Overview
- Security forces carried out Operation Quiñones after weeks of tracking a Sendero column and reported that Jhonny Curo Rojas, alias 'Camarada Richard', was killed during a clash in sector Hamaca, Vizcatán del Ene on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.
- One army non-commissioned officer, José Parinango Huamán, was wounded in the firefight, stabilized, and evacuated for specialized care in Lima.
- During extraction a Peruvian Army Mi-171 helicopter received about 18 bullet impacts from hostile positions but returned to base with its crew safe and without loss of airworthiness.
- Forces seized weapons and materiel at the scene, including a Galil rifle with loaded magazines, explosive detonators, a radio set, tactical clothing, medical supplies and coca leaves.
- The VRAEM has long been a zone where Sendero Luminoso remnants and drug networks overlap, so officials say this leadership loss is a major disruption even as intelligence-led operations continue because insurgent cells have historically adapted and persisted.