On Oct. 23, National Police in Peru apprehended in Lima an accused commander of one of the two surviving remnant factions of the Sendero Luminoso guerilla movement. The Interior Ministry named the detained man as Rolando Pantoja Quispe, and said he was under the orders of Florindo Eleuterio Flores Hala AKA "Comrade Artemio"—the notorious Sendero commander who was captured last year and condemned to life in prison. The ministry said Pantoja Quispe controlled cocaine trafficking in the Yanajanca Valley of Huanuco region, and hailed the arrest as a further blow against Artemio's crippled network. (BBC Mundo, Oct. 23)

Days later, Lima's El Comercio daily said it had determined from public records that Luis Santiago Calle Quirós, a Peruvian businessman just "blacklisted" by the US Treasury Department for suspected ties to narco-trafficking, had contributed nearly 42,000 soles ($14,000) to the 2011 presidential campaign of right-wing politician Keiko Fujimori. Calle Quirós' Spain-based brother, Juan José Calle Quirós, also made the list—said to control money laundering for South American cocaine networks operating in Europe. Julio Gagó, leader of the fujimorista bloc in Peru's congress, confirmed that his party had received money from Calle Quirós. (Peru21, Oct. 30) 

Keiko Fujimori is the daughter of Peru's ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2009 for crimes including the deaths of 25 people, two kidnappings, corruption and illicit enrichment. Under his rule in the 1990s, the government suspended basic liberties and unleashed a brutal counter-insurgency campaign against Sendero Luminoso, who were officially labeled "narco-terrorists."

Cross-post to High Times and Global Ganja Report

Please support our fund drive.