The Return of the Shining Path and the Criminal-Terrorist Nexus
By Douglas Farah
For those of us who were covering the conflicts in Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s, there was no group more terrifying than Peru's Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) an Maoist organization intent on causing rivers of blood to flow in order to achieve the proletariat utopia.
After many years and countless dead, Sendero was largely dismantled and its chief ideologue , Abimael Guzman, who ran a horrific cult of personality, was jailed. The group was widely thought to have been put out of business permanently.
Now, as the Washington Post reports, Sendero, a designated terrorist entity, is coming back. Why?
The Shining Path, which has its bases in two coca-producing regions of central Peru, is now heavily involved in drug trafficking and is paying for new recruits.
Again, the terrorist/criminal nexus shows up, as it will more and more frequently.
The terrorists, using criminal proceeds, wear bullet proof vests, carry assault rifles and can pay salaries in isolated regions of the country where the state has little presence. Where they were once one of the most hated and reviled insurgencies on the continent, they are trying to come back in a softer, gentler form.
What makes the reemergence of Sendero even more dangerous is the regional situation. My full blog is here.