Gunman Kills Peruvian Priest
AYACUCHO, Peru — A gunman shot and killed a priest as he celebrated Mass today in the first assassination of a Roman Catholic clergyman since rebel-related violence began in the Andean region in 1980, police said.
A man wielding a pistol shot Father Victor Acuna Cardenas, 52, in the back three times at 7:55 a.m. as he celebrated Mass in a small chapel near a market, police said. It was not immediately clear if the attack was carried out by rebels from Shining Path, a Maoist insurgency group that took up arms for a “prolonged people’s war†in this impoverished Andean region in 1980. Shining Path rarely admits responsibility for its assassinations.
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