The Shining Path Revealed: Behind the Lies and Propaganda by The Vegan Marxist In an area where guerrilla warfare has been waged for the last two decades, we find ourselves within a psychological war against those who remain true to the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party, the Sendero Luminoso – or better known as the Shining Path by mainstream media. Led by Chairman Gonzalo, or also known as Abimael Guzman, the “People's War” was first waged on May 17, 1980. Although they [the Sendero Luminoso] trained themselves under Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thought, they also comprised themselves under the banner of what was considered as “Gonzalo Thought”, in which detailed certain key strategies through guerrilla war and survival. Since then, the Peruvian government, military, and media have waged both counterinsurgency and psychological warfare against the Sendero’s, in the hopes of eliminating any element left of this guerrilla army. Despite the fact of almost doing this this past decade, the Sendero Luminoso remain in numbers and still, to this day, are waging class struggle against the Capitalist ruling class within Peru. The “People's War” is waged The media’s use of the peasantry was always a key strategy, as well used by the Peruvian military, in order to try and demonize the Sendero Luminoso – known for their class support in key allies such as the peasantry. In 1982, just two years after the Sendero Luminoso waged “People's War”, the Peruvian military started providing training and funding to the “Ronda Campesina” – counterrevolutionary peasant militants who provided counterinsurgency against the Sendero’s. [1] In 1983, by Huata, the Ronda’s led an attack against the Sendero’s, in which led to the deaths of 13 members of the Sendero Luminoso. Just a month after, another attack took place in Sacsamarca, killing leading commanders of the Sendero’s within the region. Another monther later, the Ronda’s struck again. This time it led to the death of Olegario Curitomay, one of the commanders of the town of Lucanamarca. [2] The killing was as brutal as one could get, in which he was stoned, stabbed, set on fire, and then shot to death. Because of this attack, which was helped funded by the Peruvian military, the Sendero Luminoso responded to these executions through counter attacks within the region of Huanca Sancos – consisted of towns such as Yanaccollpa, Ataccara, Llacchua, Muylacruz and Lucanamarca – in which reported the death of 69 people. This became known as the “Lucanamarca Massacre”. After this, other attacks were then waged against the Ronda’s within other regions, in which the media blamed the Sendero’s over this attack through claims of executions against “innocent peasants, women, and children”. [3] No official reports have clarified any evidence behind the execution of children, and even if so, clarification on whether they were victimized deliberately or through the acts of cross-fire is remained unclear as well. The use of claims of “innocent peasants” being attacked and killed by the Sendero Luminoso was merely propaganda led by the Peruvian media. No word of the Ronda’s or who they’re being funded by are made public, and is rather covered up in order to demonize the Sendero’s of killing “innocent peasants”. When it comes to claims of killing women, I would point out the fact that, whether through the Sendero Luminoso or the Ronda Campesina, women were seen as militants as well. The use of trying to create a victimized image of women within these attacks were nothing more than a sexist fixation of women under guerrilla war. Many claims were made against the Sendero’s of attacking, torturing, and killing women. Yet, as Amnesty helped pointing out, women have also become known victims by the Peruvian military through the acts of torture [4] and rape. [5] Though, Amnesty tended to blame the Sendero Luminoso on these same charges as well without the understanding of women’s roles through guerrilla war. What’s interesting, though, is that, despite many claims of the majority of women being victimized by the Sendero Luminoso, fact of the matter is that women are a key victim through unlawful criminal sentencing by the Peruvian justice system, in which places 74% of those women locked up, under charged of “terrorism”. [6] “Human Rights” of the bourgeois Another tactic that was used, in which was helped promoted through Amnesty International, was the claims of going against “human rights”. Despite the fact that on June 18, 1986, at Lima’s Lurigancho prison, around 300 imprisoned members of the Sendero Luminoso were killed by Armed Forces, [7] claims of “human rights” violations continue to be blamed on the Sendero’s. Though, as stated in a document by the Sendero Luminoso, the use of “human rights” claims were then pointed out as not being the acts of human rights of the working class, but rather human rights of the bourgeois: “We start by not ascribing to either Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Costa Rica [Convention on Human Rights], but we have used their legal devices to unmask and denounce the old Peruvian state … For us, human rights are contradictory to the rights of the people, because we base rights in man as a social product, not man as an abstract with innate rights. “Human rights” do not exist except for the bourgeois man, a position that was at the forefront of feudalism, like liberty, equality, and fraternity were advanced for the bourgeoisie of the past. But