20 Years After the Fall of Abimael Guzmán: The Moments That Made His Capture Possible

A successful police intelligence operation led to the capture of the leader of Sendero Luminoso. Here is the first part of the story. This is the victory of patient planning and strategy over the most abject slaughter. The blow of detailed tactics against blind eye-for-an-eye. In short, a fierce coup by the Special Intelligence Group (GEIN), the anti-terrorism arm of the Dircote, against the National Intelligence Service of Vladimiro Montesinos, which ultimately also sealed his fate. In 1990, a group of agents undertook the enterprise of combating Sendero Luminoso covertly, dismantling its leadership, and methodically working toward the capture of the elusive genocidal leader, Abimael Guzmán Reynoso. Here are the decisive moments in two years of police work that culminated on the night of September 12, 1992, twenty years ago.