Peru rescues 26 children and 13 women from Shining Path jungle 'slavery'

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UK Telegraph:

Officials said some of the captives were kept at the remote hideaway for up to three decades, among them women abducted from a church

 

Peruvian security forces have rescued 13 women and 26 children who they say were being held captive by Shining Path guerrillas in a remote jungle hideaway, some for as long as three decades.

 

According to Peru’s deputy defence minister, Iván Vega, the women and children were being kept as slaves by members of the Maoist rebels, who subjected their victims to forced labour and obliged the younger women to have sexual relations with militants. Among them were women whom the Shining Path had abducted from a mission run by nuns in the Andean town of Puerto Ocopa 25 years ago.

 

Mr Vega described the hiding place in the Junín region, where the captives were found in a joint police and army raid, as a “production camp” providing insurgents with food supplies and a breeding ground for future guerrilla fighters.