The imprisoned will. The luminous trenches of Shining Path of Peru

This book traces the evolution of Sendero Luminoso's political prison work inside the prisons in which they were confined by the Peruvian state. The aim was to assign the prison a certain role in the scenario of the "people's war" led by the PCP. That role had to be continuously readjusted according to the development of the insurgency. The insurgency was advancing from the countryside to the city. The prison offered the possibility of establishing a presence behind enemy lines, at the very center of power. Bringing their iron will into play, the Senderista "prisoners of war" would reverse the situation of separation from society that prison supposedly guaranteed, in order to challenge—from within its own interior courtyard—the constituted power. On that unexpected terrain of dispute, they would prevail over their captors on the basis of their ideological and political superiority, their valor, their discipline, and their capacity for dedication. Hence, the history of the "Senderista prison" must be understood in the perspective of the evolution of the "people's war" as a whole.