Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso)

The rebels did not start out by using terrorist tactics in their attempt to win over Peru for a form of Maoist Communism. McClintock (1983) provided a good overview of the group's early history and tactics. She noted that the Sendero Luminoso (or Shining Path) arose in a particular locale and milieu, the product primarily of the thought of one man, Abimael Guzman, who influenced his students at the University of Huamanga in Ayacucho. Guzman put forth a particular brand of Maoist Communism that was similar to that of the defeated Gang of Four in China and his group split off from another Maoist group, the Bandera Roja. Most of the members were descendants of the mestizo and Indian population of the area, and in some respects, their Maoism is tinged with aspects of racial antagonism. McClintock indicated that they utilized some of the symbols of the ancient Incas and used the Incan slingshot to deliver their dynamite on targets (1983, 1984).

The Shining Path rebels can be distinguished quite clearly from other Marxist groups in South and Central America both by their beliefs and by their overall tactics, or philosophy of revolution. They quite clearl

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he leaders chose to remove from the area and leave their peasant supporters to bear the brunt of the Armed Forces' attack (McClintock, 1984). The Counter-offensive of the Armed Forces continued into 1984 and it is 1984 that marked the most violent year of the struggle connected with the Shining Path until 1989, with 4300 victims attributed to that struggle in 1984 (Smith, 1989) However, in an important comment reported in the New York Times, an American official noted that 1989 was the most violence seen directly from the Sendero, with the implication being (and supported by some diplomats and Peruvians, according to the New York Times) that most of the violence in 1984 was by the Armed Forces and directed against the peasant population (Treaster, 1989). The government counter-offensive occurred during the second, or early part of the third, stage of the revolutionary process begun by the Shining Path. In the first phase, the group expanded into villages in the countryside and started moving against landowners. In the second phase, the group made more direct attacks on government institutions and symbols, including governmental officials. The demarcation line between the second and third stage seems less clear, but by 1989 th
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