How Peru Defeated The Shining Path Guerrillas

Dictators get little gratitude.

When they are on top, everyone loves (or claims to love) them; but when they fall or leave office, they are reviled, accused, and loathed.  Chile’s former strongman Pinochet spent the last years of his life fighting criminal charges, yet a good argument can be made that his authoritarian rule laid the groundwork for Chilean economic progress after him.

The same perhaps could be said of South Korean dictator Park Chung-Hee and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori.  Maybe the safest survival tactic for a dictator is to die in office, out of reach of the courts and investigators.

The Fujimori case is an interesting one.  I had heard the other day that his daughter had recently been defeated in her presidential election campaign.  And I had remembered how her father, Alberto Fujimori, had played a major role in the defeat of the communist “Shining Path” insurgency during his term in office from 1990 to 2000.

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The defeat of the Shining Path was no small achievement. This vicious guerrilla movement had terrorized Peru all through the 1980s, and at one point came very close to overthrowing the government. Its specialty was rural terror: peasants and laborers who refused to join the group were executed and their villages burned.

The spiritual leader of the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) was a bespectacled philosophy professor named Abimael Guzman. Not satisfied with the progress of political reforms that might change Peru’s stratified social and economic system, Guzman launched an armed Maoist insurgency in 1980. The group’s doctrine was a weird mix of communist and indigenous ideas. Their strategy was to attack trade unions, peasants, and government officials in an effort to separate the people from the political leadership.

From 1980 onwards, Guzman went into hiding and never appeared publicly. He sought to create a mythological aura about himself, in much the same way as Osama Bin Laden. His methods—violence, sabotage, and guerrilla warfare—were designed to erode the credibility of the state, and prepare the way for his ascent, which he thought might take decades.

But the government eventually learned counter-insurgency methods. These began before the election of Alberto Fujimori, but he definitely added impetus and urgency to them. In 1992, Guzman himself was captured and exhibited to the public in a cage. It was a stunning reversal for the Shining Path, and thereafter it gradually withered away.

How had the government won the war? These were the major methods used.

Arming The Local Population

From the late 1980s, the government began to establish civil defense committees (CDCs, or comites de civil) in the countryside. These were basically vigilante groups designed to be government allies. But the government shrewdly exploited the fact that the Shining Path had alienated much of the rural population by their excessive violence. The CDCs also added an extra intelligence arm to the government.

Land Reform

Peru had long been a place where the majority of the country’s wealth was in the hands of a few. Land was especially important to the rural peasant, and he naturally preferred to work his own land. Stealing the Shining Path’s thunder by pushing through agrarian reform was another masterstroke.

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The rebels liked to claim that they were acting in the peasants’ best interests, but this became more and more difficult to do once land reforms had been implemented. In 1990, for example, over 2400 hectares of land were distributed to about 350 families in Otuzco province.

Eliminating Corruption

Fujimori took action to stamp out corruption. He not only removed corrupt officials, but he introduced anonymity for federal judges. The Shining Path thus became unable to target and intimidate judges as it had done in the past.

Government Amnesty

Amnesties seem to work well in defusing insurgencies. As we noted in a previous article, Algeria used one in its own fight against Islamist insurgencies. Fujimori introduced the Repentance Law of 1992, which granted sentence commutations and amnesties to those who renounced the insurgency and agreed to inform on their fellow members. This measure alone began a steady stream of defectors leaving the Shining Path, and in the long term proved fatal to the movement.

Improved Intelligence Work

Fujimori placed an increased emphasis on “special forces,” commando units, and patient intelligence collection. These efforts were rewarded in 1992 when his men located and captured Guzman himself. He had been hiding at his girlfriend’s apartment. Intelligence operatives noticed that the volume of trash outside the residence exceeded the normal quantity produced by one person. Trash pulls revealed evidence of Guzman’s presence (e.g., his favorite cigarette brand, medications, etc.), and the site was raided.

