Shining Path, Tupac Amaru (Peru, leftists)
The two main Peruvian rebel groups, both leftist, are the Maoist group Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and the Cuban-inspired Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru). Both organizations operated most forcefully in the 1980s and early 1990s, when Peru's government fought a costly war against both insurgencies, but disproportionately the Shining Path. The U.S. State Department identifies Shining Path as a terrorist organization, but Tupac Amaru hasn't been listed as such since 1999. Shining Path had a period of dormancy in the 1990s, but the organization has since resurged, along with the Peruvian cocaine trade. Analysts say the group is small in numbers, but it could gain support in rural areas that have been neglected by the Peruvian government.
Referenced in events
- Victims in the department of Huancavelica
- Victims of Quechua mother tongue in 1984
- Attack on the police post in Villa El Salvador
- Quechua mother tongue victims in 1985
- Opening of MRTA guerrilla front in San Martin
- Capture by Víctor Polay Campos (Rolando)
- Slaughter of Molinos
- Los Molinos ambush against the MRTA