Sendero Luminoso (Peru)By

Gianfranco A. Justin A.

Franklin A.

What is Terrorism? Terrorism is the act of harming

civilians as well as soldiers or others to cause fear and so intimidate to push political aims.

The use of violence on people to achieve and promote a specific ideology.

General Information Sendero Luminoso was founded in the late

1960’s in Ayacucho (the capital city of the Huamanga Province).

Current Member size estimated around 4,200 members

Goals: To cause Peruvian government to be destroyed and to spread their political aims.

Weapons used: AK-47, Uzis, RPG-7, M-60 Machine guns, 81mm mortars, and grenade launchers

Terrorist Activities Burning of ballot boxes in Chuschi (first

activity) Lucanamarca massacre Sabotaging electrical transition towers Car bombs near government palace and

random car bombing in major cities. Tarata bombing Assassinations

Terrorist Activities Cont… Most of Sendero Luminoso activities were

in populated cities like Lima, Ayacucho, Huancayo, etc. while some attacks were taken out on villages.

Sendero Luminoso gathered most of their militia from villages near the Andes mountains and trained them in the Amazon jungle.

World Response Peruvian government trained various

villages to counter attack the Sendero Luminoso, these groups were called Rondas.

President Fujimori busted many cell groups.

Future of the Group After the leader Abimael Guzman was caught

in 1992 the organization was then given to Oscar Ramierz but most members made their own small splinter cell groups in which they amended the original Sendero Luminoso ideology to make it their own. Members still carry out terrorist attacks but are very small and are taken control of by the Peruvian government, they now specialize in drug trafficking to raise money to bring back or redo the organization.

Citations http://web.archive.org/web/20041114012731/http://www.sol

blanco.8m.com/ataq_tarata.htm http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/sendero_luminoso.htm http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source

=web&cd=12&sqi=2&ved=0CGUQFjAL&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dtic.mil%2Fcgi-bin%2FGetTRDoc%3FAD%3DADA515608&ei=Sjv0Uv7uHejl2QWDyIGoDw&usg=AFQjCNEnnJesUBeqa81LLO-ORNNUhMpVug