The State Department on Tuesday sanctioned three leaders of a South American terrorist organization, on the heels of President Obama’s trip to Peru for the Asia-Pacific Economic Summit.
“Today’s actions notify the U.S. public and the international community that Victor Quispe Palomino, Jorge Quispe Palomino and Tarcela Loya Vilchez are actively engaged in terrorism, the State Department announced Tuesday.
Vilchez and the Palominos are part of Shining Path, a Marxist guerrilla group that was founded when the Communist Party of Peru split in 1970. Tens of thousands of people have died in over the decades due to a struggle between the organization and the Peruvian government, but they were thought to have been defeated in recent years due to a particularly effective crackdown that resulted in the arrest of a key leader.
But the organization made clear they still have political goals when they killed 10 people during an ambush of a military caravan that took place one day before the country’s elections in April. “Palomino’s ultimate goal is to overthrow the government of Peru, and he calls the U.S. the principal enemy,” according to the State Department.
Such a willingness to engage in terrorism, paired with hostility to the United States, feeds into fear that radical jihadist groups might find common cause with South American drug traffickers and terrorists. The Islamic State is already issuing propaganda messages written in Spanish and Portuguese in order to appeal to a new constituency.
“With ISIS setting its sights on global expansion, and a history of Islamic extremism in the region, we cannot afford to continue turning a blind eye to these threats emerging right here in our own hemisphere,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, wrote last week in a letter to President Obama.
In addition to the Shining Path designations, the State Department also sanctioned three members of the Islamic State, including Abdelilah Himich. “Himich created the Tariq Ibn Ziyad Battalion in 2015, a European foreign terrorist fighter cell that has provided operatives for ISIL attacks in Iraq, Syria, and abroad; at one time the battalion numbered as many as 300 members. Himich was also reportedly involved in the planning of ISIL’s November 2015 Paris attacks and March 2016 Brussels attacks,” the State Department announcement said.
