Shining Path: Conscience of the Left?

To what extent are the actions of Sendero Luminoso cornering the Peruvian left, to the point of bewildering it? What logic should be used to understand Sendero Luminoso? What are the dangers of its armed actions? Perhaps the blackout and the Molotov cocktails in the very heart of Miraflores served to confirm — at the center of the city — the unsettling existence of Sendero Luminoso. For if Ayacucho can seem to some too exotic and too distant, Miraflores is too real, even though for the Ayacucho senderistas it is precisely Miraflores that is exotic and distant. This article does not claim to offer definitive answers; it merely attempts to present the phenomena surrounding the monster of Sendero Luminoso. (Article introduction).