Communist Party of Peru
The Shining Path, officially the Communist Party of Peru, is a communist political party in Peru whose ideological basis is in Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought; the latter referring to the writings of its founder Abimael Guzmán which built upon the foundations of the former. Despite its basis however, the organization failed to enact many of its supposed principles, such as mass line, and almost completely depended on the personality of "Presidente Gonzalo" without which the Shining Path ended up breaking down.
Founded in a 1970 split of the country's oldest Communist Party of Peru, the following decade was spent recruiting armed supporters among the indigenous peoples in the countryside and the poorer urban districts.[1] Believing that the existing socialist states were revisionist and that the Shining Path was the vanguard of the world communist movement, in 1980 the party launched a people's war whose aim was to overthrow the government through guerilla warfare that would spark world revolution. Initially the Shining Path had plenty of support among the indigenous populations, however that steadily eroded as a result of the Shining Path doing things like cutting off people's fingers for voting in Peruvian elections, looting the villages they were supposed to protect, among other acts of brutality which include several massacres.[2][3][4] The Shining Path has carried out murders of other leftists, and regarding the USSR, the Shining Path stated that it was an enemy of its cause,[5] attacking its embassy in Peru multiple times.[6]
Abimael Guzmán had an intense cult of personality around himself which he openly encouraged,[7] denouncing almost every other left-wing group in the country including the Peruvian junta that took power in 1968, which abolished serfdom and replaced it with agricultural cooperatives[8] as well as nationalizing key sectors.[9][8] After Guzmán was captured in 1992 the Shining Path deteriorated rapidly and splintered, losing any potential it had to overthrow the state. Indeed in the year prior to the arrest, most analysts of the group believed that a victory for it was possible, some forecasting within five years.[10] Presently there is only one faction still active, the Militarized Communist Party of Peru, which in 2018 distanced itself from the legacy of the Shining Path in order to maintain the support of peasants previously persecuted by that group.[11][12][13]
References
- ↑ Shining Path. Britannica.
- ↑ "Shining Path". InSight Crime. 27 March 2017. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
- ↑ Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación. Book VII "Ataque del PCP-SL a la Localidad de Marcas (1985)".
- ↑ Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación. "Press Release 170.".
- ↑ "Terrorista muerto en un ataque a la Embajada soviética en Lima". El País. 1986-07-08.
- ↑ "One Peru Gunman Slain In Soviet Embassy Raid". New York Times. 1986-07-09.
- ↑ Line of Construction of the Three Instruments of the Revolution (Especially in the section Leadership). General Political Line of the Communist Party of Peru.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Gutiérrez Sanín, Francisco; Schönwälder, Gerd (2010). Economic Liberalization and Political Violence: Utopia Or Dystopia?. International Development Research Centre. pp. 256–284. ISBN 978-0745330631.
- ↑ "Commanding Heights: Peru". PBS NewsHour.
- ↑ The Shining Path of Peru, Cynthia McClintock. pp. 243.
- ↑ Robbins, Seth (4 September 2020). "Peru in Familiar Stalemate With Shining Path Rebels". InSight Crime.
- ↑ Stone, Hannah (27 March 2017). "US Indicts Shining Path Rebels as Drug War Focus Shifts to Peru". InSight Crime.
- ↑ Gorder, Gabrielle (23 September 2019). "Peru's Shining Path Plots Unlikely Return to Power". InSight Crime.