The Shining Path: A History of the Millenarian War in Peru

Description

First published in Peru in 1990, The Shining Path was immediately hailed as one of the finest works on the insurgency that plagued that nation for over fifteen years. A richly detailed and absorbing account, it covers the dramatic years between the guerrillas' opening attack in 1980 and President Fernando Belaunde's reluctant decision to send in the military to contain the growing rebellion in late 1982. Covering the strategy, actions, successes, and setbacks of both the government and the rebels, the book shows how the tightly organized insurgency forced itself upon an unwilling society just after the transition from an authoritarian to a democratic regime. One of Peru's most distinguished journalists, Gustavo Gorriti first covered the Shining Path movement for the leading Peruvian newsweekly, Caretas. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and an impressive array of government and Shining Path documents, he weaves his careful research into a vivid portrait of the now-jailed Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman, Belaunde and his generals, and the unfolding drama of the fiercest war fought on Peruvian soil since the Chilean invasion a century before. Introduction by Robin Kirk Preface to the English Edition Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations The Arrest 1 Return to Democracy 2 Chuschi 3 Mohammed, Mao, Macbeth 4 Expectations and the Transfer of Power 5 The Vanished Files 6 The Dogs of War 7 Guerrillas 8 The Quota 9 To Capture Weapons and Means 10 New Democracy 11 Tambo 12 The Emergency 13 Illusions 14 A City Dominated: A Blow Is Struck in Ayacucho 15 Let Us Develop the Guerrilla War 16 The Offer of Asylum to Guzmán 17 The Colloquium of the Blind: The Intelligence War 18 The Fall of Vilcashuamán 19 Party Military Thought 20 The Siege of Ayacucho Notes Index