Everything about Shining Path totally explained
The
Communist Party of Peru (
Spanish:
Partido Comunista del Perú), more commonly known as the
Shining Path (
Sendero Luminoso), is a
Maoist guerrilla organization in
Peru. When it first launched the
internal conflict in Peru in 1980, its stated goal was to replace what it saw as
bourgeois democracy with "
New Democracy." The Shining Path believed that by imposing a
dictatorship of the proletariat, inducing
cultural revolution, and eventually sparking
world revolution, they could arrive at pure
communism. The Shining Path also believed that all existing
socialist countries were
revisionist, and that the Shining Path itself was the vanguard of the world communist movement. Shining Path's ideology and tactics have been influential on other Maoist
insurgent groups, notably the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and other
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement-affiliated organizations.
Shining Path is regarded by Peru as a
terrorist organization. Widely condemned for its brutality, including violence deployed against
peasants,
trade union organizers, popularly elected officials and the general civilian population, The group is on the
U.S. Department of State's
list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and the
European Union and
Canada likewise regard them as a terrorist organization and prohibit providing funding or other financial support.
Since the capture of its leader
Abimael Guzmán in 1992, the Shining Path has only been sporadically active. Certain factions of the Shining Path now claim to fight in order to force the government to reach a
peace treaty with the rebels.
Name
The common name of this group, Shining Path, distinguishes it from several other Peruvian communist parties with similar names (see
Communism in Peru). It originates from a maxim of
José Carlos Mariátegui, founder of the original
Peruvian Communist Party in the 1920s:
"El Marxismo-Leninismo abrirá el sendero luminoso hacia la revolución" ("
Marxism-Leninism will open the shining path to revolution").
Shining Path first established a foothold in
San Cristóbal of Huamanga University, in
Ayacucho, where Guzmán taught philosophy. The university had recently reopened after being closed for about half a century, and many students of the newly-educated class adopted Shining Path's radical ideology. Between 1973 and 1975, Shining Path gained control of the
student councils in the Universities of
Huancayo and
La Cantuta, and developed a significant presence in the
National University of Engineering in
Lima and the
National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the
Americas. Sometime later, it lost many student elections in the universities, including Guzmán's own San Cristóbal of Huamanga, and decided to abandon the universities and reconsolidate itself.
Beginning on
March 17,
1980, the Shining Path held a series of clandestine meetings in
Ayacucho, known as the Central Committee's second plenary. It formed a "Revolutionary Directorate" that was political and military in nature, and ordered its militias to transfer to strategic areas in the provinces to start the "armed struggle". The group also held its "First Military School" where militants were instructed in military tactics and weapons use. They also engaged in the "
criticism and self-criticism," a Maoist practice intended to purge bad habits and avoid repeating mistakes. During the First Military School, members of the Central Committee came under heavy criticism. Guzmán did not, and he emerged from the First Military School as the clear leader of Shining Path.
Guerrilla war
When Peru's military government allowed
elections for the first time in a dozen years in 1980, Shining Path was one of the few
leftist political groups that declined to take part, and instead opted to launch a guerrilla war in the highlands of
Ayacucho Region. On
May 17,
1980, the eve of the presidential elections, it burned
ballot boxes in the town of
Chuschi, Ayacucho. It was the first "act of war" by Shining Path. However, the perpetrators were quickly caught, additional
ballots were shipped to Chuschi, the elections proceeded without further incident, and the incident received very little attention in the Peruvian press.
Throughout the 1980s, Shining Path grew in both the territory it controlled and the number of militants in its organization, particularly in the
Andean highlands. At first, it gained support from local peasants by filling the political void left by the central government providing "popular justice" albeit in a bloody, rudimentary, and arbitrary manner. For example, Shining Path beat and killed widely disliked figures in the countryside, after conducting what it termed "popular" trials. It often killed
cattle rustlers, whose crime is considered egregious in poor Peruvian villages. It also killed managers of the state-controlled farming collectives and well-to-do merchants, who were unpopular with poor rural dwellers. These actions caused the peasantry of many Peruvian villages to express some sympathy for the Shining Path, especially in the impoverished and neglected regions of Ayacucho,
Apurímac, and
Huancavelica. At times, the civilian population of small neglected towns participated in such popular trials, especially when the victims of the trials were widely disliked. However, only a small minority of peasants were ever as dogmatically Maoist as the Shining Path cadre.
