Shining Path. Vol. I

The work situates the phenomenon of Sendero Luminoso in the national context and then sketches a set of ideas around the following topics: the regional setting in which Sendero Luminoso carries out the bulk of its actions; the social and institutional setting in which the Partido Comunista del Perú Sendero Luminoso arises; and the evolution of this organization up to 1980. For now, in the absence of exhaustive research and given the complexity of the phenomenon, this work is valuable only as an explanatory attempt that puts forward at most a set of hypotheses, which must be solidly supported and verified in the future. We believe this is the most that can currently be done. The absence of documentation on SL could be partially remedied by consulting the archives of the UNSCH, as well as several theses submitted at that university in the anthropology and Social Work programs. On the region and especially on the Ayacuchan peasantry, there is abundant material, both at the UNSCH and at Ayacuchan research centers, especially the IER "José María Arguedas" and TADEPA. Based on these materials it is possible to obtain a fairly complete picture of the area around 1982. (Excerpt from the foreword).