Armed strike of 89
Armed strike implemented by the PCP-SL in 1989 in Alto Huallaga to control the drug market and force the price of cocaine paste to rise. The event marked the beginning of a more violent policy against traffickers who disobeyed PCP-SL orders.
Beginning with the armed strike of 1989, the PCP-SL began to kill traqueteros, supposedly for having disobeyed the order not to buy drugs, although in practice there was never a lack of justifications for eliminating the drug dealers. The prohibitions on the purchase/sale and transport of drugs were implemented through armed strikes, whose main function was no longer to prevent the entry of state forces into the valley, but to force a rise in the price of cocaine base paste (PBC). The strike lasted between twenty-four and forty-eight hours, and during the strike a UMOPAR patrol arrived from Tingo Maria to confront a group of strikers gathered at the intersection of Aucayacu and La Marginal. The killings, abuses and attempts to control prices and interfere in drug market practices created growing unease among the narcos and contributed to some of them seeing the PCP-SL as their main enemy.