Shining Path's credibility was also bolstered by the government's initially tepid response to the insurgency. For over a year, the government refused to declare a state of emergency in the region affected by Shining Path's actions as the Interior Minister, José María de la Jara, believed the group could be easily defeated through Police actions. Additionally, the civilian president,
Fernando Belaúnde Terry, who returned to power in 1980, was reluctant to cede authority to the armed forces, as his first government had ended in a military
coup. This gave the impression that the President was unconcerned about the activities of Sendero. The result was that, to the peasants in the areas where the Shining Path was active, the state gave the appearance of impotence or lack of interest in the region. However, it became evident that Shining Path represented a clear threat to the state. On
December 29,
1981 the government declared an "emergency zone" in the three Andean regions of Ayacucho, Huancavelica and Apurímac, and granted the
military the power to arbitrarily detain any suspicious person. The military used this power extremely heavy-handedly, arresting scores of innocent people, at times subjecting them to torture and rape. Police, military forces and members of the
Popular Guerrilla Army (EGP) carried out several
massacres throughout the conflict. Military personnel took to wearing black
ski-masks in order to protect their identities and, therefore their safety and that of their families. Masks were also used to hide the identity of military personnel as they committed crimes.
In some areas, peasants formed anti-Shining Path patrols, called
rondas. They were generally poorly-equipped despite donations of guns from the armed forces. Nevertheless, Shining Path guerrillas were militarily attacked by the
rondas. The first such reported attack was in January 1983 near
Huata, when
ronderos killed 13
senderistas; in February in
Sacsamarca,
rondas stabbed and killed the Shining Path commanders of that area. In March 1983,
ronderos brutally killed Olegario Curitomay, one of the commanders of the town of
Lucanamarca. They took him to the town square,
stoned him,
stabbed him, set him on fire, and finally shot him. As a response, in April, Shining Path entered the province of
Huancasancos and the towns of
Yanaccollpa,
Ataccara,
Llacchua,
Muylacruz and Lucanamarca, and killed 69 people in what became known as the
Lucanamarca massacre. This was the first massacre by Shining Path of the peasant community. Other incidents followed, such as the one in
Hauyllo,
Tambo District,
La Mar Province, Ayacucho Department. In that community, Shining Path killed 47 peasants, including 14 children aged between four and fifteen. Additional massacres by Shining Path occurred, such as the one in
Marcas on
August 29,
1985.
Shining Path's attacks were not limited to the countryside. It mounted attacks against the infrastructure in
Lima, killing civilians in the process. In 1983, it sabotaged several electrical transmission towers, causing a citywide
blackout, and set fire to the
Bayer industrial plant, destroying it completely. That same year, it set off a powerful bomb in the offices of the governing party,
Popular Action. Escalating its activities in Lima, in June 1985 it again blew up electricity transmission towers in Lima, producing a blackout, and detonated
car bombs near the government palace and the justice palace. It also was believed to be responsible for bombing a shopping mall. At the time, President Fernando Belaúnde Terry was receiving the
Argentine president
Raúl Alfonsín. In one of its last attacks in Lima, on
July 16,
1992, the group
detonated a powerful bomb on Tarata Street in the upscale
Miraflores District in Lima, killing 25 people and injuring an additional 155.
During this period, Shining Path also practiced many selective assassinations targeting specific individuals, notably leaders of other leftist groups, local political parties,
labor unions, and peasant organizations, some of whom were anti-Sendero
Marxists. In August 1991, the group killed one
Italian and two
Polish priests in the
department of Ancash. The following February, it assassinated
María Elena Moyano, a well-known community organizer in
Villa El Salvador, a vast shantytown in Lima.
