Et Cetera

The latest offensive by Peru's Shining Path guerrillas has reached unprecedented ferocity -- and has focused on Lima, which has never experienced such a brutal wave of attacks. Starting in mid-July with a car bomb that killed more than 20 people in the capital, the campaign has flared into a full-scale blitz. Last week bombs destroyed several police stations, a private research center and the Bolivian embassy. Though President Alberto Fujimori, who canceled his trip to an Ibero-American summit in Madrid, has promised a "battle without mercy," his police and army seem helpless.