Profits from illegal mining in Peru are higher than those of cocaine trafficking, according to a consulting firm. In some ways, however, this is a sensationalist comparison, intended more to attract attention than to accurately describe the problem.

A resurgent Shining Path and a botched military operation have cost the Ministers of Defense and the Interior their jobs, as it becomes clear that the Peruvian government needs to revamp its strategy to deal with the potent mix of rebels and drug trafficking.

Peru's Shining Path rebel group may be expanding their international drug trafficking operations, serving as suppliers to traffickers in neighboring Bolivia, according to one analyst.

Peruvian authorities have charged 19 members of the extended family of the Quispe Palomino brothers, who head the Shining Path rebel group, with laundering drug profits for the guerrillas.

A new report sets out how, after his capture in 1999, Shining Path leader "Comrade Raul" won the confidence of the Peruvian authorities, before leading them into an ambush and escaping -- though some question whether he was in fact playing a more elaborate game.

A group of Peruvian journalists reporting from a rebel-controlled region in the wake of a mass kidnapping said they were stopped by a Shining Path commander, who took the opportunity to boast about his column's recent victories and explain his political position.

Timber traffickers in Peru have built a huge logistical network for bribing officials and moving illegally harvested wood out of the country, and now drug traffickers are taking advantage of this to move their own product.

With the abduction of 36 gas workers in Peru, released days later under mysterious circumstances, the Shining Path’s southern faction have demonstrated that they are still a force capable of carrying out high-level operations.

Peru's Shining Path guerrillas have released a list of ransom demands for a group of gas workers kidnapped last week, undermining President Ollanta Humala's claims that the rebel organization is practically defunct.

Alleged members of the Shining Path guerrilla group are holding seven gas workers hostage after kidnapping 30 in south-central Peru, suggesting that the remaining faction of the rebel organization can still present a significant challenge to the Peruvian government.