a hunger strike.
The inmates demanded the presentation of the Shining Path group's leader as part of the peace agreement proposed by Guzman in 1993 "to put an end to the popular war in Peru."
The peace agreement was suspended after a dissident faction Red Path considered the peace talks as a surrender.
Guzman, 65, who was captured in September 1992, is now jailed in a military installation and not allowed to receive visitors. He is reportedly suffering from psoriasis, a sickness that has been affecting him for six years.
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