Shining Path was a terrorist organization that opposed these elections, and opted to start an armed conflict in the form of Guerilla warfare in the northern provinces of the Department of Ayacucho.
On May 17, 1980, on the eve of the presidential elections,[4] members of Shining Path (group which then lacked notoriety) forced themselves through the door of the offices of the Electoral Registry that was locked with a stick.
One of the hooded members came through the door and pointed his revolver at Florencio Conde Núñez, who was the registrar of Chuschi at the time.
[5][6][7] When the members of Shining Path walked off, a bell was sounded to summon the varayocc (mayors, aldermen, bailiffs) and the entire community.
[8] The villagers took into custody an elementary school teacher named Bernardino Azurza Páucar, who was found awake with a kerosene lamp in hand, and a group of Shining Path members who participated in the incident who were hiding out in an abandoned house in Quispillaqta, before bringing them into the custody of the military.