Inga

MEMORANDUM **

Virgilio Lozano Inga, a native and citizen of Peru, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision affirming the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his application for asylum and withholding of removal and for relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review the BIA’s denial of asylum for substantial evidence and may reverse only if the evidence compels a contrary conclusion. INS v. Elias-Zacari-as, 502 U.S. 478, 481 , 112 S.Ct. 812 , 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992). We deny the petition.

Substantial evidence supports the BIA’s finding that petitioner failed to establish past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution based on political opinion. Petitioner’s single encounter with two *51 members of the Shining Path, where they spoke to him over a fence and did not harm him, did not rise to the level of past persecution. See id. at 481-82 , 112 S.Ct. 812 . The guerrillas did no more than try to solicit money from him and recruit him into their army, and there is no evidence that this encounter was motivated by an actual or imputed political opinion. See id.

Because…