Highlights
− In the 1980s, Shining Path was considered the most ruthless and brutal insurgency in Latin America
− Government crackdown in 1990s diminished the rebel group in both number and capabilities
− Factions of the Shining Path continue to participate in the drug trade and perpetrate periodic attacks, mainly against military, police, and government targets
Inspired by Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China, Sendero Luminoso (SL), the neo-Marxist guerilla movement in Peru, splintered from the Communist Party of Peru in the late 1960s with the goal of replacing the existing Peruvian government in favor of an Indian-run socialist system. The group, more commonly known as Shining Path, has, throughout its history, tried to achieve its goal by sustaining a rural-based insurgency, facilitated by the formation of a peasant revolutionary regime known as the “People’s Republic of a New Democracy.”
Waging the Guerilla War
Shining Path first became active as a guerilla movement in the 1980s after Peru’s military government allowed elections for the first time in a dozen years. The rebel group waged a guerilla-style war throughout the decade into the early 1990s. In its heyday, SL was hailed as the most formidable and brutal terrorist organization in Latin America. The group was known for its vicious style and notorious for indiscriminate bombings, assassinations, brutal killings, kidnappings, bank robberies, and attacks on Western embassies and businesses. Examples of attacks waged by the organization are as follows:
• February 11, 1992: Shining Path rebels detonate a car bomb at the US Ambassador’s residence in Lima. The blast killed three policemen and wounded a fourth and several bystanders .
• December 10, 1990: SL terrorists perpetrate a car bombing near the US Embassy in Lima .
• November 21, 1989: American journalist is kidnapped and subsequently murdered by SL guerillas for his investigation into linkages between the Shining Path and drug trafficking operations in the region .
During its strongest years, SL grew exponentially in the number of militants in its organization, numbering well into the thousands at its height and the territory it controlled, particularly in the Andean highlands. The movement gained most of its support from local peasants by filling the political void left by the central government which was seen as embodying a system of race- and class-based discrimination. The government’s policies had deeply impoverished most of the country’s population, especially citizens of indigenous descent and hence, SL drew most of its support from the indigenous population. In almost 20 years of conflict as many as 69,000 people, mostly civilians, died or disappeared and an estimated 200,000 persons were displaced.
Government Crackdown
In 1992, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori instituted martial law, waging an aggressive and highly successful campaign against Shining Path. On September 12, 1992, Peruvian police captured the group’s leader, former university professor Abimael Guzmán, as well as most of the organization’s central committee. The strides made in the mid-1990s largely diminished Shining Path’s ability to perpetrate attacks , effectively ending any serious threat to the government. Additionally, since Guzmán’s capture, the group has diminished considerably. By 1994 over 6,000 Shining Path rebels had surrendered under a government amnesty program and the remaining militants splintered.
The Current State
Though splintered, factions of Shining Path persist, and continue to wage small-scale attacks. The group has changed considerably, however, and has all but abandoned its founding Maoist ideology in favor of the more lucrative enterprise of the drug trade. Due to its drug trade connection a so-called resurgence of the group since 2002 has occurred. In 2002, a splinter cell of SL detonated a car bomb near the US embassy in Lima, killing 10 people just three days before US President George W. Bush visited the nation . Since 2006, Shining Path rebels have allegedly been responsible for the killing of at least 14 police, soldiers and anti-narcotics agents. Still, while the group has promised more attacks and contends they have continued to regroup and recruit new members, it is highly unlikely that the group can regain its prior strength.
Instead, SL will likely continue to play a role solely in the Peruvian drug trade and will remain a minimal threat to the overall stability of the Peruvian government. The nation has become a major transfer point for drugs leaving South America en route to the US and Europe. By focusing on controlling Peru’s coca-producing rural regions, Shining Path has remained well-financed by the industry and will continue to be strongly influential in many of the rural areas of the nation. Thus, the group’s future is intrinsically connected to the drug trafficking industry and as such, SL will likely continue to conduct terrorist operations throughout the country until the unlawful production and trafficking of cocaine can be effectively contained over the long-term.
