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| Criminals & Offenders |
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American citizen jailed in Peru on charges of aiding the Shining Path guerrilla group, whose release was secured by Ari Ben-Menashe at the request of the U.S. consul general. |
Cynthia McNamara was an United States citizen who was jailed in Lima, Peru, accused of taking part in a Shining Path attack. She was a former hippie in her early 40s who had visited Ecuador collecting India art pieces before traveling to Peru. In Ayacucho, she fell in love with a doctor named Enrique and became friends with Abimael Guzman Reynoso, the leader of the Shining Path.1
Cynthia McNamara was rearrested on August 2, 1988, because a judge in Cangallo, a Shining Path-controlled district, wanted her extradited. The charge against her was involvement in smuggling medical goods to the Shining Path, and she was implicated in an incident where three people were shot dead during a truck inspection. Donna Hamilton, the United States consul general, sought Ari Ben-Menashe help in securing her release.1
Ari Ben-Menashe traveled to Cangallo and, after a series of events, secured Cynthia McNamara release from jail. She was released on August 22, 1988, and left Peru for Ireland the next day.1
Footnotes
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Ben-Menashe, Ari. Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015). ↩︎