PERU: Rebels Now Running For Office Seeking Blanket Amnesty.

AP/ FRANKLIN BRICENO /    For 20 years, the Shining Path rebels tried to impose an agrarian-based communist state in Peru. Its fighters were even known to cut off the fingers of voters to discourage elections.
      Now for the first time, some Shining Path militants are running in several mayoral and gubernatorial races seeking a blanket amnesty for hundreds of their own including Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman. Peruvian law allows former convicts to run for elected office.
    President Alan Garcia believes they will fail. "The country will always reject anything that comes directly or indirectly from terrorism,"he said. Prospects indeed seem dim considering Peruvians' reaction to the brief parole in May of Lori Berenson. An opinion survey found three out of four opposed it.