today, since the appearance of the proletariat as an organized class in the Communist Party, with the experience of triumphant revolutions, with the construction of socialism, new democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat, it has been proven that human rights serve the oppressor class and the exploiters who run the imperialist and landowner-bureaucratic states. Bourgeois states in general … Our position is very clear. We reject and condemn human rights because they are bourgeois, reactionary, counterrevolutionary rights, and are today a weapon of revisionists and imperialists, principally Yankee imperialists.” [8] Factions of the Path emerge In 1992, the Peruvian military were able to locate and capture the leader of the Sendero Luminoso, Abimael Guzman. Since his imprisonment, factions began emerging out of the original Sendero’s. One, in which is being led by Comrade Artemio, continues to uphold the original policies of the Sendero Luminoso. They have fled to the jungle area of Huallaga Valley, in which is said to be in the number of 200-300 members left. The other faction is led by the commanders Victor and Jorge Quispe Palomino and Leonardo Huaman Zuñiga, also respectively known throughout their party as “Comrade Jose”, “Comrade Raul”, and “Comrade Alipio”, [9] who are right now within the VRAE region, acting as “helpers” to the peasants on coca cultivation and production. Though, according to members of the original Sendero Luminoso, the faction within the VRAE region are not following the original policies of both “Gonzalo Thought” and Marxist-Leninist-Maoism. According to imprisoned leader Abimael Guzman, he see’s this faction of “Sendero’s” as “..a group of mercenaries who look out for their personal interests and not those of the people. They are simplistic, they do not know ideology. They have practically tossed Marxism-Leninism-Maoism into the trash can.” [10] According to Laura Eugenia Zambrano, who is also serving a life-sentence in prison, stated that they [original Sendero's] “flatly rejected this armed group and military..” and “..are not part of the Sendero Luminoso Communist Party”. She also stated that “..[drug] traffickers are anti-Gonzalo thought”. [11] Another imprisoned member facing 25 years, Victoria Trujillo, stated that armed militants within the VRAE region “have nothing to do with the party..” and that they’re “..mercenaries against the people”. [12] Despite these testimonies by original members of the Sendero Luminoso, the Peruvian media failed to put them into account. Given the fact that they continue, to this day, to blame the entirety of the Sendero Luminoso for drug trafficking, in which was put to blame on them since they initially started the “People's War” against the Peruvian State. They don’t put the faction split within its complete context and merely see it as an expanding struggle, rather than a disconnection of the struggle. Because of this, reports have been made with claims that even the faction being led by Comrade Artemio is helping in drug trafficking, along with those known in the VRAE region of said cultivation as well. [13] Though, to respond to these accusations, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the “People's War” first waged by Abimael Guzman, Comrade Artemio and other members of the Sendero’s used a vehicle in order to throw leaflets in various streets of Ayacucho, in which they started calling the leaders of the VRAE region militants “‘mercenaries’ of the drug cartels and ‘narcocamaradas’”, in which is being used to “..discredit to President Gonzalo and Comrade Artemio and activities of the PCP base Huallaga” in order to “..destroy and disappear Gonzalo Thought”. [14] Al Jazeera found themselves in Peru in order to try and find out the truth of what is going on from reports of the Sendero Luminoso. While in Peru, they brought themselves within peasant villages that are protected by the VRAE region rebels, in which the villagers would give them their stories of the past where they once feared the Sendero’s, but are now being helped by them through drug trafficking and, according to their reports, are treating them [the peasants] very well. When the reporters tried going into the heart of the VRAE region in order to get an interview with members of the VRAE “Sendero’s”, they were told to get out quickly. So instead, they went to Lima in order to try and interview imprisoned members of the Sendero Luminoso and to see what their opinions were of the VRAE region faction. But, because they were not granted access into the prison with their cameras, after talks of negotiations, they found themselves interviewing a Sendero spokesman from the outside. The spokesman had stated that: “..those who are now in the VRAE have no chance of taking over the country. They are nothing but a militarized cell in the middle of the jungle, and in that hole they struggle to survive. What these anti-Maoists from the VRAE are doing today has nothing to do with the party’s politics, because they have become mercenaries who offer their services to the highest bidder, including those linked to drug trafficking. Our position has always been to defend the peasantry, but we should remember that drug trafficking harms the peasantry to the benefit of powerful elites.” [15] Once a violent struggle, now a peace struggle During the same interview with the spokesman of the Sendero Luminoso, it was then stated on where the party stands today and what it must leave behind for the time being: “In 