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All of these measures had the net effect of isolating the insurgents from their rural bases. This is absolutely critical in getting the upper hand over rural guerrilla movements. Besides all of the measure noted above, the Shining Path did itself very few favors by stepping up its campaign of terror and violence in an ever-increasing spiral of viciousness.

This, in short, is how Fujimori’s government broke the back of the Shining Path.

Its desperation caused it to lash out again and again, much as ISIS is doing today in Syria and Iraq. Exploding car bombs in urban areas (e.g., the Tarata Bombing of 1992) is the quickest way to turn public opinion against any movement that claims to speak for the people.

Ingratitude?

Despite all this, however, Fujimori’s political enemies finally caught up with him. He was implicated in “human rights” violation after another, and also accused of financial corruption. Anyone who knows anything about counter-insurgency warfare knows that it is impossible to defeat guerrillas by playing by the standard rule-book.

Fujimori, like Pinochet, is still a controversial figure. Some admire his ruthless action and make the case that no other methods could have produced results. Others portray him as a corrupt dictator, trampling on the rights of the indigenous Peruvians (he presided over a controversial rural sterilization campaign) and journalists.

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In the same way, Pinochet’s admirers (of which there are many) claim that he rescued the country from communist subversion and laid the foundation for economic prosperity, while his detractors point to evidence of government-sanctioned torture and disappearances of regime opponents. The individual reader will have to judge for himself.

In any case, we may leave such political judgments for the history books.  But the lessons on how the Shining Path was defeated are more relevant today than ever.

Read More: The Algerian War Of Independence

80 thoughts on “How Peru Defeated The Shining Path Guerrillas”

  1. I find it hilarious that the faces on the first pic where pixilated, since ill bet I couldn’t tell not a one of them apart from then next…

        1. Shit, what I meant to say was that Id wager* that I could not distinguish between the faces of the male subjects of Asian decent, had their faces not been hidden by a blurry edit resembling larger pixels. Hope that helps. Thanks for pointing out my insensitive posting bros.

  2. My favorite guerilla was the one led by two chain smoking 5-year olds who were considered deities by locals.
    They became inspiration for the character in the movie Tropic Thunder.
    I forgot the name of the Guerilla though.

  3. If lefties hate someone that person is probably good.
    Long live Fujimori ! Long live Pinochet !
    Helicopter rides for leftists NOW !

    1. Hate to say it, but it wasn’t Fujimori that ended terrorism in Peru. It was the ‘GEIN’, which came way before fujimori. Not mentioning Fujimori’s term was the most corrupt in all peruvian history. PS: I’m not a lefty, but a big pro capitalist.

        1. Grupo Especial de Inteligencia del Perú or in english Especial Group of Peruvian Intelligence. It was an intelligence agency founded in march 3 1990 with its main purpose to combat terrorism all over peru.

      1. The most corrupt? So what about Belaunde’s term? Fujimori combated terrorism, that’s a fact. So maybe you are of those who blame Fujimori for Barrios Altos and Cantutat’s murders, yet don’t recognize his labor in the extermination of Shinning Path and MRTA?
        What about the EXCELLENT military operation in Japanese Embassy? Fujimori is in jail because of political vengeance (his fall started when he refused to join the “Plan Colombia” proposed by the United States. That’s when Tudela told him that they were going to take him down.)
        GEIN operated by its own, that’s what you say, then why Miyashiro, one of the most important parts of GEIN, recognized Fujimori’s leadership during the battle against terrorism?
        Another thing I want to make clear, once again, is that Fujimori is in jail for unfair reasons. Hell, they sent him to jail using the same judicial strategy used in Nuremberg.
        And another thing I want to point out is that you seem to be part of those individuals who think that the best way to fight terrorism is to get rid of the principal head, in this case Abimael Guzman. If that’s the case, why hasn’t Alqaeda been defeated? Because there’s ALWAYS someone who’s going to replace the fallen leader.
        Fujimori attacked terrorism in a very smart way: He killed the ones who were supposed to replace Abimael Guzman.
        And just a final fun fact: Fujimori noticed that terrorists from Shinning Path were using fertilizer to produce their bombs. So he reduced the concentration of saltpeter in them, so terrorists couldn’t use it any longer to produce their bombs.
        That’s how a leader acts. Fujimori has been the greatest president this nation has ever had. He defeated terrorism, he kicked Communism in the butt. That’s why Peru is one of the last countries in South America that’s enduring the mercilessly fist of Progressivism and degenartion.
        I bet you that Mario Vargas Llosa wouldn’t have been able to stop Shinning Path or MRTA.

