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Overview of the Sendero Luminoso Publications, 1987-2006
2008C95
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Table of contents
Title: Sendero Luminoso publications
Date (inclusive): 1987-2006
Collection Number: 2008C95
Creator:
Sendero Luminoso (Guerrilla group)
Contributing Institution:
Hoover Institution Archives
Language of Material:
Spanish; Castilian
Physical Description:
1 manuscript box
(0.4 linear feet)
Abstract: Serial issues and pamphlets, relating to Maoist guerrilla activities in Peru. Includes issues of and supplements to the newspaper
El Diario, and an interview with Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, leader of the organization. Also includes computer disc version of
trial records of Guzmán and other Sendero Luminoso leaders. In part, photocopy.
Collection is open for research.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
[Identification of item], Sendero Luminoso publications, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 2008.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.
The self-proclaimed Maoist "Shining Path" (Sendero Luminoso or SL), a Peruvian guerrilla organization, was founded by Ayacucho
philosophy professor Abimael Guzmán Reynoso. Its full name, the Communist Party of Peru in the Shining Path of José Carlos
Mariátegui (Partido Comunista del Peru en el Sendero Luminoso de José Carlos Mariátegui), clearly ties the group to Mariátegui,
the founder of Peruvian communism in the 1920s, as well as to Mao Zedong. The connection to Mao is ironic given that China
was turning away from advocating armed revolution to promoting domestic economic growth under Deng Xiaoping. Nearly seventy
thousand people died in domestic conflicts in Peru between 1980 and 2000 (estimates are that at least ten thousand more deaths
may have occurred), according to a national truth commission report in 2003. The SL was responsible for the majority of the
deaths up to 1992, when Guzmán was captured by the government, though state forces and other insurgents also killed many.
At SL's peak of power, before Guzmán's capture, half of Peru lived in a state of emergency. Today a much-reduced SL remnant
has links to the narcotics trade.
The SL was the most prominent of the political and guerrilla/terrorist groups in Peru during the past half century. It is
one example of the Latin American tendency toward party fragmentation exacerbated by the breakup of the international communist
movement that began in the 1960s with the Sino-Soviet dispute. In 1964 "pro-Chinese" members of the original Peruvian Communist
Party (PCP) broke away from the party, which then became "pro-Soviet," to form the PCP-Bandera Roja (Red Flag). Two additional
Maoist parties split off from the Red Flag: the SL and the PCP-Patria Roja (Red Nation or Red Fatherland).
Scope and Content of Collection
Serial issues and pamphlets, relating to Maoist guerrilla activities in Peru. Includes issues of and supplements to the newspaper
El Diario, and an interview with Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, leader of the organization. Also includes computer disc version of
trial records of Guzmán and other Sendero Luminoso leaders. In part, photocopy.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Guzmán Reynoso, Abimael, 1934-
Partido Comunista del Perú.
Communism--Peru.
Guerrillas--Peru.