Page 353 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

S-Kushner.qxd 28-10-02 11:28 AM Page 333

Shining Path———333

demanded the release of several incarcerated Red peasantry and using them to spur revolution.) Inspired
Army Members. Shigenobu was thought to be the by China’s Cultural Revolution, the group sought to
mastermind of the plan, causing authorities to add her destroy Peru’s government and cultural institutions
to the international “wanted” list. and create a perfect communist society that would be
The JRA was responsible for many terrorist attacks led by a peasant dictatorship. Like the Khmer Rouge
in the 1970s and 80s. These include but are not limited of Cambodia, Shining Path regards civilian casualties
to the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur as not only inevitable but desirable in furthering revo-
in 1975, the hijacking of a flight bound from Japan to lution, and specifically targeted doctors, relief work-
Paris in 1977, and the seizure of the U.S. and British ers, educators, and clergy in some of its campaigns.
embassies in Rome in 1987. The activities and At its peak, the group’s structure was strictly hier-
strength of the JRA decreased in the 1990s due to the archical, with local cells or bands of guerrillas report-
fall of the Soviet Union, the advancements made ing to a regional council, which in turn reported to a
toward peace in the Middle Eastern conflict, and the central committee of up to 19 members. The central
capture of many members. committee’s actions were dictated by the group’s
By the late 1990s, police had been tipped off that founder and leader, Abimael Guzmán Reynoso. A cult
Shigenobu had returned to Japan and was consorting of personality existed around Guzmán, known to his
with other members of the group to strengthen their followers as Comrade Gonzalo. The depth of devotion
support bases. On November 8, 2000, fifty-five-year- he inspired in his followers gave the group a quasi-
old Shigenobu was finally apprehended in Osaka, religious character. Many Shining Path members
Japan, and brought to Tokyo for trial. In a statement believed they would inevitably be killed in action and
made from prison, she proclaimed that she would considered themselves honored to die for the cause.
continue to pursue the goals of the JRA but through Shining Path’s origins can be traced to San Cristo-
a legitimate political party instead of a terrorist bal de Huamanga University, a local university in the
organization. remote, poverty-stricken, and mountainous province
of Ayacucho, Peru. A philosophy professor at the uni-
See also JAPANESE RED ARMY
versity, Guzmán began holding informal political dis-
cussions with students and fellow teachers in the early
Further Reading
1960s.
Farrell, William Regis. Blood and Rage: The Story of the Reforms of the Peruvian educational system had
Japanese Red Army. New York: Free Press, 1990. led to increased university enrollment, especially in
the provinces. A significant portion of these new
students were of native Indian heritage, and many
SHINING PATH were the first in their families to have a chance for
higher education. From these early discussion groups
would emerge the core of the Shining Path leadership.
Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) is a communist By the late 1960s, the group had attracted a number of
guerrilla group founded in Ayacucho, Peru; in 1980, it followers and formed a Maoist political party, the
began a terrorist campaign that almost brought down Communist Party of Peru. Guzmán’s ideas were evolv-
the government of Peru. ing and becoming progressively more radical; he
Shining Path takes its name from Peruvian Marxist began to advocate a bloody military uprising as the
leader Jose Carlos Mariatigua, who once stated, only legitimate form of revolution. In response, in the
“Marxism-Leninism will open the shining path to mid-1970s the group began to purchase weapons and
revolution.” The group’s ideology, however, is Maoist. train members in guerrilla warfare.
(Marxism and Leninism posit that society must In May 1980, Shining Path began its attacks in the
develop a group of urban, industrialized, class- Ayacucho area, burning the ballot boxes used in the
conscious workers, the proletariat, before a commu- presidential election. The group began to infiltrate
nist revolution can be successful. Maoism, named for Indian villages, often tailoring its operations to gain
Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-tung, holds that local support, for example, by assassinating certain
an agrarian, preindustrial society can be transformed hated landowners and local criminals. The govern-
directly into a communist one by indoctrinating the ment first regarded the rebellion as insignificant and