Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reynoso (; 3 December 1934 − 11 September 2021), also known by his ''
nom de guerre'' Chairman Gonzalo ( es, Presidente Gonzalo), was a Peruvian Maoist revolutionary and guerrilla leader, considered a terrorist by various governments during his lifetime. He founded the organization
Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path (PCP-SL) in 1969 and led a
rebellion against the Peruvian government until his capture by authorities in September 1992. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
and
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Guzmán was a professor of
philosophy active in
left-wing revolutionary politics and strongly influenced by
Marxism
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
,
Leninism, and
Maoism
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
. He developed an ideology of armed struggle stressing the empowerment of the Indigenous people. He went underground in the mid-1970s to become the leader of the Shining Path, which began "The People's War" or the "Armed Struggle" on 17 May 1980.
Early life
Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reynoso was born on 3 December 1934 in
Mollendo
Mollendo is a town bordering the Pacific Ocean in southern Peru. It is located in the Arequipa Region and is the capital of both the Islay Province and the Mollendo District. Mollendo was the main port in the Peruvian southern coast until Matar ...
, a port town in the province of
Islay, in the region of
Arequipa, about south of Lima. He was the illegitimate son of a well-off merchant, who had eight children by five different women. Guzmán's mother, Berenice Reynoso, died when he was five.
At Arequipa, Guzmán completed bachelor's degrees in philosophy and
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
. His dissertations were entitled ''The Kantian Theory of Space'' and ''The Bourgeois Democratic State''. In 1962, Guzmán was recruited as a professor of philosophy by the rector of
San Cristóbal of Huamanga University
The San Cristóbal of Huamanga National University (in Spanish, ''Universidad Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga'') is a public university located in the city of Ayacucho (formerly known as Huamanga) in southern Peru.
The university was estab ...
in
Ayacucho
Ayacucho (, qu, Ayak'uchu) is the capital city of Ayacucho Region and of Huamanga Province, Ayacucho Region, Peru.
During the Inca Empire and Viceroyalty of Peru periods the city was known by the name of Huamanga (Quechua: Wamanga), and it c ...
, a city in the central Peruvian
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
. The rector was Dr.
Efraín Morote Best
Efraín Morote Best (8 July 1921 7 April 1989) was a Peruvian lawyer, anthropologist, and academic administrator. From 1962 to 1968 he served as the Rector (i.e., chief administrator) of San Cristóbal of Huamanga University in Ayacucho, Perú. ...
, an
anthropologist who some believe later became the true intellectual leader of the "Shining Path movement." Encouraged by Morote, Guzmán studied
Quechua
Quechua may refer to:
*Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru
*Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language
**So ...
, the language spoken by Peru's Indigenous population, and became increasingly active in
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
political circles. He attracted several like-minded young academics committed to bringing about revolution in Peru. Guzmán was arrested twice during the 1970s because of his participation in violent riots in the city of Arequipa against the government of presidents
Velasco Alvarado and
Belaunde Terry. He visited the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
with his then-wife
Augusta La Torre for the first time in 1965. After serving as the head of personnel for
San Cristóbal of Huamanga University
The San Cristóbal of Huamanga National University (in Spanish, ''Universidad Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga'') is a public university located in the city of Ayacucho (formerly known as Huamanga) in southern Peru.
The university was estab ...
, Guzmán left the institution in the mid-1970s and went underground.
In the 1960s, the Peruvian Communist Party had splintered over ideological and personal disputes. Guzmán, who had taken a pro-Chinese rather than pro-
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
line, emerged as the leader of the faction which came to be known as the "Shining Path" (
Mariátegui wrote once: "Marxism–Leninism is the shining path of the future"). Guzmán adopted the ''
nom de guerre'' Presidente or Comrade Gonzalo and began advocating a peasant-led revolution on the Maoist model. His followers declared Guzmán, who cultivated anonymity, to be the "Fourth Sword of Communism" (after
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
,
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
, and
Mao). In his political declarations, Guzmán praised Mao's development of Lenin's thesis regarding "the role of
imperialism" in propping up the "bourgeois
capitalist
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
system". He claimed that imperialism ultimately "creates disruption and is unsuccessful, and it will end up in ruins in the next 50 to 100 years". Guzmán applied this criticism not only to
U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
imperialism, but also Soviet imperialism, to what he termed as "social-imperialism".