        1. Your facts, i mean fallacies are based on emotional misinformation. Belaunde term was indeed a corrupt one just like Alan garcias, but you can’t deny that fujimori was the most corrupt, in fact there’s a report by Transparency International, Global Corruption in 2004 agreeing to that.
          Fujimori is not in jail because of political vengeance or hate, he is in jail because he was found guilty of grave human rights violations. You can’t deny those facts, so stop acting like a fujilover.
          Is funny you mention general miyashiro,why did he embraced fujimoris leadership? that’s right, because he is a ‘Fujimorist’ himself and now part of Keiko fujimoris team. Apparently you didn’t know the part where GEIN was about to catch Abimael gusman and when they told fujimori to give the orders he instead turned them down and eventually Guzman scaped. That’s why on the second try GEIN didn’t tell Fujimori anything about their plan and that how they caught abimael, so stop bringing fallacies.
          And fun fact: fujimori is not the best president peru ever had, he had a decent first term, on the second term he robbed peruvians money to pay his lazy daughters school, not mentioning he took a briefcase full of million of dollars in cash. He killed thousands of innocent people, And a good leader? haha, that’s funny..he was such an amazing leader he had to quit his presidency via fax and flee like a coward from justice. I guess you forgot to notice those details. Fujimori is only a corrupted assassin getting credit for other peoples accomplishments. But then there’s people like you are butthurt that his lazy fat daughter lost the election and that he will most likely die in prison.

        2. And you say you are not a leftie? God, you are repeating the same BULLSHIT lefties, communists and progressivists here in Peru. All you believe in are fairytales, told by propaganda over and over again. And now lets talk about that Transparency Intermational report (which says 600 million, not 6k), which was completely biased because there was not a serious investigation, and it was obtained by a clown like Gamarra.
          I am not butthurt dude. But I bet you love your new president PPK 🙂 who supports feminism, gay marriage, drugs legalization, abortion and is a great friend with rich globalists like Soros. Yeah, you are not a lefite IMO.

        3. Nice try fujilover, i refuted all your fallacies so keep calling them propaganga, bs or anything just to deny the undeniable. I don’t support PPK, but I rather have him than those corrupted drugtrafficking fujimorist. So rub yourself with mentolathum because that old coward or his family will never run the country again.

        4. I have relatives in Ecuador, and heard a lot of news over the years. Reagon installed a military base in the Amazon, thinking he could sent soldiers through the jungle to overthrow Ecuador. By the time Fujumori came along, most governement people were CIA. The population hated the government worse then the communists, because the country was being run by foreign corporations working with the CIA. Fujimori was installed with the primitive thinking that, since he was Japanese, he could turn Peru into another economic miracle like Japan was at the time. Did he personally steal a lot of money. . .You bet! But what makes him the worst dictator in SA was that all government and most private interests were sold to foreign corporations. He allowed foreigners to go in and steal everthing, leaving the Peruvians with no ways to make a living. After all the years, the mess hasn’t been cleaned up yet.

      1. No, it’s the “let’s get along” thinking that propels them to power.
        Throwing them from helicopters does the opposite. Pinochet is living proof.

    2. There is a legend that says that if you whisper to a Peruvian leftist the word “Fujimori”, he will explode. His daughter has been victim of a dirty campaign against her during presidential elections in Peru (like what they do to the Donald in USA). And guess who financed it? Our dear friend Soros. He really hates Fujimori.

