Photo By: Shining Path Propaganda via Inquiries Journal
Terrorism is a modern construct. After the tense Cold War and the growth of revolutionizing technology, especially military technology, extremest groups started gaining strength in diverse areas around the world. Although acts of terror and oppression have been present since the beginning of written history, terrorism takes radical ideologies and violent actions to a global scale which gives these groups increasing relevance. One of the most famous terrorist groups is Al-Qaeda, an Afghan dissident group that rose to the world stage after conducting the tragic 9/11 attacks against the United States. Interestingly, the United States trained Al-Qaeda in the beginning, as they helped the group fight against Soviet Troops in the Soviet-Afghan war. Eventually, Al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden turned on the United States and blamed them for monopolizing the region and oppressing Afghans with their western imperialism. A more recent attack carried out by a terrorist organization was the Sri Lankan bombings of 2019. On Sunday, April 21st, three churches — the Shangri-La, Kingsbury, and Cinnamon Grand Hotel— were bombed, leaving around 300 dead, and two further explosions were conducted south of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. The attack was claimed by a local jihadist group in representation of the Islamic State. Although the media normally understands terrorism in the context of groups like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and IS, terrorism is much more pervasive and intertwined with society than is immediately apparent. From terrorist guerrilla groups like the ELN in Colombia, ETA in Spain, the IRA in Ireland, Los Montoneros in Argentina, and the most relevant in this week’s global headlines, The Shining Path in Peru.
El Sendero Luminoso, as it is known in Spanish, was founded in 1970 by a philosophy professor called Abimael Guzman. As his power grew, he would come to be known as Comrade Gonzalo, but in the beginning, he was a fervent communist who wanted to catalyze change in Peru. He was inspired by Marxist ideologies that were embraced by Lenin and Mao Zedong, and such was his devotions to said ideologies that the Shining Path movement was eventually categorized as a Maoist movement. The name the Shining Path comes directly from the writings of one of Guzman’s role models, Jose Carlos Mariategui who said “Marxism-Leninism will open the shining path to revolution.” As with many revolutionary ideas, they started with revolutionary thinkers. The earliest version of the Shining Path was made up of thinkers, philosophers, and students that came mainly from the San Cristobal de Humanga National University in Ayacucho after Guzman went and recruited them himself. Although Peru is not an exceedingly large country with complex borders, there is still little police and authority presence in rural areas. The Sendero Luminoso took advantage of this lack of regulation and started growing their headquarters in the Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurimac departments. Aside from little to no governmental presence in these regions, they are mainly populated by indigenous groups that are isolated from modern society and are forced to endure extreme poverty. The Shining Path’s main goal was to bring down Peru’s government and establish a communist bureaucracy. Guzman envisioned his revolution as the Peruvian version of China’s Cultural Revolution. He was an idealist, a revolutionary, and also a cold-blooded murderer. Before starting his campaign of terror, he dedicated himself to recruiting different people to grow his group. Aside from the intellectuals that created the structure for the group, the Sendero Luminoso also relied greatly on the suffering and oppressed people of Peru. Guzman knew that the indigenous people that lived in secluded rural areas were tired of being set aside, they were tired of lacking basic resources, and they, like most of the rural and poor population of Peru, wanted change. It was through cunning rhetoric that Guzman convinced and conglomerated masses of people to join his movement, and soon, they were ready to act upon their ideals.
