Rebel Love: Shining Path Leader to Wed

by Jordan Yerman | May 6, 2007 at 09:14 am

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Publicly-reviled Sendero Luminoso leader "Presidente Gonzalo" has asked his lover, Elena Iparraguirre, to marry him. Both are in prison, so Iparraguirre's mother acted as messenger.
"Gonzalo" (real name Abimael Guzman) and Iparraguirre are serving life sentences for their part in an insurgency that killed roughly 70,000 people.

The founder of the Peruvian Shining Path rebel group, Abimael Guzman, has asked his former second-in-command and lover for her hand in marriage. Elena Iparraguirre and Guzman, both serving life sentences, are blamed for instigating a brutal 20-year conflict. News of the couple's nuptials has sparked lurid interest after a news magazine spoke to Iparraguirre.

Little was known about the lives of Peru's most reviled couple until the exclusive interview.

Incarcerated in a high-security women's prison, she has been virtually separated from her lover, Guzman, for around 15 years.

They were re-sentenced near the end of last year to life imprisonment.

It was during that procedure that Guzman used Iparraguirre's elderly mother to pass on his marriage proposal and the engagement ring.