Terrorism in Peru

May 17th, 1980. The tiny town of Chuschi was preparing for the first presidential elections in over a decade, when a small group of armed men entered the settlement. Opposed against both the old authoritarian regime and the introduction of the new democratic form of government, they burned the ballot boxes . No one got injured, but it was the first act of violence of a new revolutionary movement. Sendero Luminoso announced its presence, and started the internal conflict that would terrorize Peru for the rest of the millennium.

Following the continental pattern, Peru swung back and forth between democracy and authoritarianism throughout the second half of the 20th century. Needless to say that this did not benefit economic stability. Founded it the late 1960s, Sendero Luminoso’s leader Abimael Guzmán was convinced that neither of the above mentioned systems could do anything for the Peruvian people. Inspired by his experiences in China he developed a militant Maoist doctrine, that guided the movements’ guerrilla warfare in rural areas. It was meant to ‘liberate’ these areas, and slowly choke off larger cities in the process.

In the initial phase of the internal conflict, support for the movement rose principally in the Andean highlands that were its home base. They gained popularity among the impoverished rural populations by killing unpopular members of society such as government officials and rich merchants. The political void hence created, was of course filled by the movement and its supporters. Continuing attacks on police posts made the Peruvian government realise they could no longer ignore the problem. A state of emergency was declared, constitutional rights could be ignored for two months, and the army was employed to take care of the problem. Of course this only meant the escalation of the conflict.

The support that Sendero Luminoso enjoyed quickly diminished when it became clear that their communist convictions lead to large numbers of civilians being declared ‘class enemies’. The movement also lost the respect of many indigenous that it claimed to represent because a lack of respect for culture and traditions. Villages and towns started to form militias to defend themselves from the movement, and occasionally even attack it. The reaction of Sendero Luminoso was more violence and cruelty. In 1983 the Lucanamarca Massacre marked the beginning of the most bloody phase of the internal conflict. The militia of Lucanamarca had killed the local Sendero Luminoso leader Olegario Curitomay in a cruel way. After stoning and stabbing him, they set him on fire and finally shot him. The movement reacted by entering various towns in the region and killing a total of 69 peasents with axes, machetes and small firearms. Other villagers got boiling water poured over them, or were mutilated in different ways. It was not the last massacre Sendero Luminoso was responsible for.

By the time of the Lucanamarca massacre, a second Maoist group had joined the scene. Previously engaged in normal politics, the Movimento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru (MRTA) decided to initiate its own armed struggle by robbing a bank in Lima in 1982. Other main tactics were, car bombings, kidnappings and assassinations were utilised as weapons to terrorise urban Peru. The action they are best known for is the occupation of the Japanese embassy in 1996, in which they took over 600 people hostage. They demanded the release of 450 MRTA prisoners, but after a four month siege a raid ended the occupation and all fourteen MRTA members were killed.

The increasing employment of the military to fight Sendero Luminoso unfortunately meant excesses in state violence as well. The above mentioned raid ended in the prosecution of a number of army officers for the execution of three MRTA members that had already surrendered. In August 1985 the town of Accomarca witnessed a massacre by government troops looking for members of Sendero Luminoso. The number of victims has never been confirmed, but estimates range from 47 to 74. In the 1990s, Peruvian intelligence agencies committed many atrocities in the crackdown ordered by the semi-authoritarian Fujimori government.

After two decades of internal conflict, both Sendero Luminoso and the MRTA had been weakened significantly by government forces, internal struggles and even struggles between the two groups. In 1992 Guzmán was captured, and most of the Sendero Luminoso leadership followed soon. By 2000 the conflict had deescalated so much that a Truth and Reconciliation Committee started to research the events. It concluded that the conflict had cost the lives of almost 70,000 Peruvians. Half of those were murdered by Sendero Luminoso, a third were victims of government violence. The rest must be attributed to smaller groups such as the MRTA, or local militias. It was exactly the already weak and impoverished Andean population that suffered most.

Unfortunately that is not the end of the story. Although most consider the internal conflict over, both organisations are still alive and no formal peace has been signed. The most recent act of Sendero Luminoso was the murder of 13 Peruvian soldiers in the Ayacucho region it once started its revolution in. This was in April 2009. In the pueblos jovenes, that once saw members infiltrating social organisations, the revolutionary movements no longer seem to be a great threat though. Only time will tell if the organisations are breathing their last breath, or are being rebuild.