Sendero Luminoso first appeared in Peru in May 1980 by burning several ballot boxes
and hanging dogs from streetlights. This unusual event signaled the beginning of one of the
most violent insurgencies in the Western hemisphere. Abimael Guzmán, the founder of Sendero
Luminoso, set out to utterly destroy Peruvian society in order to replace it with his vision of a utopian communist society by creating a peasant uprising starting in the Andean highlands and
spreading throughout Peru, eventually surrounding the capital, Lima.
The government of Peru virtually ignored Sendero Luminoso for two years, which allowed the group to establish strong base areas in and around the department of Ayacucho. When the government finally reacted, it was forced to declare a state of emergency in the south central highlands and send in the military to regain control.
Through successive administrations over the next decade, Peru was engulfed in violence
and destruction, human rights abuses, corruption, and economic catastrophe. Sendero Luminoso
demonstrated an uncanny ability to avoid the militarys concentrated efforts while expanding
into new regions of Peru. The group also benefited from the drug trade to finance the insurgency by providing protection to coca farmers and narcotraffickers in the Upper Huallaga Valley.
Only after Guzmáns capture in 1992 did the government witness visible progress in the
fight against the insurgents. Sendero Luminoso rapidly declined without Guzmáns leadership
and the remnants withdrew to the Upper Huallaga Valley. Yet many of the conditions that led to
the creation of Sendero Luminoso still plague the country, including corruption in the government, poverty, and a weak economy. The missing catalyst is another leader like Abimael Guzmán.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-01242007-200500 |
| Date | 31 January 2007 |
| Creators | Switzer, Russell W |
| Contributors | Stanley E. Hilton, William A. Clark, Karl A. Roider |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-01242007-200500/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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