Operation Chameleon (Peru)
2013 Peruvian anti-Shining Path operation
Operation Chameleon (Spanish: Operación Camaleón) was an anti-terrorist operation carried out on August 11, 2013, by the Peruvian Armed Forces and the Peruvian National Police that resulted in the death of Alejandro Borda Casafranca (Comrade Alipio), number two of the remnants of the Shining Path and Martín Antonio Quispe Palomino (Comrade Gabriel).
Background
Shining Path member Alejandro Borda Casafranca ("Comrade Alipio") had joined Martín Antonio Quispe Palomino ("Comrade Gabriel") in La Concepción (Cuzco) to kidnap 36 workers of the Camisea Gas Project in April 2012. After "Comrade William" was killed in action and the desertion of some of the group's members, Alipio headed for Llochegua District alongside Gabriel and 30 other men with the intent of recapturing the area.
On June 5, 2013, the group broke into the a camp belonging to the Consorcio Vial Quinua, where 12,000 sticks of dynamite were stolen in response to a police raid on an arsenal in Junín. After a few weeks, a radio link intercepted by the Police's Anti-Drug Directorate (DIRANDRO) between Alejandro Borda Casafranca ("Comrade Alipio") and a local drug trafficker revealed that "Comrade Alipio" would "soon arrive in Llochegua" alongside Gabriel, meeting him at his house after he attracted them with the suggestion of inviting some women. In reality, the drug trafficker was an informant recruited by the National Directorate of Intelligence (DINI), working under the Anti-Terrorism Directorate (DIRCOTE).
Operation
The members of a brigade (sometimes called the "Lobo Command"), formed by members of the Police's DIRCOTE and DIRANDRO, and the Army's Joint Special Command and VRAEM Special Command, organised themselves to wait for Shining Path commander ("Comrade Alipio"). On August 11, "Comrade Alipio", "Comrade Gabriel" and the lower-rank member known as "Comrade Alfonso" scattered their men and entered the drug trafficker's house. At 9:30 pm an explosion was heard as the drug trafficker fled. Three charred corpses were found in the house.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q113560198. Authority coordinates are -12.445, -74.064. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2013 and 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “Operation Chameleon (Peru)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.