1993 the ‘People's War’ in Peru ended and we categorically reiterate this. Our position is that we need a political solution to the problems that originated from the ‘People's War’. We are asking for a general amnesty that will contribute to the country’s reconciliation. Revolutionary violence has been part of class struggle throughout history. When the right time comes, we will employ all mechanisms that help the struggle for socialism and communism.” [16] Peace and amnesty has become the sole movement in which the original Sendero Luminoso abide by. Negotiations between themselves and the Peruvian government have taken place, yet still no agreement has been made. These negotiations have been promoted by Abimael Guzman through his recently published book, “De puño y letra”, in which he calls for peace negotiations to be held in order to bring a better relation between themselves and the people of Peru. It is also being used in order to try and help distance Guzman and his party from the anti-Maoist faction within the VRAE region. [17] Since then, peaceful rallies have been made in promotion of the class struggle and the Sendero Luminoso, especially one that was rallied on May 1st for the May Day rallies in Peru. [18] Despite constant struggles to try and free the Sendero Luminoso from the lies and propaganda made against them by both Peruvian and US media, for example the documentary made just before Abimael Guzman’s capture, “People of the Shining Path” [19], the psychological war waged against them continues to this day. Just recently, on July 13, 2010, the US has offered a $5 million bounty for the capture of the leaders of the Sendero Luminoso, in which also includes the bounty of Comrade Artemio. [20] As crippled as the Sendero’s may be, they’ve vowed to continue the class struggle, whether it may be peaceful or violent, in order to destroy capitalism from the country of Peru. Red Love & Salutes! Notes 1. German Palomino, “The Rise of the Rondas Campesinas in Peru” (PDF), 1996. 2. “La Masacre de Lucanamarca” (PDF), 1983. 3. “Peru: Human rights in a time of impunity”, Amnesty International, February 1996. 4. “Peru: Summary of Amnesty Internationals concerns 1980 – 1995″, Amnesty International. 5. “The Women’s Rights Project”, Human Rights Watch. 6. Weiss, Robert P. Comparing Prison Systems. [Amsterdam]: Routledge, 1998. Print. 7. Ibid. 8. “Sobre Las Dos Colinas (3)”, NY Transfer. 9. “Minister: Shining Path Remains a Threat in Peru’s Jungles”, Latin American Herald Tribune. 10. Ibid. 11. “De ‘Puño Y Letra’ De Abimael Guzman”, Eldiario International, September 13, 2009. 12. Ibid. 13. “Peruvian Police Identify Shining Path Commander”, Latin American Herald Tribune. 14. “Artemio Brands ‘Joseph’ and ‘Raul’ as ‘Mercenaries’ and ‘Narcocamaradas’”, Red Ant Liberation Army News, May 20, 2010. 15. “The New Shining Path”, Al Jazeera, July 21, 2010. 16. Ibid. 17. Ellie Griffis, “Lawyer for jailed Shining Path founder charged with “apology for terrorism” over book announcement”, Peruvian Times, September 17, 2009. 18. 1º de mayo 2010, Perú, May 7, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWr0I...layer_embedded 19. “Documentary: The People of the Shining Path”, The Marxist-Leninist, September 22, 2008. 20. Terry Wade, “U.S. offers bounty for Shining Path leaders in Peru”, Reuters, July 13, 2010. http://redantliberationarmy.wordpres...es-propaganda/
I'd like to note that "Guerra Popular" is not Popular War, but the Spanish translation of "People's War".
Yes, though when I had written this, I saw so many call it that, so I just made it that way to help them better understand it. In fact, since this is towards a different, more intellectual crowd, I'll edit it correctly.
Yes, though when I had written this, I saw so many call it that, so I just made it that way to help them better understand it. In fact, since this is towards a different, more intellectual crowd, I'll edit it correctly. It's all good comrade It's a good article but I do disagree with your stance on the peace accords though, which Maoists, including factions of the PCP itself and participants of RIM, denounced as a capitulationist hoax.
How was it a hoax when we have Gonzalo stating it himself in his own book?
Chairman Gonzalo has been in isolation for 20 years and has never been allowed to make a public presentation or statement. The PCP and MPP demand that if Chairman Gonzalo wants "peace accords" that he be allowed to publicly declare it, but the regime has refused to to release him from isolation. What do you think they're so afraid of? I'll give you a hint: it's a hoax. There has been a two-line struggle in Peru between the correct line and the Right Opportunist Line (ROL). The correct line calls for the continuation of the People's War, while the ROL calls for capitulation and "peace accords". The shameless capitulationists of the ROL are attempting to destroy all the gains of the People's War by advocating the necessity of "peace accords", so why do you think the state constantly claims that Gonzalo want's peace accords? Once again, it's because this whole thing is a hoax.
I think mosfeld said it best. The whole situation is too fishy and even if Gonzalo really did call for peace, that doesn't matter because as Maoists we believe in revolutionary struggle. If he really was calling for peace, then he deserves criticism. We do not follow Gonzalo simply because he is Gonzalo. It's because of correct revolutionary theory and if he made mistakes, he must be criticized for such.
