Shining Path. The World's Deadliest Subversive Movement

The Partido Comunista del Perú, known as Sendero Luminoso (PCP-SL), is a subversive and terrorist organization that in May 1980 unleashed an armed conflict against the Peruvian state and society. The CVR has established that throughout this conflict — the most violent in the history of the Republic — the PCP-SL committed extremely grave crimes constituting crimes against humanity and was responsible for 54% of the fatal victims reported to the CVR. Based on its calculations, the CVR estimates that the total number of fatal victims caused by the PCP-SL amounts to 31,331 people. They were always few in number. They wanted to be few. There were five members nationwide and twelve in Ayacucho at the time when the faction led by Abimael Guzmán, the supreme leader of the PCP-SL, decided to affirm its own path in 1970; 520 between party members and closest sympathizers at the time of launching the armed conflict in 1980; and around 2,700 by 1990, when it reached its greatest extent and intensity. (Excerpt from the preface).