Shining Path

Communist Party of Peru Partido Comunista del Perú
Abbreviation	PCP (official) PCP-SL (unofficial)
Leaders	Abimael Guzmán (1969–1993) Óscar Ramírez (1993–1999)
Founder	Abimael Guzmán
Founded	1969 (de facto)
Split from	Peruvian Communist Party – Red Flag
Succeeded by	Negotiating faction[a] Combatant faction[b]
Armed wing	People's Liberation Army
Ideology	Communism Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Gonzalo Thought Anti-revisionism Revolutionary socialism
Political position	Far-left
International affiliation	International Communist League Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (defunct)
Colors	Red
Slogan	¡Viva la Guerra Popular! ¡Guerra Popular hasta el comunismo! ("Long live the People's War! People's War until communism!")
Party flag
Politics of Peru Political parties Elections

The Shining Path (Spanish: Sendero Luminoso, SL), self-named the Communist Party of Peru (Partido Comunista del Perú, abbr. PCP), is a far-left political party and guerrilla group in Peru, following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path (Partido Comunista del Perú – Sendero Luminoso, abbr. PCP-SL) to distinguish it from other communist parties in Peru.

When it first launched its "people's war" in 1980, the Shining Path's goal was to overthrow the government through guerrilla warfare and replace it with a New Democracy. The Shining Path believed that by establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat, inducing a cultural revolution, and eventually sparking a world revolution, they could arrive at full communism. Their representatives stated that the then-existing socialist countries were revisionist, and the Shining Path was the vanguard of the world communist movement. The Shining Path's ideology and tactics have influenced other Maoist insurgent groups such as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) and other Revolutionary Internationalist Movement-affiliated organizations.^[4]

The Shining Path has been widely condemned for its excessive brutality, including violence deployed against peasants, such as the Lucanamarca massacre, as well as for its violence towards trade union organizers, competing Marxist groups, elected officials, and the general public.^[5] The Shining Path is regarded as a terrorist organization by the government of Peru, along with Japan,^[6] the United States,^[7] the European Union,^[8] and Canada,^[9] all of whom consequently prohibit funding and other financial support to the group.

Since the capture of Shining Path founder Abimael Guzmán in 1992 and of his successors Óscar Ramírez ("Comrade Feliciano") in 1999 and Eleuterio Flores ("Comrade Artemio") in 2012, the Shining Path has declined in activity.^[10][11] The main remaining faction of the Shining Path, the Militarized Communist Party of Peru (MPCP),^[c] is active in the VRAEM region of Peru, and it has since distanced itself from the Shining Path's legacy in 2018 in order to maintain the support of peasants previously persecuted by the Shining Path.^[11][12][13] In addition to the MPCP, the Communist Party of Peru – Red Mantaro Base Committee (PCP-CBMR) has been operating in the Mantaro Valley since 2001, while the Communist Party of Peru – Huallaga Regional Committee (PCP-CRH)^[d] was active at the Huallaga region from 2004 until Comrade Artemio's capture in 2012.^[14]

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