President says sorry

last updated 8 January 2015

Lima

President Alejandro Toledo apologized to the Peruvian people this week for the political violence that terrorized the nation until a few years ago. “I ask for pardon in the name of the state,” he said. Seventy thousand people died between 1980 and 2000 in fighting between soldiers and the Maoist Shining Path guerrilla group. Investigators concluded that both sides had killed civilians in remote highland villages. Toledo promised to punish military officers who had committed “painful excesses.” The government has broken the back of the insurgency, but Peru’s economy has been slow to bounce back. Toledo said the government would spend $800 million to help the most devastated areas recover.