Each Era Marks Its Youth: The Armed Option and the Motivations of Shining Path Militants

The 1970s, with their political and ideological debates, social struggles, and the predominance of Marxism, influenced motivations to seek an ideal, egalitarian world. In the 1980s, the echo of the seventies still persisted, but young people were more focused on finding a political organization that had prestige and could provide a sense of security that the discredited left-wing parties could not offer, given an uncertain political and economic situation. Finally, in the late 1980s, the most powerful reason was the search for profound social change that would resolve the situations of poverty and abandonment generated by the crises. Other motivations, mentioned in this last phase of the conflict, were steeped in more personal interests related to gender, family, and cultural and countercultural values.