Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

SENDERO LUMINOSO • 625Its threat to the state prompted the assumption of unconstitutionalpowers by President Fujimori on 8 April 1992. During a time whenCommunism was collapsing in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europeand revolutionary Marxism apparently discredited, the Shining Pathbegan to attract support from die-hard leftists throughout the world,just as previous generations of revolutionary leftists used to embracethe Sandinista revolution or the Cuban revolution. International supportgroups known as Peru People’s Movements sprung up in Europewhile Maoist groups, such as the Communist Party of Turkey-MarxistLeninist and the Revolutionary Communist Party, U.S.A., embracedthe Shining Path movement, together forming a Revolutionary InternationalistMovement that included other pro-Senderista Maoist partiesin Germany, Sweden, France, Switzerland, and Mexico. Theseties were actively cultivated by Senderista representatives livingabroad, who claimed political refugee status. Senderista activitieshave straddled the border with Bolivia while pro-Senderista factionshave appeared in Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile.The capture of Abimael Guzman on 13 September 1992 curtailedthe SL’s prospects within Peru as well as limiting the developmentof any international Senderista movement, although many observersbelieved that the SL had developed sufficient resources to surviveeven the loss of its charismatic leader. In fact, after Guzman recantedin prison and called on the SL to lay down its arms, the movement’sleadership was assumed by Óscar Ramírez Durán, also known as Feliciano,who continued to direct the movement even after the remainingCentral Committee had been captured. During November 1994the SL bombed two branches of the country’s largest bank as well asthe air force officers’ club in Lima, but no one was hurt.In 1990 there were an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 active SL membersand about 25,000 sympathizers, but by March 1995 there wereestimated to be about 2,000 active members and 5,000 to 10,000sympathizers. Following the 1992 capture of Guzman, the Fujimorigovernment offered amnesty to SL members, which was accepted by5,000 former SL guerrillas. In March 1995 the remaining SL memberscarried out a renewed terror campaign to disrupt the 9 April 1995 presidentialelections, striking not only targets in Lima, including detonatinga one-pound dynamite bomb outside the U.S. embassy and similarbombs outside the Chilean and Argentinean embassies, police stations,and power stations, but also attacks in the Huallaga valley, their former