Peru's President Ollanta Humala oversaw a ceremony April 3 at the village of Lucanamarca (Huancasancos province, Ayacucho region), delivering a "symbolic" package of reparations for the massacre there on that date in 1983. The reparations, delivered to five communities in the district-level municipality, ammounted to 100,000 soles (not quite $40,000). The ceremony centered around the reading of the names of the 69 victims of the massacre, including 11 women and 18 children. The youngest of the victims was less then six months old. (Andina, April 3) Sendero Luminoso guerillas occupied the village and "executed" the 69 residents after villagers had killed their local commander Olegario Curitomay, in retaliation for cattle thieving by the rebels. (La Republica, April 4; pro-Sendero account at RevLeft)
The surviving remnant of the Sendero Luminoso, in the jungle zone of the Apurímac-Ene River Valley (VRAE), has just released a series of videos featuring leader Jorge Quispe Palomino AKA "Camarada Raúl" singing apparently self-penned Andean-style folk songs about Maoist ideology to guitar accompaniment and a backdrop of Galil assault rifles. (Diario La Voz, Huamanga, April 4)
