Trial of Abimael: Shining Path, Ideology and Reality

Guzmán promised a "red October in Lima." October, a month with many meanings, had been chosen by the leader of Sendero Luminoso to show the world and his own followers his real power: what he called the strategic equilibrium, a balance that Guzmán intended to achieve with an offensive against the capital. What was the morale of Lima's residents before September 12? What was the morale of the country as a whole? And the morale of Sendero Luminoso? What would Guzmán have achieved had he been free in October? What exactly could have happened? These are some of the questions that our historians will surely address. With better data, those found in the urbanization Los Sauces, calle 1, Surquillo. When they are analyzed in due course, they will reveal in their full magnitude the extent to which Peruvian society lived through the most decisive hour of its republican history. For this reason, the detention of Guzmán, before becoming fodder for the tabloid press, must be the occasion for deep and serious reflection. However, in much of our media only the surface, the skin of a reality that is far more complex, is heard, seen, and read. A patriotic task of the media in the current situation must be to guide, inform, shape, and educate our country with regard to what occurred on September 12. (Excerpt from introduction).