Peru: Abimael Guzmán, head of Shining Path insurgency, dies

By FRANKLIN BRICEÑO
Associated Press

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The Peruvian government says Abimael Guzmán, the leader of the brutal Shining Path insurgency in Peru who was captured in 1992, has died in a military hospital after an illness. Justice Minister Aníbal Torres says 86-year-old Guzmán died at 6:40 a.m. on Saturday after suffering from an infection. Guzman, a former philosophy professor, launched an insurgency against the state in 1980 and presided over numerous car bombings and assassinations in the years that followed. He was captured in 1992 and sentenced in life in prison for terrorism and other crimes.