In February 1964, he married Augusta la Torre, who was instrumental in founding Shining Path. She died under unclear circumstances in 1988. Guzmán and
Elena Iparraguirre, a long-time lieutenant of Guzmán's and his lover, have both refused to talk about La Torre's fate since their imprisonments. In the fall of 2006, while in prison, Guzmán proposed to Iparraguirre, who is also serving a life sentence in a separate prison. After fighting for the permission to marry with a
hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
, the couple wed in late August 2010.
Guzmán had always identified with
atheism. He agreed with
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
about religion as the "
opium of the people
The opium of the people (or opium of the masses) (german: Opium des Volkes) is a dictum used in reference to religion, derived from a frequently paraphrased statement of German sociologist and economic theorist Karl Marx: "Religion is the opium ...
", and viewed it as a "social phenomena product of the exploitation and that will extinguish while exploitation finishes to be swept and a new society arise". However, he pleaded respect for religious diversity and claimed religion would not be an obstacle for the armed struggle.
Insurgency
The Shining Path movement was at first largely confined to academic circles in Peruvian universities. In the late 1970s, however, the movement developed into a
guerrilla group centered around
Ayacucho
Ayacucho (, qu, Ayak'uchu) is the capital city of Ayacucho Region and of Huamanga Province, Ayacucho Region, Peru.
During the Inca Empire and Viceroyalty of Peru periods the city was known by the name of Huamanga (Quechua: Wamanga), and it c ...
. In May 1980, the group launched its war against the government of Peru by burning the ballot boxes in
Chuschi
Chuschi is a town in the Chuschi District of the Cangallo Province of the Ayacucho Region of Peru. On May 17, 1980, Shining Path guerrillas began their war against the Peruvian state by burning ballot boxes in Chuschi. On March 14, 1991, governm ...
, a village near Ayacucho, in an effort to disrupt the first democratic elections in the country since 1964. Shining Path eventually grew to control vast rural territories in central and southern Peru and achieved a presence even in the outskirts of
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
, where it staged numerous attacks. The purpose of Shining Path's campaign was to demoralize and undermine the government of Peru in order to create a situation conducive to a violent coup which would put its leaders in power. The Shining Path targeted not only the army and police, but also government employees at all levels, other leftist militants such as members of the
Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement ( es, Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru, abbreviated MRTA) was a Peruvian Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group which started in the early 1980s. Their self-declared goal was to demonstrate to leftist g ...
(MRTA), workers who did not participate in the strikes organized by the group, peasants who cooperated with the government in any way (including by voting in democratic elections), and middle-class inhabitants of Peru's main cities. The
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...
later estimated that the resulting conflict led to the deaths of some seventy thousand people, approximately half of them at the hands of the Shining Path and a third at the hands of the state.
Initially Guzmán attempted to win over the support of citizens by punishing people they viewed as corrupt government officials and other unpopular leaders. However, Shining Path's increasingly brutal methods together with strictly imposed curfews, the prohibition of alcohol and an overall sense of insecurity and fear led to an increased popular reaction against the communist party. Eventually Guzmán's plan backfired as rural militia or "
rondas" rallied support for the military against Shining Path. The very peasants Guzmán claimed to defend had turned against the Shining Path. This resulted in a cyclical state of violence in which Maoist guerillas embarked in ruthless punitive raids against Peruvian civilians living in the Andean region. In 1983, 69 people from the highland town of
Lucanamarca
Santiago de Lucanamarca District is one of four districts of the province Huanca Sancos in Peru.
Geography
One of the highest peaks of the district is Parya at . Other mountains are listed below:
The largest lake of the district is Qalla Qu ...
were tortured and murdered by the Shining Path in what became known as the
Lucanamarca massacre
The Lucanamarca massacre was a mass murder that took place in and around the town of Lucanamarca on 3 April 1983, by Sendero Luminoso terrorists. The attack, which claimed the lives of 69 members of indigenous peasant families, was ordered by cen ...
.
Guzmán's image as a dispassionate murderer became widespread after he moved against the city of Lima. After a series of bombings and selective assassinations the whole nation was shocked in 1992 when a car bomb exploded in one of Lima's busiest commercial districts on Tarata street, thus causing many casualties and enormous material losses. To his death, Guzmán denied responsibility for the
Tarata bombing
The Tarata bombing, known also as the Miraflores bombing or Lima bombing, was a terrorist attack carried out in Tarata Street, located in Miraflores District of Lima, Peru, on 16 July 1992, by the Shining Path terrorist group. The blast was the ...
by claiming that it was carried out without his knowledge.
