The history of Peru spans 15 millennia, extending back through several stages of cultural development along the country's desert coastline and in the Andes mountains. Peru's coast was home to the Norte Chico civilization, the oldest civilization in the Americas and one of the six cradles of civilization in the world. When the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century, Peru was the homeland of the highland Inca Empire, the largest and most advanced state in pre-Columbian America. After the conquest of the Incas, the Spanish Empire established a Viceroyalty with jurisdiction over most of its South American domains. Peru declared independence from Spain in 1821, but achieved independence only after the Battle of Ayacucho three years later.
The Peruvian Armed Forces are the military services of Peru, comprising independent Army, Navy and Air Force components. Their primary mission is to safeguard the country's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity against any threat. As a secondary mission they participate in economic and social development as well as in civil defense tasks.
The Shining Path, officially the Communist Party of Peru, 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 to distinguish it from other communist parties in Peru.
The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement was a Peruvian Marxist-Leninist guerrilla army which started in the early 1980s. Their self-declared goal was to demonstrate to leftist groups in Peru that sought change through the current government the viability of radical revolution. The MRTA also aimed to provide an alternative to another militant group, the Shining Path, which placed them in direct competition. The group was led by Víctor Polay Campos until he was sentenced to 32 years' imprisonment in 1992 and by Néstor Cerpa Cartolini until his death in 1997.
Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto is a Peruvian former politician, professor and engineer who served as President of Peru from 1990 until his removal from office in 2000, though de facto leadership was reportedly held by Vladimiro Montesinos, the then head of the National Intelligence Service. Frequently described as a dictator, he remains a controversial figure in Peruvian politics. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for human rights abuses during his presidency but was released after 16 years on 6 December 2023 following an order by the Constitutional Court of Peru.
Vladimiro Lenin Ilich Montesinos Torres is a Peruvian former intelligence officer who was the long-standing head of Peru's National Intelligence Service (SIN) and was reportedly the de facto leader of Peru while President Alberto Fujimori served as a figurehead leader. Montesinos had strong connections with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for over 25 years and was said to have received $10 million from the agency for his government's anti-terrorist activities, with international bank accounts possessed by Montesinos reportedly holding at least $270 million. The United States reportedly supported the candidacy of Fujimori during the 1990 Peruvian general election due to his links to Montesinos and ignored human rights abuses performed under Montesinos during the 1990s. In 2000, the infamous "Vladi-videos" came to light when they were broadcast on the news. They were secret videos recorded by Montesinos that showed him bribing elected congressmen into leaving the opposition and joining the pro-Fujimori group of the Congress. The ensuing scandal caused Montesinos to flee the country and prompted Fujimori's resignation.
Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, also known by his nom de guerreChairman Gonzalo, was a Peruvian Maoist guerrilla leader and terrorist. He founded the organization Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path (PCP-SL) in 1969 and led a rebellion against the Peruvian government until his capture by authorities in 12 September 1992. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism and treason.
María Elena Moyano Delgado was an Afro-Peruvian community organizer and feminist who was assassinated by the Shining Path. She grew up in poverty in the Villa El Salvador pueblo joven, then became involved in local activism. She was twice president of FEPOMUVES and at the time of her death was deputy mayor. Her funeral was attended by 300,000 people and resulted in a downturn in support for the Shining Path. She received the Peruvian Order of Merit posthumously.
The Barrios Altos massacre occurred on 3 November 1991 in the Barrios Altos neighborhood of Lima, Peru. Members of Grupo Colina, a death squad comprising Peruvian Armed Forces personnel, were later identified as the assailants who killed fifteen individuals, including an eight-year-old child, and injured four others. The victims were reportedly partygoers associated with the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist group Shining Path. Nevertheless, judicial authorities found that they were not terrorists.
La Cantuta massacre took place in Peru on 18 July 1992, during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori. Supposed members of Shining Path, including a university professor and nine students from Lima's La Cantuta University, were abducted, tortured, and killed by Grupo Colina, a military death squad. The incident occurred two days after the Shining Path's Tarata bombing, which killed over 40 people in Lima Province.
The Tarata bombing, known also as the Miraflores bombing or Lima bombing, was a terrorist attack carried out in Tarata Street, located in Miraflores District of Lima, Peru, on 16 July 1992, by the Shining Path terrorist group. The blast was one of the deadliest Shining Path bombings during the Internal conflict in Peru and was part of a larger bombing campaign in the city during the last stage of the terrorism era.
A self-coup, sometimes known as the Fujimorazo, was performed in Peru in 1992 after President Alberto Fujimori dissolved the Congress as well as the judiciary and assumed full legislative and judicial powers. With the collaboration of the military, the Fujimori government subsequently began to implement objectives of the Green Plan following the coup.
The Grupo Colina was a military anti-communist death squad created in Peru that was active from October 1991 until November 1992, during the administration of president Alberto Fujimori. The group committed several human rights abuses, including an eight-month period of 1991–1992 that saw a total of 34 people killed in the Barrios Altos massacre, the Santa massacre, the Pativilca massacre, and the La Cantuta massacre.
The Peruvian conflict is an ongoing armed conflict between the Government of Peru and the Maoist guerilla group Shining Path and its remnants. The conflict began on 17 May 1980, and from 1982 to 1997 the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement waged its own insurgency as a Marxist–Leninist rival to the Shining Path.
The Eye that Cries is a memorial that was born as a private initiative designed to honor the thousands of victims as a result of terrorism in Peru, to strengthen the collective memory of all Peruvians and to promote peace and reconciliation in the country.
The Lost Decade or the Crisis of the 80s was a period of economic stagnation in Peru throughout the 1980s which was exacerbated to a severe macroeconomic crisis by the end of the decade. Foreign debt accumulation throughout Latin America, a series of natural disasters, mass public expenditures, nationalizations of banks and financial institutions, and the shutting of Peru out of international credit markets led to a decade of macroeconomic decline. The financial crisis soon became adopted into the public sphere through hyperinflation in commodities, food shortages, and mass unemployment. By the end of the decade, Peru's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted over 20%, and poverty rose to 55%.
The Militarized Communist Party of Peru is a political party and militant group in Peru that follows Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and participates in the communist insurgency in Peru. It is considered a terrorist organization by the government of Peru. The MPCP operates primarily in the VRAEM area and is involved in the area's coca production. Comrade José has been the leader of the MPCP since its official creation in 2018 after its final split from the declining Shining Path guerilla group.
The 1986 Soviet embassy attack in Lima was a terrorist attack on July 7, 1986, against the official residence of the delegation of the Soviet Union in Peru. The attack failed to result in the death of any Soviet citizen, killing one terrorist.
Deng Xiaoping's dogs is a term used by modern Peruvian historiography to refer to a case of animal abuse perpetrated in Lima by Shining Path, a Maoist terror group, in response to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's unorthodox opening economic reform, distancing himself from the thoughts of Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China.
Support Committees for the Peruvian Revolution were a series of associations purposed to rally support for the Communist Party of Peru-Shining Path, as part of the party's international arm