  4. Central / south American commies do have really heartfelt graffiti though, such as the below which I happened upon in London in the 90s:
    ‘ Move heaven and earth to save the life of chairman Gonzalo’ (guzman)
    And
    ‘we the zapatistas, the little people, poor in spirit, but rich in broken promises’
    It makes it just that much harder to throw them out of airplanes over the open ocean as commonsense dictates

    1. The funny thing is, the more you read Latin American history the more corruption and ruthlessness you see. For instance, growing up in Texas you think Santa Anna is the devil in the flesh but the more you study Mexican history the more you realize he had to be a ruthless son of a bitch to run that country after kicking the Spanish out. It’s a strange pattern that repeats itself in Latin America every few decades or so.

      1. “…every few decades or so.”
        IOW, about every generation. Interesting coincidence…

      2. I need to read up on it, but it seems like a fascinating period. His ruthlessness doesn’t seem to have quite paid off though

        1. Santa Anna was too busy pillaging the treasury. Also, letting immigrants into Texas, setting a precedent.

        2. The immigrants were invited to settle into Texas because they wanted to settle the southern edge of the Comanche range. The settlers were a bulwark for the Mexicans against those savages.

        3. They’d kick him out of power, then ask him to come back time and again when Mexico was in a dire situation, which I find hilarious. Mexico was such a corrupt shit hole for years that it wasn’t until their revolution in the early 1900’s that they got their shit together.

        4. You might enjoy Sergio Leone’s Fistful of Dynamite if you haven’t already seen it. It’s set a bit later and is pro-revolutionary but its very evocative with some great performances

  5. Most successful wars waged by the communists In the 20th century (that I’ve ever studied at least) were strongly nationalist. Maybe there were some cases I’m not aware of, but I’ve never heard of any country successfully fighting for some form of socialism or anything of that nature which didn’t use nationalist principles.
    These wars were an attempt to preserve their people’s history and culture against a threat that would undoubtedly destroy these things, with Communism serving as the established political metric in regards to vision for the future, just an alternate and viable path. It made what was perceivably necessary in fighting these forces of cultural destruction not only easier to rationalize, but much easier to stir up a sort of existential fanaticism in the commoner, to make him totally depersonalized and capable. This was a fanaticism which wasn’t entirely baseless, after all.
    Its a broad stroke and really too simplistic, but I look at a lot of the cold war as a sort of multi national, century long proxy war between this nationalist brand of Marxism pitted against a postmodern and individually rationalized globalism. That’s not including psy ops, ideological subversion and a lot of the things that are talked about these days, I just mean violent wars.
    Isis is foundationally different because it is religious in nature rather than a relatively newer social ideology like Marxism. The Abrahamic religions capture the scope of reality through one essence; God. And in Islam men don’t have to be virtuous to our standard, or anyone’s standard for that matter to bring glory to God. Their instructions are clear, and although it may be disputed and seem unfair towards virtuous Muslims, Isis follows these instructions.
    Anyone militarily opposed to ISIS is fighting a war against something Muslims can rationalize as far more important than nationality, a sense of people, non-Islamic history (including literally anything older than about 1,300 years, like pyramids, ancient art, etc), love, even their own children. Its all expendable, or even quite worth destroying for their very warped sense of glory. That is a fanaticism of the most extreme order I’ve ever heard of.

  6. I saw the same shit happen to Uribe in Colombia. The man got rid of the guerillas that were the cancer of the country. And you would see people bitch about him afterwards. Its like complaining that the medicine that cured your cancer gave you an upset stomach. Idiots.

  7. It also depends on whether the ostensible dictator is a nationalist. Pinochet and Fujumori were – as is Putin. Obama on the other hand is an internationalist and despises his adopted country.

  8. I am all for dictators. But it sounds like they partly beat the shinning path by giving into them and meeting their demands. It’s not really a victory for the government at all. Only with hindsight and changing of prerogatives is it a victory for the status quo.
    Also Osama bin laden didnt seek to create an aura around himself,america did.

