The Emerging Patterns of Peasants' Responses to Shining Path

Since the beginning of Sendero Luminoso's declaration of a "prolonged peoples of war" in 1980, one of the most frequently asked questions has been: "Does Sendero Luminoso have peasant support?" McClintock's assessment in 1984 was encapsulated in the title of her article: "When Peasants Rebel". Carlos Ivan Degregori, who has a forthcoming book on Sendero Luminoso, cautions against such a generalization. During the 1988 LASA meeting in New Orleans, he addressed the question of peasant support with the following insight with which I agree: What is really surprising is that Sendero Luminoso has not been more successful in the past eight years. I am going to address that issue by comparing the local histories of two localities that have been the focus of Sendero Luminoso since the mid 1970's: the Rio Pampas region of the province of Cangallo in the department of Ayacucho, Peru, and two regions of the province of Andahuaylas in the neighboring department of Apurimac. This comparison has a somewhat ironic historical connection because the original inhabitants of Chuschi were Aymaraes Indians who, in a 1593 document, claim that they were relocated from the Apurimac by Topa Inca Yupanqui after the Chanca defeat.