THE Peruvian army says it has rescued 39 people from a farm where the Shining Path rebel group kept them as slaves.
Some of the captives said they had been kidnapped some 30 years ago. The defence ministry said 26 of them were children, some of whom were born in captivity.
The victims said they were also forced to work in fields.
Some 120 Peruvian soldiers took part in the operation. Four army helicopters airlifted the captives into safety.
The military says soldiers were led to the farm by a former captive, who lived there for many years and escaped about a month ago. “We’ve been here, like this, for 30 years,” one of the rescued women said.
Some of the children rescued were children of Shining Path rebels. The group was effectively defeated when its founder, Abimael Guzman, was arrested in 1992
Some of the rescued children said they were scared of the army, after being told by the rebels that the soldiers had come to kill them.
“The aim of this operation was to rescue the people who were hostages of the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) in what is called a production camp,” said Vice-Defence Minister Ivan Vega Loncharich.
Production camps are farms where “the children are gathered to work in agriculture and the women are expected to procreate and give birth to new rebels,” he said. Reports said some of the children had been kidnapped from rural communities, where parents do not report abductions for fear of reprisals.
The Maoist-inspired left-wing group was defeated after waging a bloody insurgency in one of South America’s poorest nations.
Almost 70,000 people died or disappeared in more than a decade of internal conflict. But the Shining Path remains active in the main cocaine producing region of the country, where it is led by the brothers Victor and Jorge Quispe Palomino.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here