    1. It was a victory for the government, allow me to explain you. Some Shinning Path memberd were FORCED to join them, so goverment gave these individuals a chance to change and collaborate. There was a history about a guy who was forced to join Shinning Path, who collaborated with goverment and then became a priest.
      It is strange that the article has not mentioned Montesinos. He turned out to be a corrupt politician, but I can dare to say that he is one of the smartest persons on this planet, because his strategies for destroying Shinning Path were very effective.

      1. You dont get my point. And i am not not saying shinning path won either but a lot of their objectives were completed just not directly by them. Its just not clear cut.

        1. Are you Peruvian? I would like to know what objectives you mean. Because the unique objective of Shinning Path was to convert us into a Communist shithole.

  9. I have been thinking about a CDC in America to combat local crime. The President can set up CDCs, authorizing them to conduct extralegal investigations with immunity, as long as each cell is headed by a Christian father of good standing in a confessional or orthodox church, no Mormons or liberals. The CDCs consist of the fathers and their sons, and daughters if needed for investigations in special cases. They investigate anyone in their county that they think could be harboring crime or lawlessness. All their interactions must be filmed. If any portion of the rules are violated the CDC is left open to prosecution. If they follow the guidelines they are granted immunity in conducting their investigations.

  10. Bigger question is how Peru defeated Brazil in the Copa America tournament yesterday.

    1. I was gonna put money on Brazil winning 3-0 but glad I didn’t now.

    2. Oh, that’s the hand of God. Shows up a lot in South America for some reason.

    3. Because they had an abysmal squad, were bereft of ideas and a manager that is a tactical numpty. They were abhorrent and have been since 2007.

  11. Two things: One, this Guzman fellow was a philosophy professor. Not to say that a nonacademic couldn’t rise to a position of power. The truth is, people like him have time and perhaps plenty of resources to dig in books and improve their “intellectual” craft, something most of us can I’ll afford. Kinda explains partly how feminists have gained traction. Even when they’re wrong, they can get their way just by throwing “facts” with a bit of intimidation thrown in. Two, maybe it’s the stereotypical striped prison jumper, or his sinister persona, or the crazy hair,but that guy reminds me of Sideshow Bob.

    1. The mind is a weapon and a tool. When used by a good man it can do great things, when used by a bad one or mmisguided, terrible things.
      Eric Hoffer had that kind of mind, he wrote the book “The True Believer” and Reagan based a lot of his reasoning in winning the cold war on that book.
      There is a line in the movie “13 days” where the character of the president says that Sun Tzu wrote that “wars are fought and won in the temples before they get to the battlefield, because all wars are moral struggles”
      I dont know if Sun Tzu actually wrote that, but I think there is truth in that line.

  12. Reading the old unqualified reservations blog, I’m seeing that insurgency is the preferred tool of the dominant left-wing. It only works when the terrorists side with some force more powerful than the dictator they’re fighting. For this reason, we on the right either need to master the tactics of the dictators and learn to keep them from turning popular opinion against us, or we need adopt leftist-style subversion tactics.
    Of course, since the left gets its power from centralized media, we could just find some way of eliminating that on a grassroots level.

    1. As long as we have a democracy where the vote of a tax payer is worth the same as the vote of a socialsecurity leecher the left has won.
      The majority of losers simply votes for other losers who will make the minority of successful people pay. This system is so simple its borderline genius.

  13. How does France get rid of ISIS is more relevant today! Another mini terrorist attack just happened!

    1. Dude, france will never get rid of these guys as long as the majority of the population is so far left. You have a de-facto communist as president and your unions are just plain insane.
      Your country is one of the prime supporters (along with sadly the US) of left and islamic terrorism on a global scale. Make no mistake, your president and his left friends benefits greatly from the fear of the french people.

