The army announced in a statement that five people—four troops and two Shining Path guerillas—died in a fight on Monday in Peru’s largest coca-growing region.
In the south-central Andes, where armed forces have been battling drug trafficking gangs and the remaining Shining Path members for 20 years, violence started out around dawn when soldiers were attacked while on patrol.
According to the statement, the soldiers had been engaged in “territorial control” operations. It also stated that three other officers had been hurt and had been transported to the hospital.
After Colombia, Peru is the second-largest cocaine production in the world.
Monitoring data from Peruvian officials show that in 2022, some 95,000 hectares (23,500 acres) of coca leaf, the drug’s primary raw material, were grown.
The Shining Path is a Maoist rebel organisation that first appeared in the 1980s and sought to topple Peru’s government. With only a few hundred members still active in outlying locations and almost all of its leaders now dead or in prison.
According to the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the army and insurgents fought for 20 years and claimed 70,000 lives.
