LIMA, July 7: Peruvian authorities have captured a top chief of the Maoist rebel group Shining Path who was charged with taking part in 122 assassinations, 92 armed attacks and 91 other violent incidents media reports said Monday.

President Alejandro Toledo’s government confirmed late Sunday the arrest of Florentino Cerron, known as “Marcelo”, a top political operator of the group that was strong in the 1980s and 1990s and has since been all but stamped out.

A former chief of the Office against Terrorism, retired general Hector John Caro, said Cerron’s capture was a blow to the Shining Path’s political structure.

Cerron, 43, was arrested Saturday in a working-class area of the Andean city of Huancayo, the capital of Junin province, 300 kilometres east of Lima. Also arrested was his live-in companion, Lidia Barrueto, 35. The couple have two small daughters, and Cerron appeared to live a normal life selling ornamental plants.

“Marcelo” was believed to head the so-called Regional Committee of the North of Shining Path, which was reportedly resurfacing in Peru and last month carried out the kidnapping of 70 workers of a construction firm.

On Friday, another top Shining Path leader, “Martin”, was killed police said. The real name for Martin could be Victor Quispe, they said.

Yet another rebel leader, Adolfo Olaechea, was also arrested Friday in Spain. He is thought to be a major fund raiser for Shining Path, whose attacks and killings spread terror in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s.—dpa