Not to be confused with an Uruguayan guerrilla group, the Tupamaros

The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement or Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru (MRTA) is a guerrilla movement in Peru. The name comes from Túpac Amaru II, an 18th-century rebel leader who was himself named after Túpac Amaru, the last indigenous leader of the Inca people. It is considered a terrorist organization by the Peruvian government.

Description

The MRTA is a traditional Marxist-Leninist revolutionary movement formed in 1983 from remnants of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left, a Peruvian insurgent group active in the 1960s. It actively uses terrorist practices and aims to establish a Marxist regime and to rid Peru of all imperialist elements (primarily US and Japanese influence). Peru's counterterrorist program has diminished the group's ability to carry out terrorist attacks, and the MRTA has suffered from infighting, the imprisonment or deaths of senior leaders, and loss of leftist support. Several MRTA members also remain imprisoned in Bolivia.

Activities

On November 30, 1995, Lori Berenson, an MIT graduate and United States socialist activist, was arrested by the Peruvian Police and accused of collaborating with the MRTA. For full details of her case, see her article.

The MRTA previously conducted bombings, kidnappings, ambushes, and assassinations, but recent activity has fallen drastically. In December 1996, 14 MRTA members occupied the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Lima and held 72 hostages for more than four months. Under orders from then-President Alberto Fujimori, Peruvian forces stormed the residence in April 1997, rescuing all but one of the remaining hostages and killing all 14 MRTA hostage takers.

In September 2003, four Chilean defendants were retried and convicted of membership in the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and participation in an attack on the Peru–North American Cultural Institute and a kidnapping-cum-murder in 1993.

Strength

Believed to be no more than 100 members, consisting largely of young fighters who lack leadership skills and experience.

Location/Area of operation

Peru, with supporters throughout Latin America and Western Europe. Controls no territory.

External aid

None

External link

• Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2000. United States Department of State, April 2001 (http://library.nps.navy.mil/home/tgp/tupac.htm)