Shining Path: Theory and practice in the exercise of political violence (1964-1992)

Abstract

The following paper aims to present the construction and application of the devices of violence developed by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP-SL), which was one of the most violent formations of the 20th century in Latin America and, of course, in the history of Peru. Responsible for more than half of the nearly 70,000 officially reported violent deaths between 1980 and 1992, the Shining Path always took into consideration the need to direct all efforts to deploy a revolutionary process that would put an end to the oppressive elements that supported the Peruvian State. Through a continuous evocation of violence, this appears in the whole process of ideological modulation of the formation, between 1964 and 1980, always inseparable from the figure of Abimael Guzmán, its maximum leader. On the other hand, it also adapts to the circumstances and coordinates of the armed confrontation (1980-1882), initially circumscribed around the province of Ayacucho and ending, not without contradictions, in the capital city of Lima. To illustrate the argument offered, documentary sources such as the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2003) and Guzmán's own writings are used, in addition to the use of some fifteen accounts obtained in interviews, so far unpublished, with former Shining Path militants. The above, thanks to fieldwork carried out in the cities of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Lima, and which took place between 2015 and 2018.