  14. Ive travelled extensively throughout Peru. Its a beautiful country. Still dirt poor but functioning. Had they fallen under the control of the Shining Path it would have ended up like Cambodia under Khmer Rouge. Many of these communist movements are led by “failed in life” academics. They are some of the most brutal, vindictive pieces of shit you will ever meet. The only thing that trumps their hubris and arrogance is their innate machivellian evil. They are SJW’s of the worst sort. To fight them and win you need to be even more ruthless and cunning than they are. Fujimoro obviously realized that.

  15. If he was a real dictator he would have never allowed his citizens to own guns.

  16. Just here to vent about having been kicked from a Facebook group by a gay co-admin who started to throw shit at me (“you’re a misogynist”) and couldn’t handle shit being thrown back at him.
    Okay, I’m done.

    1. Too bad you can’t email him an actual turd to swallow. Then again, the fag would probably like it…

  17. The difference is that he actually wanted to get get rid of the insurgents, not help them proliferate as obama seems wont to do.

  18. I´m Peruvian, during our war on terror, more than 36,000 civilian died and the number of missing persons is calculated in around 15000, the actual government does not account the military losses.
    Terrorist use to poison the waters in cities. They use to fill up car with TNT and made them blowup in the center of cities, every day there were blackouts because the terrorist blowup the electricity towers. There were no family in the country that have not lost a relative or a friend.
    In the first years of the war, the socialist government banned the use of any kind of gun to the population and made it a felony to possess them without a special permit. The terrorists only grow because nobody could defend itself and the government couldn´t be everywhere. Fujimori gave war weapons to the native communities, and The Communities defended their families and their children.
    Now the terrorist are being set free. The socialist government gave them money compensations, the international human rights court put a fine on Peru Government for not respecting the human rights of terrorist in Fujimori´s time. And finally after 20 years there are new terrorist attacks in the jungle of Peru. This time the terrorists have a lot of money coming from the drug traffic. You could almost smell what will happen, and all of it is because of wimpy politicians trying to get in the fashion tendencies set by the last US government.

    1. Shining Path will eventually return. After all we have a weak government, led by PPK, an old man who supports gay marriage, drugs legalization, feminism and all that BS.

        1. Yeah, they have been knocking the door very strongly over the last years. Now they have started with their typical bullshit: gender quotas in politics, jobs, studies, etc. Now you see them naked on streets protesting for stupid stuff (like protesting against Fujimori’s daughter). And now we have a great support of those sick ideologies in charge of the country 🙂 They will introduce gender ideology to schools and we will be fucked up. Just like someone said a long time ago: “Enjoy the decline!” 😉

      1. Shining Path Exists. Right now the government pays them to not kill by allowing them to grow coca. Soon that will stop since PPK won and the USA needs to keep it’s puppets in check.

        1. They exist, but are not nearly as strong as they used to be in the 80s-90s. They rarely make an attack, but they are training their troops down in the jungle. And I’m sure they will return with PPK, since his government will be very weak and won’t be able to deal with such a problem.

  19. ISIS and other offshoot terrorist Groups in mid east todayhave an advantage which these communist guerillas did not have:
    – They are funded by rich countries like Saudi, Qatar and Turkey.
    – They are trained by US and other western special forces.
    Like or not, its the truth. And all ye yanks can’t do a thing about it unless you vote Trump.

