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Coffins of ronderos murdered by Shining Path in Ayacucho.
Coffins of ronderos killed by Sendero Luminoso in Ayacucho. The photograph was published in July 1991 in an article written by journalist Gustavo Gorriti questioning the distribution of weapons to peasant patrols. After entering Ayacucho in 1983, the Armed Forces began organizing the population into self-defense organizations. By the late 1980s these groups participated in counter-subversive operations alongside military forces. In November 1991, under the government of Alberto Fujimori, the Self-Defense Committees Law was enacted, allowing them to obtain weapons provided by the Armed Forces.