Abimael Guzmán Created His Family: Shining Path
Interview with Santiago Roncagliolo on the occasion of the presentation of his book La Cuarta Espada. The image of a pile of dogs hanged from lampposts in Lima is the first memory Santiago Roncagliolo has of his country. It was the first act of Sendero Luminoso, in 1980. Behind it was a man who one day in 1992 would be shown to the world as a caged beast, as the embodiment of evil. Roncagliolo wanted to find out who that man really was: La Cuarta Espada is the first book published about Abimael Guzmán, the man who wanted to succeed Lenin, Stalin, and Mao — to be the fourth sword of communism. Sendero Luminoso killed 37,800 Peruvians; soldiers killed 32,200.