Coca growers' strike with PCP-SL presence in Aucayacu

In 1981 there was a coca growers' strike in Aucayacu that marked the first public presence of the PCP-SL in the area. Inhabitants of Aucayacu and municipal authorities of that time identified this strike as the event in which a hidden presence of the PCP-SL was voiced and felt for the first time. This event was significant because it represented the beginning of the Shining Path's influence in Alto Huallaga, a strategic region for drug trafficking. The Shining Path cadres would have initiated their party's political work in the countryside taking as their cause the defense of coca, clandestinely joining the coca growers' organizations and encouraging the peasants to resort to violent means in their demonstrations and marches.