40% of Peru’s population believe that members of new government have sympathies for Shining Path -survey

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Forty percent of the Peruvian population believes that members of Pedro Castillo’s government have sympathies for the Shining Path and the Movadef organization, which they link to the terrorist group, according to a poll published this Sunday.

The Ipsos Peru poll reveals that only 27% of those polled consider that Castillo’s administration does not have any sympathy with the group. In comparison, 23% affirm a “significant presence” of Shining Path and Movadef within the Executive.

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Likewise, the poll shows that 80% of those surveyed consider the recently deceased Shining Path leader, Abimael Guzman, as “a genocide” or “a terrorist”. In comparison, ten percent say he was “a political leader” or “an ideologue”, while another ten percent “do not specify”, as reported by the Peruvian newspaper ‘El Comercio’.

On the other hand, 79% “approve” of the law enacted by Castillo that allows the burial of the bodies of those convicted of terrorism who died in prison, as is the case of Guzman, while 17 percent disapprove of it and four percent “do not specify”.

According to Ipsos Peru, the survey was carried out among 1,212 people in 24 departments and in the province of Callao between September 23 and 24, with a margin of error of 2.815 and a confidence margin of 95%.

Political scientist Kathy Zegarra pointed out as justification for these results the appointment of Guido Bellido as Prime Minister despite being under investigation for alleged crimes of terrorism and apology for terrorism, and that of Iber Maraví as head of the Ministry of Labor despite police reports linking him to attacks in the eighties.

Likewise, he pointed out that there is “bad communication management” on the part of the Executive. He argued that “the president has lacked more conviction to deal with the death of Abimael Guzman”. “He could have offered a message to the nation reflecting on the bad thing about terrorism, but he did not do it,” he said.

“There were many days of doubts about what was going to happen with his body. This has worsened the image that some citizens have regarding the government,” Zegarra highlighted in a statement granted to ‘El Comercio’.