By 1991, Shining Path had control of much of the countryside of the center and south of Peru and had a large presence in the outskirts of Lima. As the organization grew in power, a
cult of personality grew around Guzmán. The official ideology of Shining Path ceased to be 'Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung thought', and was instead referred to as 'Marxism-Leninism-Maoism-Gonzalo thought'. Shining Path also engaged in armed conflicts with Peru's other major guerrilla group, the
Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) and with
campesino self-defense groups organized by the Peruvian armed forces.
Although the extent of Shining Path atrocities and the reliability of reports remains a matter of controversy, the organization's use of violence is well documented. Shining Path frequently participated in particularly brutal methods of killing of its victims. The Shining Path explicitly rejected the very idea of
human rights. A Shining Path document stated:
Level of support
While Shining Path quickly seized control of large areas of Peru, it soon faced serious problems. Shining Path's Maoism was never popular. It never had the support of the majority of the Peruvian people. According to
opinion polls, 15
% of the population considered
subversion to be justifiable in June 1988 while 17% considered it justifiable in 1991. In June 1991, "the total sample disapproved of the Shining Path by an 83 to 7 percent margin, with 10 percent not answering the question. Among the poorest, however, only 58% stated disapproval of the Shining Path; 11 percent said they'd a favorable opinion of the Shining Path, and some 31 percent wouldn't answer the question." A September 1991 poll found that 21 percent of those polled in Lima believed that the Shining Path didn't kill and torture innocent people. The same poll found that 13% believed that society would be more just if the Shining Path won the war and 22% believed society would be equally just under the Shining Path as it was under the government. and the brutality of its "popular trials" that sometimes included "slitting throats, strangulation, stoning, and burning." While punishing and even killing cattle thieves was popular in some parts of Peru, Shining Path also killed peasants and popular leaders for even minor offenses.
Shining Path also became disliked for its policy of closing small and rural markets in order to end small-scale capitalism and to starve Lima. As a Maoist organization, it strongly opposed all forms of
capitalism, and also followed Mao's dictum that guerrilla warfare should start in the countryside and gradually choke off the cities. Peasants, many of whose livelihoods depended on trade in the markets, rejected such closures. In several areas of Peru, Shining Path also launched unpopular campaigns, such as a prohibition on parties and the consumption of alcohol.
Government response and abuses
In 1991, President
Alberto Fujimori issued a law that gave the
rondas a legal status, and from that time they were officially called
Comités de auto defensa ("Committees of Self Defence"). They were officially armed, usually with 12-gauge
shotguns, and trained by the
Peruvian Army. According to the government, there were approximately 7,226
comités de auto defensa as of 2005; almost 4,000 are located in the central region of Peru, the stronghold of Shining Path.
The Peruvian government also clamped down on the Shining Path in other ways. Military personnel were dispatched to areas dominated by Shining Path, especially Ayacucho, to fight the rebels. Ayacucho itself was declared an emergency zone, and constitutional rights were suspended in the area.
Initial government efforts to fight Shining Path were not very effective or promising. Military units engaged in many human rights violations, which caused Shining Path to appear in the eyes of many as the lesser of two evils. They used excessive force and killed many innocent civilians. Government forces destroyed villages and killed campesinos suspected of supporting Shining Path. They eventually lessened the pace at which the armed forces committed atrocities such as massacres. Additionally, the state began the wide-spread use of intelligence agencies in its fight against Shining Path. However, atrocities were committed by the
National Intelligence Service, notably the
La Cantuta massacre and the
Barrios Altos massacre, both of which were committed by
Grupo Colina.
