Abimael Guzman was the leader who initiated the campaign of the communist terror group of Peru, commonly known as Shining Path or by the Spanish name, Sendero Luminoso. Officially known as the Communist Party of Peru of the Shining Path of Mariategui, it started what it claimed as the “People’s War” in 1980. But the basic foundation was laid many years earlier by a professor of philosophy, Abimael Guzman.
Early Life of Abimael Guzman
Abimael Guzman Reynoso was born in Mollendo, a port town in Arequipa region in South West Peru. His father was not married to his mother. However, after his mother died, Abimael went to live with his father and his wife in Arequipa. After studying in a Catholic secondary school, he entered the San Augustin National University in Arequipa, where he completed his bachelor degrees on philosophy and law. His dissertations were “The Kantian Theory of Space” and “The Bourgeois Democratic State”. He was remembered as a shy and lonely figure with books as his companion but never as a possible future revolutionary.
Everything was to change in 1962 when he was employed as a professor of philosophy at the newly re-opened San Cristobal of Huamanga National University in Ayacucho. Known as Huamanga until 1825, Ayacucho is a city of 33 churches. However, what affected young Guzman was the fact that it was one of the poorest regions in Peru, inhabited mainly by the Indian communities. He was said to be influenced at the early stages by the rector of the university, Efrain Morote Best. His son, Osmon was at a time the second in command of Sendero Luminoso.
Foundations for Sendero Luminoso
Abimael Guzman increasingly turned towards communism in order to find solutions for the poverty and deprivation in Peru. Even after independence, the large Amerindian population was living sidelined and in utter poverty. The Sendero Luminoso was to gain support among these downtrodden people.
In the early stages, Guzman was a member of Communist Party of Peru-Red Flag (Bandera Roja) group. But later he split from it and by early 1970s, was leading his own Communist Party of Peru-Shining Path. He recruited from amongst his students who called him affectionately by the name “shampoo” because as they remarked that, after listening to Guzman, one’s head became clear of doubts.
Although inspired by Mariategui in the initial days, Guzman was soon influenced by Maoism. He and some of his followers had been in China and had been following the Cultural Revolution there. They were also studying the Maoist “People’s War” strategy. Similar to Mao they wished to surround the coastal cities after conquering the countryside.
Guzman’s recruits integrated with and even married into the communities of poor Indians and indoctrinated them. Meanwhile Guzman was briefly arrested in 1979 and the mug shot taken then was the most recent picture of him the authorities had until 1990. Soon after his release he went underground. Guzman was ready for his “People’s War”
People’s War and El Presidente Gonzalo
In 1980, the Sendero Luminoso declared “People’s War” by burning some ballot boxes to disrupt the first democratic elections in Peru after 12 years. At the early stages they received wide support in the Ayacucho region and the immediate neighborhood.
Meanwhile, the ideology of the group evolved with time. Earlier it was guided by “Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tse-tung Thought”. Then, mimicking the Maoist terminology, they began referring to Guzman as Presidente (Chairman) Gonzalo. Later, “Mao Tse-tung Thought” was quietly subjected to the new ideology of “Gonzalo Thought”. The followers of Abimael Guzman named their leader as the “fourth sword of communism” after Marx, Engels and Lenin. As Sendero Luminoso was now guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and Gonzalo Thought, the members of the group were to memorize certain precepts of “Gonzalo Thought”.
Guzman became more than a hero to some of his supporters. For some Indian peasant communities who supported him, Guzman appeared a demi-god as he continuously eluded the Peruvian security forces. He was being associated with the Inca myths of resurgence and was revered as the new Inca or the ‘Red Sun’ (Puka Inti). For all members of Sendero Luminoso, Presidente Gonzalo was the Sendero Luminoso.
This was the single most important factor in the ultimate destruction of Sendero Luminoso once Abimael Guzman was captured on September 12, 1992. The myths were shattered as everyone saw him, a bearded bespectacled old man of flesh and blood, inside a cage. As Abimael Guzman was Sendero Luminoso, the Sendero Luminoso fell with the fall of Abimael Guzman.
References
Larmer, B. We got Him! Newsweek, September 28, 1992
Marks, T.A., Maoist Insurgency since Vietnam, London & Portland (1996)
Wheat A., Shining Path’s “Fourth Sword” Ideology, Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Vol. 18 Issue 01, pp 41-55 (Summer 1990)
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