Peru After 15 Years of Violence (1980–1995)

In mid-1992, thousands of Peruvian men and women were seeking a life-saving passport at the embassies of numerous countries in order to flee; many left due to lack of work and fear, and there was even speculation about a Sendero Luminoso victory that would have meant the disappearance of Peru as a Nation. With remarkable triumphalism, Sendero Luminoso announced that its war had reached a stage of "strategic equilibrium," that it consequently had serious chances of winning, and that it would take power in two to four more years. The surprise arrest of Abimael Guzmán in September 1992 produced a radical and unexpected turning point in the country's process of political violence, as the triumphalism shifted to the other side.