After the collapse of the Fujimori government, interim President
Valentín Paniagua, established a
Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the conflict. The Commission found in its 2003
Final Report that 69,280 people died or
disappeared between 1980 and 2000 as a result of the armed conflict. About 54% of the deaths and disappearances reported to the Commission were caused by the Shining Path. A statistical analysis of the available data led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to estimate that the Shining Path was responsible for the death or disappearance of 31,331 people, 46% of the total deaths and disappearances. The MRTA was held responsible for 1.5% of the deaths.
Capture of Guzmán and collapse
On
September 12,
1992, Peruvian police captured Guzmán and several Shining Path leaders in an apartment above a dance studio in the
Surquillo district of Lima. The police had been monitoring the apartment, as a number of suspected Shining Path militants had visited it. An inspection of the garbage of the apartment produced empty tubes of a skin cream used to treat
psoriasis, a condition that Guzmán was known to have. Shortly after the raid that captured Guzmán, most of the remaining Shining Path leadership fell as well. At the same time, Shining Path suffered embarrassing military defeats to self-defense organizations of rural campesinos — supposedly its social base. When Guzmán called for peace talks, the organization fractured into splinter groups, with some Shining Path members in favor of such talks and others opposed. Guzmán's role as the leader of Shining Path was taken over by
Óscar Ramírez, who himself was captured by Peruvian authorities in 1999. After Ramírez's capture, the group splintered, guerrilla activity diminished sharply, and previous conditions returned to the areas where the Shining Path had been active.
21st century and resurgence
Although the organization's numbers had lessened by 2003, It is believed that the faction consists of three companies known as the North, or
Pangoa, the Centre, or
Pucuta, and the South, or
Vizcatan. The government claims that Proseguir is operating in alliance with drug traffickers.
On
June 9,
2003, a Shining Path group attacked a camp in Ayacucho, and took 68 employees of the Argentinian company
Techint and three police guards as hostages. They had been working in the
Camisea gas pipeline project that would take natural gas from
Cusco to Lima. According to sources from Peru's Interior Ministry, the terrorists asked for a sizable ransom to free the hostages. Two days later, after a rapid military response, the terrorists abandoned the hostages; according to government sources no ransom was paid. However, there were rumors that
US$200,000 was paid to the rebels.
Government forces had successfully captured three Shining Path leading members. In April 2000, Commander
José Arcela Chiroque, called "Ormeño", was captured, followed by another leader, Florentino Cerrón Cardozo, called "Marcelo" in July 2003. In November of the same year, Jaime Zuñiga, called "Cirilo" or "Dalton," was arrested after a clash in which four guerrillas were killed and an officer wounded. Officials said he took part in planning the kidnapping of the Techint pipeline workers. He was also thought to have led an ambush against an army helicopter in 1999 in which five soldiers died.
In 2003, the Peruvian National Police broke up several Shining Path training camps and captured many members and leaders. It also freed about 100 indigenous people held in virtual
slavery. By late October 2003 there were 96 terrorist incidents in Peru, projecting a 15% decrease from the 134 kidnappings and armed attacks in 2002. Also for the year, 8 Peru's Interior Minister, Fernando Rospigliosi, said that the government would respond "drastically and swiftly" to any violent action. In September that same year, a comprehensive sweep by police in five cities found 17 suspected members. According to the interior minister, eight of the arrested were school teachers and high-level school administrators.
Despite these arrests, Shining Path continues to exist in Peru. On
December 22,
2005, Shining Path ambushed a police patrol in the
Huánuco region, killing eight. Later that day they wounded an additional two police officers. In response, then President
Alejandro Toledo declared a state of emergency in Huánuco, and gave the police the power to search houses and arrest suspects without a warrant. On
February 19,
2006, the Peruvian police killed Héctor Aponte, believed to be the commander responsible for the ambush. In December 2006, Peruvian troops were sent to counter renewed guerrilla activity and, according to high level government officials, Shining Path's strength has reached an estimated 300 members. In November 2007, police claimed to have killed Artemio's second-in-command, a guerrilla known as JL.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Shining Path'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://shining_path.totallyexplained.com">Shining Path Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
