Shining Path

Shining Path is an unprecedented terrorist organization. Despite the imprisonment of its leader, Abimael Guzman, the group continues to strike fear in the hearts of the people of Peru. With its careful orchestration of guerrilla warfare, Shining Path became the first revolutionary movement to pose a serious threat to an established democratic government.

Shining Path began as a university movement in provincial highland Ayacucho in the early 1960s. The movement organized there and elsewhere for a number of years before launching its people's war in 1980: "As a domestic strategy [terrorism] invariably invites a punitive government reaction . . . this cost can be offset by the advance preparation of building a secure underground" (Crenshaw 17). Shining Path recognized the wisdom of waiting until the Peruvian government was at its weakest point before striking.

Shining Path began its public campaign of violence when Peru was on the brink of economic collapse. The country's minimum wage had plummeted in value while hyperinflation reached the 7,000 percent level. About half the population was considered critically impoverished. Many Peruvians directly blamed the government for the economic disaster. Shining Path capitalized on this discontent by disseminating anti-government propaganda evidence of political corruption. As a result, many of Peru's urban, middle-class population believed that Shining Path's violent intervention was in reaction to the country's econo

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loy terrorism is the result of costs and benefits analyses by extremist organizations. Terrorists believe that the use of violence will be more effective relative to an array of other options. Because the government response was traditionally weak, fear of reprisal was not a significant factor in Shining Path's decision making. Nor was the potential for losing popular support based on the claiming of innocent lives: "Terrorists try to compensate by justifying their actions as the result of the absence of choice or the need to respond to government violence" (Crenshaw 17). Shining Path made it clear at the outset of its guerrilla war that civilian casualties would be high. A Shining Path representative once informed the media "that the current stage of the war, which he calls 'strategic equilibrium' will cost 1 million Peruvian lives" (U.S. Congress, 1992, p. 119). Political theorists often attribute the motivations of terrorists to abstract feelings such as frustration or the desire for political change. A true understanding of terrorism, however, requires an examination of the human element of emotion: "'Hatred,' 'revulsion,' 'revenge'--these terms characterize precisely the feelings and motivations of many terrorist

Category: History - S