Assassination of Mayors in Huamachuco

In 1989, in the city of Huamachuco, Shining Path detachments of the PCP-SL successively assassinated two of the city's mayors. First, Mayor Ricardo Woolcott Morales, an APRA militant, was assassinated, followed by his replacement, Víctor Espinoza Luna. These assassinations were part of the PCP-SL strategy of eliminating local authorities to create a power vacuum in the region. The local government vacuum was accentuated in 1990 when in the provincial municipality of Huamachuco all the APRA councilors resigned, leaving only one councilor from Izquierda Unida, after the municipality had taken over the functions of several rural districts whose local governments had collapsed due to the death and resignation of their authorities.