A Territorial View of the Armed Struggle: The FARC-EP and the Shining Path

Abstract

The following article explores the territorial relationship between the two most important armed groups in the Andean region in the last century: The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) and the Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path (PCP-SL). Starting from a theoretical framework that links the emergence and subsistence of the insurgent groups to conditions of inaccessibility and resource disposition, the article carries out a comparative analysis of the spatial-temporal sequence “emergence, development, climax and decline” developed by the insurgent groups. The article argues that such trajectories unfold according to a logic periphery-centreperiphery. Having emerged in two peripheral contexts such as Marquetalia and Ayacucho, the insurgent groups stand out for their search for centrality as a result of a remarkable accumulation of forces which, followed by a belligerent State response and the impact of other factors, urges the return to the peripheral condition.