The violence catalyzed by the Shining Path began on May 17th, 1980, when a group of Sendero Luminoso representatives destroyed ballot boxes the night before elections. Sendero Luminoso is not Peru’s only terrorist group given that organizations like the Movement of the Revolutionary Left, the Puka Llacta-Red Flag, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary movement, and the People’s Revolutionary Commandos have also established themselves as violent groups with the goal of establishing their ideologies. Nevertheless, Sendero Luminoso stands out as a highly organized and centralized organization that only waned in influence when Guzman himself was captured. According to the US Department of Justice, the Sendero Luminoso are “highly disciplined” and have a “compartmentalized structure [that] shields the group from infiltration by government informers.” This level of coordination led to a strong sense of individual investment in the cause. The Shining Path convinced its followers that it was honorable to die for the cause, and they romanticized their actions through “blood quotas” which kept their members vying for more violence. As the movement grew In numbers, their campaigns grew in violence. Sendero Luminoso was known for carrying out public executions by stoning, and sometimes resorting to mass executions as well. They killed, tortured, and kidapped government officials, managers of state-owned collective farms, business owners, and anyone that opposed them, especially in the rural areas with low regulation. The group's terrorism even reached the Peruvian capital, Lima, during what is known as the Tarata bombings in which 25 people and dozens were injured due to a detonated car bomb. Eventually, the group evolved from only conducting acts of terrorism. They began establishing cocaine plantations in order to generate revenue to continue pursuing their goals. When Alberto Fujimori was elected in 1990, he began a campaign to stop the Shining Path, but this endeavor only increased the violence. Through the course of 20 years, the Shining Path killed around 30,000 Peruvians through car bombings and assassinations and when Fujimori sent the military to combat the group, other paramilitary groups rose up as well. Fujimori funded what came to be known as “Rondas campesinos” which were peasants armed by state-funded weapons meant to counteract the Shining Path’s violence. It is important to note that although the Shining Path recruited a significant number of followers for their cause, many indigenous people and peasants who were exposed to their bouts of violence never truly converted to their communist ideology. Because of this, the armed Rondas movement grew, and they were able to protect certain towns and vulnerable populations from Shining Path extortion and violence. Unfortunately, these vigilante groups coupled with the government’s military might resulted in the death of an additional 30,000 Peruvian civilians.
The Shining Path’s crusade against anti-communists and government representatives matched by the government’s battle to bring them down peaked on September 12th, 1992 when a police raid in Lima resulted in Abimael Guzman’s imprisonment. He was sentenced for life based on terrorism charges, but the Shining Path movement did not stop then. Oscar Ramirez, a loyal member, surged as the movement’s new leader, and the group continued their endeavor. Fortunately, in July 1999 Ramirez was captured as well, and only then did the terrorism part of the Shining Path moment begin to wane. There was a Truth and Reconciliation Committee in 2003 whose aim was to bring to a close the conflict that spanned for two decades. The committee came to the conclusion that there were around 70,000 deaths directly stemming from the conflict, and 37,800 of them were carried out by the Sendero Luminoso. Although the group did not dissolve, it is now focused on the drug trafficking industry. They attempted to gain political control in 2011, when Shining Path lawyers submitted around 360,000 signatures to the electoral authority in order to become a new political party. Fortunately, under they were denied given that they “advocated terrorism.”
Unfortunately, although Peru is no longer under the constant threat of the Shining Path, the group has recently carried out an attack in a region called Valle de los Rios Apurimac, Ene y Mantaro. They killed 16 people including two children as a statement to prevent people from voting on June 11th. The region in which the attacks were conducted are responsible for around 75% of the country’s cocaine production, and it shows that the Shining Path still holds certain influence especially in rural and uncontrolled parts of the nations. The Shining Path claimed the attack and labeled it as a form of “social cleansing” and it was done to guarantee a “secure electoral process” for Peruvians. Pamphlets advocating this rhetoric were posted near the bodies of the victims which were found after an inhabitant of a nearby town reported a disturbance. The were riled with gunshots, and the children’s remains indicate that they were burned to death.
It is important to always keep in mind that there are hundreds of people around the world that are constantly exposed to the forces of terrorism and violent guerrilla groups. Many people today are protected by a social, economic, and political bubble in which tragedies are observed through social media and then simply cast aside. However, the people suffering are real beyond screens. They are vulnerable, scared, and trapped due to political instability that gives rise to these tragedies. As a consumer of mass media, it is vital to see beyond the headline and attempt to empathize with the news, to truly understand that what is published is not just a story, it is a life story. The 16 people killed by the Shining Path were all sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, and now, because of unthinkable violence they have abandoned these roles and left gaping holes in their place. Reading the news should become a more emotional and aware experience. Rather than approaching headlines with a pragmatic view based on “getting informed”, understanding global occurrences should become an activity in which one is forced to leave the bubble of protection one is happily subjected to. By doing so, one will become a global citizen with a global perspective and global empathy.
Written By: Carolina Mejia Rodriguez
Comments