  20. Sincerely I have a deep respect for you, for the sole act of having written this article. I deeply admire Fujimori, because he was the unique president in our country who actually cared about people. I feel so sad when I see the great ingratitude from people here in Peru towards him, but it’s all fault of leftists and progressivist propaganda which has infected universities.
    It’s insane to see how he’s in jail for unfair reasons, while terrorists are being set free and compensated with huge amounts of cash. Guys in the USA, if you happen to see a woman called Lorin Berenson, please, just throw a stone to her head. This CRIMINAL was sentenced to pass the rest of her days in jail by Fujimori, but Paniagua’s and Toledo’s terms reduced her sentence to around 25 years. She was set free this year if I’m not mistaken, and was given around $10K dollars. It’s great, isn’t it?
    Fujimori has been the victim of DIRTY AND EVIL propaganda over the last 16 years. Really there are so many myths around, but the one I like the most, because I find it to be the funniest is the following: People say he stole 6k million dollars (some say he stole 600k million dollars). Whoever says it is either a liar or really ignorant, it’s not possible to steal such a big amount of money for God’s sake, especially in a country which was sunk in UTTER misery brought by HORRIBLE government from Alan Garcia and terrorism. We were in a bloody war against these criminals from Shinning Path and MRTA, along with a 9000% inflation! If you want to get an idea on how Peru was in those years, just look at Venezuela (and Peru was worse, by the way).
    As I see things right now, Shinning Path will eventually return and I wanna see those fuckers who say he didn’t defeat terrorism claiming for someone like him. It takes a great leader to save a country from misery, destruction, corruption and total chaos. And this leader was Alberto Kenya Fujimori, the architect of modern Peru.
    And just a final funny fact: If you want to make a feminist, progressivist or any other modernist shit angry in Peru, just mention Fujimori, you will drive them crazy. 100% guaranteed!
    **If there’s enough interest, I may take the time to write an even more complete article on Fujimori and his war against terrorism.**

    1. As I like to say in my shitty Spanish: Fujimori y Pinochet no hizo nada malo.

    2. Please do mate. I have been to Peru (2000) and am fascinated by that period. It would be great to read a Peruvian’s account. I can’t see how anybody other than a truly strong leader could have rescued Peru from the utter train wreck that was the 1980s and 1990s. I just finished reading a book on the Shining Path called “How difficult it is to be God”- great reading. Guzman seemed like your typical armchair socialist who got others to do the dirty work…

      1. I see you are very interested in the topic. If you want to, send me a message to [email protected] so we can get the conversation going. There’s so much shit on Fujimori’s case that it’s even embarrassing. And the fact that you cannot even discuss it with most people here in Peru, because they have been infected by propaganda over the pass of the last 16 years. I’ll delete this comment soon.

      1. I find his reign interesting. Up here in the north, he dedicated a lot of money for hospitals and the poor. Funny how people in Peru forgot that….

  21. And now, a left-wing (((president))) was elected, narrowly defeating a lady from the Fujimori clan.

    1. If it was a defeat. It looks very similar to what happened 2 weeks ago in austria, europe.
      The right wing candidate who got over 40% in the first run was “beaten” by a radical left wing guy who only made less than 20% in the first.
      Like 50.1 vs. 49.9 percent, when the people would expect something like a 65:35 victory for the right wing guy. This election is currently beeing contested because of suspected fraud. The left will shut this down, no doubt but it is very interesting how the left scum do apply similar tactics all around the globe.

  22. Peru is a beautiful and fascinating country. I think Fujimori was warranted with his auto-coup and tough anti-terrorism measures, because Shining Path were going to take over the country. However, absolute power corrupts and unfortunately Fujimori and Montesinos began to steal and bribe with impunity, which ultimately led to their downfall. A shame because he really did do much for Peru. Before he was elected, from all accounts Peru’s economy and society were on the brink of total collapse. By 1992, Guzman was arrested and Shining Path were quickly declining in influence.

  23. The Guzman surname comes from uncertain origins. Two of the disputed theories include:
    A descendant of Guzmán (good man), a lord or nobleman. It could also indicate a cadet or noble who served in the military.
    A habitational surname from de Guzmán, or “of Guzmán,” derived from
    the village of Guzmán (es) in the province of Burgos, Spain.
    As an eastern Ashkenazic name, it could be a variant of Gusman, an
    occupational name for a metalworker, from the Yiddish gus, meaning
    “casting” and man.
    Given Name ABIMAEL
    GENDER: Masculine
    USAGE: Biblical
    OTHER SCRIPTS: אֲבִימָאֵל (Ancient Hebrew)
    ???

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