What is the Shining Path? A journey through its history

A review of the history of one of the phenomena of Peruvian history linked to violence.

Sendero Luminoso is a Peruvian political organization that led one of the most important and conflictive armed movements of the last decades in Latin America. The consequences of the violent public actions, and the state of war unleashed, continue to be analyzed to this day as a crucial part of the history of the development of political systems in the region.

In the following we will briefly explain what Sendero Luminoso is, what are some of its antecedents and key individuals, as well as some of the consequences it has had on the development of the region's political systems.as well as some of the consequences it has had in the cities most involved.

What is Shining Path?

Sendero Luminoso, also known as the Communist Party of Peru-Sendero Luminoso (PCP-SL), is an armed insurgent movement that has been active since the 1970s in Peru, considered a terrorist organization by several states.. considered a terrorist organization by several states.

It began as an armed movement for free education, initiated in the Peruvian province of Ayacucho, and later spread as a political movement, which developed in other cities of the same country and culminated in a war that lasted more than a decade.

The uprising in arms occurred in the 1980s and unleashed a series of actions and confrontations that are considered some of the bloodiest in recent Latin American history.

Abimael Guzmán and the beginnings of the PCP-SL

The most representative figure of the movement is Abimael Guzmánwho was a professor at the National University of San Cristobal de Huamanga, located in the province of Ayacucho. In analyzing the indigenous situation in Peru vis-à-vis the political powers, Guzmán applied his interpretation of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism, as well as his perspective on international debates about communism in the Soviet Union and China, among other things.as well as his perspective on the international debates about communism in the Soviet Union and China, among other things.

In the electoral and political context of the 1960s, the Shining Path was not only driven by the rural sector and the peasantry in its different expressions, but many young university intellectuals also participated in an important way. In the beginning, the organizational bases of the movement were laid through the Communist Party of Peru and the red faction.

Shining Path formally emerged after a meeting that took place at the University of Huamanga in Ayacucho.It was constituted from the beginning as a political organization with a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist perspective.

In addition to this, some scholars of the movement have analyzed intellectual influences of the beginnings of the SL in relation to the theories of Alain Touraine, Antonio Gramsci, José Arico, Sinesio López, José Nun, James Scott, among others. Something that these authors have in common is the vindication of agency (of the power of the actors themselves) in social transformation and in historical models and structures. (Coronel, 1996).

Some background and development of this organization

Degregori (2016) distinguishes between three fundamental antecedents of the Shining Path's armed struggles. On the one hand, the birth of Shining Path as an independent organization between 1969 and 1970. On the other hand, the decision to take up arms occurred between 1976 and 1978. And finally, the national context and the transformations that had been produced by the reformist military government, from 1970 until the crisis of the following decade.

In this critical situation, the indigenous Andean region had been unprotected and violated by the military dictatorship of the revolutionary government of the armed forces. government of the revolutionary government of the armed forces, which lasted from 1968 to 1980.

At the end of this dictatorship, in 1980, Sendero Luminoso carried out its first public act of violence: the burning of anaphorae and ballot boxes as a form of protest against the supposed normalization towards democracy. This occurred in the province of Ayacucho, specifically in the municipality of Chuschi, and from then on, the movement continued to carry out public acts of violence for the next 10 years. During this time, the movement became militarized. (between 1983 and 1986), which culminated in the deployment of violence throughout the territory during the following three years.

Finally, an important transformation occurred in the 1990s, with the coming to power of Alberto Fujimori.. In 1992, Abimael Guzmán was arrested and the movement laid down its arms and the SL's actions were drastically modified, which is now known as post-senderismo.

The moment in which the uprising took place was crucial for the country's history, since the first months of the armed forces' government were beginning, oil had been nationalized, and the discussion on reforms for the rural sector, among other things, was approaching. In this context, the movement for free education promoted by Sendero Luminoso gave an idea of the regional crises the countryside was going through.

After the war

As might be expected, the armed confrontation has had many unpleasant consequences in the Andean zone of Peru. According to Degregori (1996), in addition to the destruction of infrastructure and the widespread poverty of the Ayacucho region, there were of the Ayacucho region, there were important changes in the countryside in the rural areas of Huanta, La Mar and Cangallo, which are three of the provinces most affected by the violence.

Many people were forced to move from their communities to avoid the disastrous consequences of the fighting. Those who remained had to radically rearrange their lifestyles.

For example, one of the practices that were generated in order to maintain the population in the affected areas was the construction of fortified villages. the construction of fortified villages on hills or hillsides.. Those who did not climb the hills had to fortify their houses with structures that resembled walls.

Land and livestock were also seriously affected. Overall, the extremely precarious conditions also accentuated the differences in prosperity achieved by different regions.

Bibliographical references:

• Degregori, C. (2016). El surgimiento de Sendero Luminoso. Ediciones IEP: Peru.
• Degregori, C. (1996). Ayacucho, after the violence. (Ed.). Las sondas campesinas y la derrota de Sendero Luminoso. IEP Ediciones: Peru.
• Coronel, J. (1996). Political violence and peasant responses in Huanta. In Degregori, C. (Ed.). Las sondas campesinas y la derrota de Sendero Luminoso. IEP Ediciones: Peru.