[pepsionice]

To briefly tell this tale of woe...in a simplistic fashion...let us review the situation. Up through the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s...the government of Peru wasn't exactly playing fair and honest. It was extremely corrupt and run by 20-odd families/clans. The vast majority of Peruvians did not care for the continued political games and wanted change. Various efforts were made...always at the national university...where these idiot students got it into their mind that they could make a difference and change politics in Peru. Over and over...their efforts were easily discovered and they were "taught" the proper way to respect Peruvian leaders.

So the day finally comes...Abimael Guzman, college professor...goes off to China and discovers the Mao campaign. For those who never understood how Mao took command of China...it was his "walk" around the country and the influence with the rural people that made the difference. Guzman sees similar potential...comes back to Peru...gets into his car, and drives out of the capital city...to the country.

Guzman goes into the highlands...talking Mao principals. He is very intelligent and does a great con job with the poor villagers in the high country. They begin to show little respect to the local police or politicians...thus circumventing their authority. When a theft is encountered...the locals dispatch their own form of justice. The local cops tried to make the national government aware of this growing threat...and it merely taken as a joke. Why worry about a bunch of villagers in the high country of Peru? They can't do nothing to seize the country.

So Guzman continues...building Shining Path from scratch. They eventually move into the valleys and start interesting rural farmers. Same tactics....show that the cops are corrupt and that politicans can't help you. Build on socialized communities. By 1980 when the military finally started allowing for open and true elections...Shining Path declined and went into open warfare.

Throughout the 1980s...they targeted anyone and everyone. They went after politicians who were corrupt, business owners who weren't supportive, and even the police. The military fell into the open trap that Shining Path expected...they started arresting and killing innocent people that had nothing to do with Shining Path...thus pushing more of the rural population into the open arms of the Shining Path. Neither the government or Shining Path were positive for the country.

By 1991...Shining Path had a major lock on controlling 40 percent of the country. Lima was the only place where the government owned absolute control. Electrical outages in the valleys around Lima were a constant reminder as to the range and power of the Shining Path. Somewhere along the way though...in the 1990s...the rural population realized that Maoist rules didn't fit into a Catholic country. Local popular leaders who weren't corrupt....were being killed off by Shining Path to ensure only their leadership was in control. This was the decline of the Shining Path.

In 1992, Guzman was finally captured...probably with massive information provided by rural communities to end the whole affair. The key element keeping Shining Path going...was Guzman. There was no adequate leadership after that point to assume national command.

Here in 2007....Proseguir is the left-over remains of Shining Path and attempting the rebuilding of their fight. The Peruvian military will only admit that 300 members exist within that group. They perform mostly hit-and-run tactics and kidnappings. The support that they'd like to find amongst the rural community is long-gone. The interesting characteristic...is that when you find the top echelon of leadership of Prosequir or Shining Path...they tend to be all university-graduates and former teachers/professors. Few of these characters are actual real rural homegrown leaders. So for this reason...this whole banana guerrilla story...is just that...and never goes to page one news.

[speedy]

Thanks for the informative overview, pepsionice. I remember the ending with Guzman -- dressed in a cartoonish striped prison outfit and placed in a cage in a public square. Such treatment would have been therapeutic for many leftist revolutionairies, who thrive on their "mystique" and ability to show contempt for legitimate sources of authority.

[livius]

they tend to be all university-graduates and former teachers/professors. Few of these characters are actual real rural homegrown leaders.

The same is true of all these movements. FARC and ELN, for example, were formed and led by university types, including a number of leftist former priests, and the only rural types were the peasants they "conscripted" or the peasant children they kidnapped at an early age and brought up as fighters in the jungle. The same is true of Comandante Marcos, who is the son of a prosperous furniture store owner and was a graduate student or perhaps even professor when he began his stupidity.

And they abuse the poor. I once had to translate a testimony from woman who ran a tiny stall in a market, selling cheap hairdryers and items under the system where the stock is essentially consigned because the merchant doesn't have the capital to pay for it. FARC extorts money (the "revolutionary tax") from these people, and she said as soon as she heard the accents and speech of the two men who came to her stall, she was afraid because they were "university types." She ended up fleeing town at night because she couldn't come up with the money. Pretty sad, when the educated children of the comfortable classes spend their time preying on the poor. But heck, it's all in the name of the revolution, so I guess it's okay.