Self-defense training in Tabacal

In 1993, in the ex-SAIS of Tabacal, Cachachi district, Cajabamba province, a self-defense committee was formed in response to the pressure and violence exerted by the PCP-Sendero Luminoso. This process is framed in the context of the counter-subversive strategy that promoted the formation of Self-Defense Committees to complement military and police actions. The formation of these committees was a reaction of the peasantry that had previously been dominated by the Shining Path, but between 1989 and 1990 began to organize into peasant patrols and self-defense committees. By 1993, the fear in the countryside had reached such a level that, with the destruction of practically all the agricultural companies having been completed and in the face of pressure from the PCP-SL on the population that initially supported them, self-defense groups began to form in places such as the ex-SAIS of Tabacal.