The movement promoted the writings of Guzmán, called "Gonzalo Thought", a new "theoretical understanding" that built upon
Marxism
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
,
Leninism, and
Maoism
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
whereby he declared Maoism to be a "third and higher stage of Marxism," having defined Maoism as "people's war." In 1989, Guzmán declared that the Shining Path (which he referred to as the "Communist Party of Peru") had progressed from waging a people's war to waging a "war of movements." He further argued that this was a step towards achieving "strategic equilibrium" in the near future, based on Maoist theories of waging people's war. Guzmán claimed that such an equilibrium would manifest itself by ungovernability under the "old order." When that moment arrived, Guzmán believed that Shining Path would be ready to move on to its "strategic offensive".
Theodore Dalrymple
Anthony Malcolm Daniels (born 11 October 1949), also known by the pen name Theodore Dalrymple (), is a conservative English cultural critic, prison physician and psychiatrist. He worked in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries as well as in ...
, a conservative English journalist, has written that
"the worst brutality I ever saw was that committed by Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) in Peru, in the days when it seemed possible that it might come to power. If it had, I think its massacres would have dwarfed those of the Khmer Rouge. As a doctor, I am accustomed to unpleasant sights, but nothing prepared me for what I saw in Ayacucho, where Sendero first developed under the sway of a professor of philosophy, Abimael Guzmán."
Capture
![Calle Varsovia 459](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Calle_Varsovia_459.jpg)
In 1992, during the first administration of President
Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto ( or ; born 28 July 1938) is a Peruvian politician, professor and former engineer who was President of Peru from 28 July 1990 until 22 November 2000. Frequently described as a dictator,
*
*
*
*
*
*
he remains a ...
, the
National Directorate Against Terrorism (DIRCOTE) began surveillance on several residences in
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
because agents suspected that terrorists were using them as
safehouse
A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is, in a generic sense, a secret place for sanctuary or suitable to hide people from the law, hostile actors or actions, or from retribution, threats or perceived danger. It may also be a metaphor.
Histori ...
s. One of those residences, in the upper-class neighborhood of
Surco
Santiago de Surco, commonly known simply as Surco, is a district of Lima, Peru. It is bordered on the north with the district of Ate Vitarte and La Molina; on the east with San Juan de Miraflores, on the west with San Borja, Surquillo, Mirafl ...
, had been operating as a ballet studio. The DIRCOTE operatives routinely searched the garbage taken out from the house. The house was supposedly inhabited by only one person, the dance teacher
Maritza Garrido Lecca, but it was soon noticed that the household produced more garbage than one person could account for. Furthermore, agents found discarded tubes of cream for the treatment of
psoriasis
Psoriasis is a long-lasting, noncontagious autoimmune disease characterized by raised areas of abnormal skin. These areas are red, pink, or purple, dry, itchy, and scaly. Psoriasis varies in severity from small, localized patches to complete ...
, an ailment that Guzmán was known to have. On 12 September 1992, an elite unit of the DIRCOTE carried out Operation Victoria, raiding the Surco residence. On the second floor of the house, they found and arrested Guzmán and eight others, including Laura Zambrano and Elena Iparraguirre, Guzmán's female companion.
Trials and imprisonment
Guzmán was tried by a court of hooded military judges under provisions of articles 15 and 16 of Law 25475 adopted by Fujimori's government in May 1992 after
April's constitutional crisis. After a three-day trial, Guzmán was sentenced to life imprisonment and incarcerated at the naval base on the island of
San Lorenzo off the coast of Lima.
Subsequently, he was said to have negotiated with a presidential advisor at the time,
Vladimiro Montesinos
Vladimiro Lenin Ilich Montesinos Torres (born 20 May 1945) is a former long-standing head of Peru's intelligence service, National Intelligence Service (SIN), under President Alberto Fujimori. In the year 2000, the infamous "Vladi-videos" came ...
, in order to receive some benefits in exchange for helping the Peruvian government put an end to the Shining Path's militant activities. Guzmán appeared several times on Peruvian television and on 1 October 1993, he publicly declared "peace" with the Peruvian government. This declaration split the Shining Path and raised questions about the organization's future. About 6,000 guerrillas within the party accepted it as a sign of defeat and surrendered.
