Academics often refer to the group as the Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path (Partido Comunista del Perú – Sendero Luminoso, abbr.

[1] The Shining Path has been widely condemned for its excessive brutality, including violence deployed against peasants, trade union organizers, competing Marxist groups, elected officials and the general public.

[2] The Shining Path is regarded as a terrorist organization by the government of Peru, along with Japan,[3] the United States,[4] the European Union,[5] and Canada,[6] all of whom consequently prohibit funding and other financial support to the group.

[8][10] In 1999, brothers Víctor and Jorge Quispe Palomino split from the Shining Path and established the Militarized Communist Party of Peru (MPCP), which consists of about 450 individuals[when?]

[8][12] The MPCP has attempted to recharacterize and distance itself from the original Shining Path groups that had attacked rural communities in the area, describing Abimael Guzman as a "traitor".

[8][10] The Shining Path primarily comprises two groups and their sub-branches; the People's Guerrilla Army (Ejército Guerrillero Popular) and United Front (Frente Unido).

[14] This ensured the political party retained control of both its armed and social branches, contrasting itself with the more frequent foquismo model that swept through Latin American insurgencies after the Cuban Revolution.

Non-state allies: The People's Guerrilla Army (Ejército Guerrillero Popular, EGP) was created for the purposes of combat, mobilization and producing an income for Shining Path.

[24] Examples of these include: The Shining Path was founded in 1969 by Abimael Guzmán, a former university philosophy professor (his followers referred to him by his nom de guerre Presidente Gonzalo), and a group of 11 others.

In his books Ayacucho, Hambre y Esperanza (1969) and China, La Revolución Agraria (1978), he expressed his own conviction of the necessity that revolutionary activity in Peru follow strictly the teachings of Mao Zedong.

[36] Additionally, the president, Fernando Belaúnde Terry, who returned to power in 1980, was reluctant to cede authority to the armed forces since his first government had ended in a military coup.

On 29 December 1981, the government declared an "emergency zone" in the three Andean regions of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurímac and granted the military the power to arbitrarily detain any suspicious person.

[2] On 24 April 1985, in the midst of presidential elections, it tried to assassinate Domingo García Rada, the president of the Peruvian National Electoral Council, severely injuring him and mortally wounding his driver.

[47] Polls have never been completely accurate since Peru has several anti-terrorism laws, including "apologia for terrorism", that makes it a punishable offense for anyone who does not condemn the Shining Path.

[8][26] His government issued a law in 1991 that gave the rondas a legal status, and from that time, they were officially called Comités de auto defensa ("Committees of Self-Defense").

According to the government, there were approximately 7,226 comités de auto defensa as of 2005;[59] almost 4,000[citation needed] are located in the central region of Peru, the stronghold of the Shining Path.

[26][61][62] In one of its last attacks in Lima, on 16 July 1992, Shining Path detonated a powerful bomb on Tarata Street in the Miraflores District, full of civilian adults and children,[63] killing 25 people and injuring an additional 155.

[64] On 12 September 1992, El Grupo Especial de Inteligencia (GEIN) captured Guzmán and several Shining Path leaders in an apartment above a dance studio in the Surquillo district of Lima.

Two days later, after a rapid military response which involved a signals intelligence aircraft from the Brazilian Air Force,[73][74] the rebels abandoned the hostages; according to government sources, no ransom was paid.

In response, then President Alejandro Toledo declared a state of emergency in Huánuco and gave the police the power to search houses and arrest suspects without a warrant.

[83] In December 2006, Peruvian troops were sent to counter renewed guerrilla activity, and according to high-level government officials, the Shining Path's strength has reached an estimated 300 members.

[92] His prime minister, Yehude Simon, said these attacks were "desperate responses by the Shining Path in the face of advances by the armed forces" and expressed his belief that the area would soon be freed of "leftover terrorists".

[101] On 3 April 2012, Jaime Arenas Caviedes, a senior leader in the group's remnants in Alto Huallaga Valley[103] who was also regarded to be the leading candidate to succeed Artemio following Diaz's arrest,[104] was captured.

[109] On 9 April 2016, on the eve of the country's presidential elections, the Peruvian government blamed remnants of the Shining Path for a guerrilla attack that killed eight soldiers and two civilians.

[8][12][26] The MPCP has attempted to recharacterize themselves to distance itself from the original Shining Path groups that had attacked rural communities in the area, describing Abimael Guzman as a traitor.

[26][112] Another notable splinter group called the Communist Party of Peru – Red Mantaro Base Committee (PCP-CBMR),[113] which remains loyal to Abimael Guzman,[114] also operates in the VRAEM region.

The party's name was also coined by Guzmán, who infused his communist rhetoric with Inca mythology, he described his form of Marxist-Maoist thought as a "shining path" towards the liberation of Peru's natives.

[129] According to a summary of the report by Human Rights Watch, "Shining Path ... killed about half the victims, and roughly one-third died at the hands of government security forces ...

"[139][better source needed] The number of women involved in the armed struggle remained high throughout the war, participating at almost all logistical, military and strategic levels as militants, guerrilla commanders and top party leaders of the organisation.

"[144] American rock band Rage Against the Machine released a music video for their 1993 song "Bombtrack" as a response to the arrest of Abimael Guzman the previous year.