Sendero Luminoso (Guerrilla group)
Variant namesPeruvian guerrilla organization.
From the description of Sendero Luminoso publications, 1987-1993. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 754864939
Historical Note
The self-proclaimed Maoist "Shining Path" (Sendero Luminoso or SL), a Peruvian guerrilla organization, was founded by Ayacucho philosophy professor Abimael Guzmán Reynoso. Its full name, the Communist Party of Peru in the Shining Path of José Carlos Mariátegui (Partido Comunista del Peru en el Sendero Luminoso de José Carlos Mariátegui), clearly ties the group to Mariátegui, the founder of Peruvian communism in the 1920s, as well as to Mao Zedong. The connection to Mao is ironic given that China was turning away from advocating armed revolution to promoting domestic economic growth under Deng Xiaoping. Nearly seventy thousand people died in domestic conflicts in Peru between 1980 and 2000 (estimates are that at least ten thousand more deaths may have occurred), according to a national truth commission report in 2003. The SL was responsible for the majority of the deaths up to 1992, when Guzmán was captured by the government, though state forces and other insurgents also killed many. At SL's peak of power, before Guzmán's capture, half of Peru lived in a state of emergency. Today a much-reduced SL remnant has links to the narcotics trade.
The SL was the most prominent of the political and guerrilla/terrorist groups in Peru during the past half century. It is one example of the Latin American tendency toward party fragmentation exacerbated by the breakup of the international communist movement that began in the 1960s with the Sino-Soviet dispute. In 1964 "pro-Chinese" members of the original Peruvian Communist Party (PCP) broke away from the party, which then became "pro-Soviet," to form the PCP-Bandera Roja (Red Flag). Two additional Maoist parties split off from the Red Flag: the SL and the PCP-Patria Roja (Red Nation or Red Fatherland).
From the guide to the Sendero Luminoso publications, 1987-1993, (Hoover Institution Archives)
| Role | Title | Holding Repository | |
|---|---|---|---|
| creatorOf | Sendero Luminoso (Guerrilla group). Sendero Luminoso publications, 1987-1993. | Stanford University, Hoover Institution Library | |
| creatorOf | Sendero Luminoso publications, 1987-1993 | Hoover Institution Archives | |
| referencedIn | Human Rights in Peru, II, 1978-2003 | Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections |
| Role | Title | Holding Repository |
|---|
Filters:
| Relation | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| associatedWith | Guzmán Reynoso, Abimael, 1934- | person |
| associatedWith | Partido Comunista del Perú. | corporateBody |
| associatedWith | Princeton University. Library. | corporateBody |
| Place Name | Admin Code | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peru |
| Subject |
|---|
| Communism |
| Communism |
| Guerrillas |
| Guerrillas |
| Occupation |
|---|
| Activity |
|---|
Corporate Body
Active 1987
Active 1993
Peruvians
Spanish; Castilian
