Óscar Ramírez

Óscar Ramírez Durand (born 16 March 1953), commonly known as Comrade Feliciano , is a Peruvian convicted terrorist and former political leader who led the Shining Path, a Marxist–Leninist–Maoist revolutionary group in Peru, in the 1990s.

Biography Ramírez is the son of a retired Peruvian general and the second of seven brothers. Being studious from a young age and enjoying mental challenges such as chess, Ramírez was awarded the medal of academic excellence from the College of Saint Francis of Assisi in Arequipa, Peru. He dropped out of engineering school and joined Shining Path, where he served as a military strategist. He rejected Guzmán's plea for the rebels to lay down their arms and continued the conflict. He travelled to Colombia where he worked with members of FARC and under his leadership, Shining Path activities increased in south central region of Peru. Two small town mayors were murdered and recruitment efforts among the rural poor of the region increased. He was transported to a military base where he was interrogated by Vladimiro Montesinos, the head of National Intelligence Service (SIN).

In June 2006, Ramírez was sentenced to 24 years in prison in a civilian trial. He is currently being held at the naval base in Callao and is due for release in June 2023.

His reduced sentence was a result of his collaboration with the authorities and enmity towards Guzmán: in 2003 he described him to Caretas magazine as a "psychopath" and said that Guzmán "was always a coward and a traitor". He went as far as declaring, before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, his renewed belief in democracy, his call for remaining subversives to lay down their arms, his expectation for new civilian trials and his condolences for the victims of the conflict. Caretas has also published extracts from his conversations with the former head of the National Intelligence Service, Vladimiro Montesinos, in which family links between the two emerged, both being cousins.

In March 2013, he testified in the trial of the recently imprisoned leader, Comrade Artemio. During the hearing, he apologized to the country for the crimes committed by Shining Path.