Guzmán's re-trial began on 5 November 2004. The international press was held in a sound-proof chamber and all media was banned from observing the trial after the Shining Path cadre turned their backs on the judges and delivered a revolutionary salute to the media gallery. The only words Guzmán spoke in the presence of the international press were "Long live the Communist Party of Peru! Glory to Marxism–Leninism–Maoism! Glory to the Peruvian people! Long live the heroes of the people’s war!" After he made this statement, the courtroom microphones were silenced and the press was unable to hear any of the proceedings that followed. When the trial resumed on 12 November, no reporters were allowed to observe the proceedings. Eventually two of the judges recused themselves and the trial ended in chaos. Guzmán's third trial began in September 2005 and was opened and closed amid a
media blackout
Media blackout is the censorship of news related to a certain topic, particularly in mass media, for any reason. A media blackout may be voluntary, or may in some countries be enforced by the government or state. The latter case is controversial in ...
. No reporters were allowed to attend.
Sentence
On 13 October 2006, Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison on charges of aggravated terrorism and
murder.
[Peru's Shining Path founder sentenced to life for terrorism, murder](_blank)
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
, 14 October 2006 At his sentencing, three judges read the charges in a verdict that lasted more than six hours.
In 2014, Guzmán and his wife Iparraguirre were tried again, for the 1992
Tarata bombing
The Tarata bombing, known also as the Miraflores bombing or Lima bombing, was a terrorist attack carried out in Tarata Street, located in Miraflores District of Lima, Peru, on 16 July 1992, by the Shining Path terrorist group. The blast was the ...
in Lima in which 25 people died. On 11 September 2018, he was sentenced to a second life term in prison.
Guzmán was incarcerated in the maximum security prison of the naval base of
Callao, the port of Lima, until his death in 2021. Fellow prisoners there include
Víctor Polay
Víctor Alfredo Polay Campos (born 6 April 1951) is one of the founders of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, a Peruvian Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist terrorist organization that fought in the internal conflict in Peru. He is curr ...
, leader of the
Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement ( es, Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru, abbreviated MRTA) was a Peruvian Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group which started in the early 1980s. Their self-declared goal was to demonstrate to leftist g ...
, and
Vladimiro Montesinos
Vladimiro Lenin Ilich Montesinos Torres (born 20 May 1945) is a former long-standing head of Peru's intelligence service, National Intelligence Service (SIN), under President Alberto Fujimori. In the year 2000, the infamous "Vladi-videos" came ...
, the former head of the
National Intelligence Service who supervised the construction of the prison and served under the (now also imprisoned) President
Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto ( or ; born 28 July 1938) is a Peruvian politician, professor and former engineer who was President of Peru from 28 July 1990 until 22 November 2000. Frequently described as a dictator,
*
*
*
*
*
*
he remains a ...
.
Death
On 13 July 2021, he was attended by medical personnel of the
Ministry of Health after he refused to eat. He was given blood tests and an ultrasound. A few days later, on 17 July, he was transferred to a hospital for further monitoring. He died on 11 September 2021 at the Maximum Safety Center of the Callao Naval Base, at the age of 86.
Guzmán's body was
cremated
Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning.
Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...
on the dawn of 24 September 2021 and his ashes were dispersed in a secret location in order to prevent a shrine honoring him from being created.
References
Further reading
* Koppel, Martin. ''Peru's 'Shining Path' Evolution of a Stalinist Sect'' (1994)
* Lovell, Julia. ''Maoism: A Global History'' (2019) pp 306–346 on Peru.
* Palmer, David Scott. ed. ''The Shining Path of Peru'' (2nd ed 1994
excerpt* Starn, Orin. "Maoism in the Andes: The Communist Party of Peru-Shining Path and the refusal of history." ''Journal of Latin American Studies'' 27.2 (1995): 399–421
online
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guzman, Abimael
1934 births
2021 deaths
Anti-revisionists
People convicted on terrorism charges
People from Arequipa
People imprisoned on charges of terrorism
Peruvian atheists
Peruvian criminals
Peruvian communists
Peruvian revolutionaries
Peruvian philosophers
Peruvian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Peru
National University of Saint Augustine alumni
Members of the Shining Path
Maoist theorists
Prisoners in San Lorenzo Island
People who died in prison custody
Deaths from skin cancer
Deaths from cancer in Peru
Anti-Americanism