Peru's Shining Path eyes candidates for 2011 vote

Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:18pm EST

LIMA Nov 23 (Reuters) - Members of Peru's Shining Path insurgency will form a political party and field candidates for the 2011 general elections, lawyers for the Maoist group's jailed founder said on Monday in a move the government may try to block.

The filing with election authorities is part of a broader push by lawyers for Abimael Guzman to put pressure on the government to adopt an amnesty program for atrocities committed by Peru's army and the rebels during a vicious civil war that killed 69,000 people in the 1980s and 1990s.

"We are going to participate in the political life of the country as a movement at the national level and also in elections -- be they general, regional or municipal," said Alfredo Crespo, one of the lawyers for Guzman, who is serving a life sentence.

"We think that in our country there should be general amnesty for political prisoners and social fighters."

Crespo said the new party, called the "Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights," could field its own candidates or support those from other leftist parties.

The lawyers, who insist the Shining Path was fighting a just war, say Guzman should be freed from prison because many former military officers who massacred suspected leftists were never put on trial.

The government says it cannot grant amnesty to a group that sought to impose change by starting a war in 1980 instead of participating in democratic elections.

Manuel Fajardo, another lawyer for Guzman, said the new party may try to form coalitions.

"We don't rule out alliances. We are very interested, for example, in the movement of Father Arana," he said, referring to Marco Arana, a progressive Roman Catholic priest with political ambitions.

Although public opinion is overwhelmingly against the Shining Path, Guzman has encouraged his followers, many of whom were once jailed, to participate in elections as voters or candidates.

President Alan Garcia cannot run again for the presidency in 2011 and candidates from the left and right are already starting to jockey for position.

Opinion polls show one of the front-runners is Keiko Fujimori, a right-wing lawmaker whose father, former President Alberto Fujimori, is in jail for human rights crimes committed when he was battling the Shining Path. (Reporting by Terry Wade; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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