Abimael Guzmán

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Abimael Guzmán

Abimael Guzmán (also Presidente Gonzalo ; born December 3, 1934 in Mollendo , † September 11, 2021 in Callao ) was a Peruvian guerrilla and leader of the Maoist terrorist organization " Shining Path " (Sendero Luminoso) .

Life

Arrest House in Surquillo District

Guzmán studied law and philosophy in Arequipa and was appointed professor of philosophy at the University of Ayacucho (Universidad Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga) in 1962 . Influenced by the Marxist theory of José Carlos Mariáteguis , Guzmán went underground in the mid-1970s and became the leader of the guerrilla movement "Shining Path", a Maoist split from the Partido Comunista Peruano at the University of San Cristóbal de Huamanga in the Peruvian Department of Ayacucho . The group's guerrilla activities resolved civil war-like conflicts in Peru that had lasted for over ten yearsthat killed almost 70,000 people, the majority of whom were Quechua-speaking rural populations. In the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s, the "Shining Path" controlled large parts of Peru.

It was only during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori that the Shining Path became increasingly on the defensive. Guzmán was finally caught on September 12, 1992 in Lima . The Dirección contra el terrorismo (DIRCOTE) had started to search several apartment buildings in Lima because the agents suspected that terrorists were using them as hiding places. One of these houses in the posh district of Surquillo had been used as a ballet studio. The DIRCOTE agents routinely searched the rubbish that was brought out of the house. Allegedly only one dance teacher lived in the house, but it was found that the household produced more garbage than one person could cause. Investigators also found discarded tubes of cream used to treat psoriasis , a disease that Guzmán was known to suffer from. On September 12, 1992, an elite DIRCOTE unit raided the house. On the second floor of the house, they found Guzmán and eight other people, including Laura Zambrano and Elena Iparraguirre, Guzmán's partner, and arrested them. Upon arrest, the police confiscated Guzman's computer, on which they found a very detailed inventory of his armed forces and the weapons held by every regiment, militia and base in every region of the country. Guzmán had recorded that the Shining Path had 23,430 members in 1990, armed with about 235 revolvers , 500 rifles, and 300 pieces of other military equipment. The Shining Path remained active after Guzman was arrested.

Guzmán was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court. He was in prison on a military base in Callao . In 1993 Guzmán called for peace between the "Shining Path" and the government on television , but this was only accepted by part of the guerrilla movement. In May 2004, Guzmán and some like-minded people went on a hunger strike while they were in custody to protest the conditions in Peruvian prisons.

On October 14, 2006, Guzmán was sentenced to life imprisonment by the National Criminal Court in Lima for terrorism against the Peruvian government. He also had to pay a fine of more than 61,000 euros, which goes to the family members of the Lucanamarca massacre , in which the Sendero Luminoso murdered 69 farmers with machetes in 1983, including 20 children.

In 2010 Guzmán married his long-time partner in prison, the also imprisoned deputy chief of Sendero Luminoso, Elena Iparraguirre.

Guzmán was imprisoned in the maximum security prison of the Callao Naval Base until his death on September 11, 2021.

literature

  • Nicholas Shakespeare : In the footsteps of Guzmán . In: Lettre International , Issue 2, Fall 1988.
  • Nicholas Shakespeare: Guzmán found! In: Lettre International , issue 24, spring 1994.
  • Nicholas Shakespeare: The Colonel and the Dancer (= Rororo; 22619). German by Werner Richter. Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg, 1999, ISBN 3-499-22619-7 .
    • original: Nicholas Shakespeare: The dancer upstairs. Harvill, London, 1995, ISBN 1-86046-065-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Founder of the Shining Path died in prison. In: msn.com . September 11, 2021, accessed September 12, 2021 .
  2. ↑ Los orígenes de del Partido Comunista del Perú Sendero Luminoso , EL PARTIDO COMUNISTA DEL PERÚ SENDERO LUMINOSO, Informe de la Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación; Report of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación
  3. ↑ Quechua of the Peruvian Amazon ( Memento from November 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Jeremy McDermott: Ballerina hid brutal terrorist chief. In: The Telegraph . October 6, 2005, accessed September 12, 2021 .
  5. ↑ Marry guerrilla chiefs. In: Tages-Anzeiger . August 20, 2010, accessed September 12, 2021 .
personal data
SURNAME Guzmán, Abimael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Presidente Gonzalo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Peruvian leader of the Maoist guerrilla movement "Shining Path"
BIRTH DATE December 3, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Mollendo
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Callao