Military training for children as young as 7 years old
The Shining Path trained children as young as 7 years old in military training camps in Satipo.
In Shining Path camps, children studied and worked from the age of 7, picking rice and working according to their ability. From the age of 12 they took up arms. They studied pure Shining Path politics with a teacher every day. They were taught to make weapons out of sticks and they pretended to be at war, killing each other as if they were playing. They were taught everything about war. There were quite a few children, each group with 20 and 30 members. The 'pioneer children' were from infants to 13 or 14 years old, then they became juveniles.