Book Description

The Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) guerrilla movement emerged in Peru in the 1980s as the most radical and dogmatic expression of Marxist revolution in the Western Hemisphere. Led by a former philosophy professor at the University of Huamanga in Ayacucho, it developed its militantly orthodox Maoist principles from the mid-196Os onward with a small band of committed supporters, virtually ignored by the outside world. But after more than 20,000 deaths and $20 billion in damage in over a decade of relentless pursuit of the people's war, Sendero is now taken very seriously indeed. This is the first book in English to provide a truly comprehensive view of Shining Path. To do so, it brings together fifteen scholars, journalists, and development workers from Peru, the United States, and Europe who, from a variety of perspectives and disciplines, have studied one facet or another of Sendero. The underlying rationale for this edited study is that Shining Path forms such a distinct phenomenon that no single author can capture the full scope of the movement. Presented together, however, they succeed.