Shining Path: A New Revolutionary Model?

In 1980 the first attack by Sendero Luminoso took place. Since then, the terrorist actions of Sendero Luminoso and the Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru have cost the country thousands of lives and material losses exceeding 22 billion dollars. The strategy put into practice from 1990 onward led to the capture of the principal terrorist ringleaders and to the progressive pacification of the country. The most important capture took place on September 12, 1992, when the Dirección Nacional Contra el Terrorismo (DINCOTE) detained Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, the supreme leader of Sendero Luminoso. Months earlier, the ringleader and founder of the Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru, Víctor Polay Campos, had been arrested. At present, the majority of terrorist leaders are in prison, more than six thousand subversives have taken advantage of the repentance law, and since 1993 terrorist activity has diminished significantly. Below we present an analysis of the pacification process undertaken in the country. (Excerpt from the preface).