The Lucanamarca massacre was a mass murder that took place in and around the 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 ...

on 3 April 1983, by Sendero Luminoso terrorists. The attack, which claimed the lives of 69 members of indigenous peasant families, was ordered by central leadership of Peruvian terrorist organization

Shining Path The Shining Path ( es, Sendero Luminoso), officially the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a communist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group in Peru following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the gro ...

in reprisal for a lynching death of its local commander.

Background

On 17 May, 1980, the

Maoist 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 ...

revolutionary group

went to war against the

Peruvian state {{unreferenced, date=January 2014 The Peruvian State, which is conceptually the Peruvian nation legally organized, is the entity that holds the government in the Republic of Peru. The state's structure is defined in the Constitution of Peru approve ...

. The group was based in the

Ayacucho Region Ayacucho () is a department and region of Peru, located in the south-central Andes of the country. Its capital is the city of Ayacucho. The region was one of the hardest hit in the 1980s during the guerrilla war waged by Shining Path known as ...

. In March 1983, the local '' ronderos'' vigilantes captured Olegario Curitomay, a Shining Path commander in

, a small town in the

Huanca Sancos Province Huanca Sancos is a province in central Ayacucho, Peru. On April 3, 1983, Shining Path terrorists entered the town of Lucanamarca and killed 69 people. Geography Some of the highest mountains of the province are listed below: Political divisi ...

of Ayacucho. Curitomay was taken to the town square, stoned, stabbed, set on fire, and finally shot.Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación. 28 August 2003
"La Masacre de Lucanamarca (1983)"
Accessed 10 February 2008.

Attack

In April 3, 1983, Shining Path militants responded to the death of Olegario Curitomay by entering Lucanamarca and the villages of Yanaccollpa, Ataccara, Llacchua, and Muylacruz, and indiscriminately killing 69 indigenous people in a revenge attack. Of those killed by the Shining Path, eighteen were children, the youngest of whom was only six months old. Also killed were eleven women. Eight of the victims were between fifty and seventy years old. Most of the victims died by machete and axe hacks, and some were shot in the head at close range. This was the first massacre committed by the Shining Path against members of a peasant community.

Abimael Guzmán 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 ...

, the founder and leader of the Shining Path, admitted that the Shining Path carried out the attack and explained the rationale behind it in an interview with ''El Diario'', a pro-Shining Path newspaper based in Lima. In the interview, he said:

Aftermath

Ultimately, the Shining Path's war against the Peruvian state faltered, and Abimael Guzmán and several other high-ranking Shining Path members were captured in Lima in 1992. On 10 September, 2002, Abimael Guzmán told 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 ...

"We, doctors, reiterate that we will not avoid our responsibility or the Lucanamarca massacre I have mine, I'm the first one responsible, and I will never renounce my responsibility, that wouldn't make any sense." On 13 October, 2006, Guzmán and Elena Iparraguirre were sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

on a number of charges that included ordering the Lucanamarca massacre. Guzmán was additionally ordered to pay S./250,000 to the victims. In January 2008, the

Supreme Court of Peru The Supreme Court of Justice is the highest judicial court in Peru. Its jurisdiction extends over the entire territory of the nation. It is headquartered in the Palace of Justice (Peru), Palace of Justice in Lima. Structure The supreme court is ...

confirmed that Guzmán had ordered the killings and upheld his life sentence.''La República''. 3 January 200
Ratifican cadena perpetua a Abimael Guzmán
Accessed 11 February 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucanamarca massacre 1983 in Peru April 1983 crimes Deaths by firearm in Peru Massacres in 1983 Internal conflict in Peru Massacres in Peru Victims of Shining Path Communist terrorism Terrorist incidents in Peru History of Ayacucho Region 1983 murders in Peru Terrorist incidents in Peru in the 1980s

Background

Attack

Aftermath

See also

References