Beginning of the internal armed conflict - Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path)
Beginning of PCP-Sendero Luminoso actions marking the beginning of the internal armed conflict.
In May 1980, the internal armed conflict began when the Communist Party of Peru Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) started its subversive actions. The PCP-SL developed a strategy that consciously incorporated terror as an instrument in the service of its objectives and explicitly rejected the rules of international law. The Shining Path ideology was based on an extreme Manichaeism that considered every institution and social group not controlled by Sendero as an absolute enemy.