Peruvian ambassador to Argentina Nicolás Lynch resigned from his post on Saturday, after it became known that he held a meeting with an organisation believed to be a legal façade for terrorist group Shining Path.

In March, Lynch received members of the Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights (Movadef), an organisation linked to Shining Path. In declarations to an Argentine radio station, Lynch admitted that het met with the Movadef members after they staged a protest in front of the embassy building in Buenos Aires. There, they gave him “a document that demanded an amnesty for [Shining Path leader] Abimael Guzmán and his followers”.

“The embassy is the house of all Peruvians,” Guzman said, adding that “I’m not here to judge [anyone]“.

The Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called Lynch after he made this public statement, and asked him to travel to Lima to explain why he had taken part in the meeting. On Saturday, he handed in his resignation, which was accepted by president Ollanta Humala.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Movadef is a façade for Shining Path, which demands an “inacceptable” amnesty for the leaders of the organisation. Its explicit support of Shining Path has prevented the organisation from becoming a registered political party in Peru. Página 12 newspaper reports that during their stay in Buenos Aires, they met with the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel to discuss the situation of those they call “political prisoners”.

Shining Path is a left-wing guerrilla group which started an armed conflict in 1980 that lasted 20 years and left 69,000 people dead and disappeared, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.