The Devolution of Peru’s Sendero Luminoso: From Hybrid Maoists to Narco-Traffickers?

Abstract

This History Compass article examines the ideological transformation of Peru’s Sendero Luminoso insurgency from its immediate origins in the 1960s in the remote province of Ayacucho to its devolution to small armed bands of drug traffickers in the nation’s remote central Andean regions. Originally, Sendero claimed allegiance to the peasant-based Marxism of José Carlos Mariátegui, the founder of Peru’s Socialist Party. In reality, however, much of its ideology and revolutionary strategy was based on Maoist theory. As, Sendero’s Maoism was largely based on its leader’s experience in China in the mid-1960s, the party felt compelled to rabidly defend ‘orthodox’ Maoism as China moved away this ideology in the late 1970s. Maoism with a Peruvian radical stamp, nevertheless, failed to win over the peasantry in the 1980s. Sendero’s leadership then violated basic Maoist strategy and began an urban terror campaign which exposed its leadership to eventual capture in late 1992. Since then, Sendero has survived only as a force fortified by drug revenues and isolated by rugged mountain terrain. We can only speculate about its future. But an estimated 66,000 deaths caused by its insurgency are stark evidence of its destructive potential.