Communist party of Peru, PCP, also known as Shining Path. Led by Gonzalo, who died in prison last year (or two years ago maybe? Time moves fast).
Gonzalo considered himself not just a Maoist, he considered himself to be improving and building upon Mao's work. Gonzaloists put his face after the .
The Shining Path is controversial at best. The vast majority of MLs denounce them as ultraleft. They never amounted to much more than a terrorist organisation, often attacking civilians. Why they didn't succeed — that depends on who you ask.
Current Gonzaloists, at least from my experience with them, denounce everyone, all AES, and follow Gonzalo's writing as if it was scripture and the writer infallible.
So, "eating babies". In the early 80's, a local leader of the Shining Path (not a high-up guy) was captured by indigenous people. They took him back to their village Lucanamarca. There they stoned him, set him on fire, and shot him. In a reprisal attack, the shining path killed 70 inhabitants of Lucanamarca. A quarter of the victims were children. The youngest six months old.
They did so by setting them on fire, shooting, strangling, and torturing people with boiling water. now this is the origin: somewhere in the 2010's, someone online started a rumour/joke that they boiled babies alive. While the Shining Path and modern Gonzaloists recognise that they used boiling water to torture some of the people in Lucanamarca, they deny having done so to the children — who they did still kill 18 of, mind you. Since 2019, 2020, I've seen people make memes about them eating the children, an evolution of the boiling children rumour developed through a game of telephone.
Long text, not essential to the above, but here's what Abimael Guzman, aka Gonzalo, said about the attack in an interview — and how he justified it
we responded with a devastating action: Lucanamarca. Neither they nor we have forgotten it, to be sure, because they got an answer that they did not imagine possible. More than 80 were annihilated, that is the truth. And we say openly that there were excesses, as was analyzed in 1983. But everything in life has two aspects. Our task was to deal a devastating blow in order to put them in check, to make them understand that it was not going to be so easy. On some occasions, like that one, it was the Central Leadership itself that planned the action and gave instructions. That is how it was. In that case, the principal thing is that we dealt them a devastating blow, and we checked them and they understood that they were dealing with a different kind of people's fighters, that we were not the same as those they had fought before. This is what they understood. The excesses are the negative aspect ... If we were to give the masses a lot of restrictions, requirements and prohibitions, it would mean that deep down we did not want the waters to overflow. And what we needed was for the waters to overflow, to let the flood rage, because we know that when a river floods its banks it causes devastation, but then it returns to its riverbed ... The main point was to make them understand that we were a hard nut to crack, and that we were ready for anything, anything.
edit after Huldra's comment: changed "boiled alive" to "tortured with boiling water"
If I understand correctly, they didn't boil anyone alive in like a big cauldron, but they did pour boiling water on people as a method of torture, so thats the first step in the game of telephone that got transformed into "boiling people."
That makes sense. Thanks for your contribution. If anyone knows where to look for secondary sources of the time, or primary like diaries, that'd be helpful to figure out what exactly did happen.
I'm basing most of what I wrote off of what I learned during and after my membership of a Gonzaloist organisation, the leader of which told me that the PCP did not boil children, and I took that to mean they did to the adults, but that doesn't really make sense. Impractical. More practical for torture.
That's why I've always dismissed it out of hand. A bigass cauldron kept boiling to throw people in? That's so much work, fuel, and time. Any participant who isn't truly a sadist with a very specific desire to watch people boil would lose motivation before even having a chance to do it
Gonzalo (Abimael Guzman) attempted to synthesize Maoist theory in relation to how the Chinese peasantry were the main actors in revolutionary praxis and to apply this universally. He was a university professor in the more rural, remote areas of Peru in the 1960s and recruited students and staff toward his cause. His base was always in the hinterlands and the protracted people's war began in the earnest in the early 80s which ended up being a low-level civil war that lasted more than a decade but only really affected the rural areas. The Peruvian government created death squads whose brutality exceeded that of the Shining Path with somewhere around 100k people, mostly innocent villagers, dying in the fighting. I saw a documentary that showed the areas where Shining Path had the most influence were in areas where the agrarian reform of the late 60s/early 70s was least effective in redistributing arable land.
Yes, that's good background info on Guzman, hadn't thought of adding that. His biggest contribution to Maoism was that he thought the idea of the PPW could and had to be applied universally.
The PCP (Shining Path) officer that the Lucanamarca townsfolk kidnapped and killed, was kidnapped by what were basically indigenous patrol "vigilantes". I say vigilante because they weren't legally recognised by the Peruvian state. The indigenous peoples turned to these structures as a form of community self defence, because they were stuck in between a rock and a hard place: the horrific Peruvian state and the PCP.
Guzman died in prison at age 86 after falling ill and possibly (probably) not being given the proper care by the Peruvian State. Died on 9/11 BTW lol
Gonzalo/the PCP synthesized Marxism-Leninism-Maoism similar to Stalin with Marxism-Leninism. They were in dialogue with many other revolutionary communist parties at the time and based on their common experiences using the tactics from revolutionary China, came to the conclusion that the universality of these tactics constituted a further continuation of Marxism-Leninism as a revolutionary science
The PCP was much more than a terrorist organization. They were dedicated Marxist-Leninists (and later -Maoists) that worked to organize Indigenous peoples and the peasantry, which culminated in them gaining enough of a base they launched a protracted people's war against the Peruvian state. During the height of the people's war the PCP had support from something like 40% of the population
The Gonzaloists (or Gonzaloites) are a recently new invention, at least from what I can tell. It seems like at some point in the past 10-15 years a particular subset of MLMaoists have come to the conclusion that not only is MLM universal, but specifically the contributions and tactics of Gonzalo and the PCP (coined as Gonzalo Thought) and deviates from the main strand of MLM
It's worth noting that the PCP were rather heavy-handed with how they treated the indigenous peoples and there is a mixture of fearmongering and genuine threat that the PCP represented to the indigenous peoples.
To be objective about it, and somewhat glib, the indigenous peoples (at least at the time) were generally "conservative" insofar as matters such as gender relations (i.e. they were typically very patriarchal societies and this conflicted with the PCP position on the role of women.) Obviously when I say "conservative" it doesn't mean that they fit neatly into the western political paradigm of progressive vs. conservative, but I'm sure you get what I'm driving at here. Essentially, the PCP represented a threat to the way of life for indigenous peoples and exactly how much of a threat that is depends upon your position on the matter.
The capture and execution of the PCP leader is almost certainly a consequence of how the PCP treated the indigenous peoples and there's at least a fair argument that anti-PCP fearmongering also played a role in this as well.
The reason that I'm adding this information is because it's important to understand the political and cultural context in which this event happened to avoid playing into colonial narratives about how "the savages" brutally kidnapped and murdered a noble-minded, civilised person without any provocation or warning when the reality is that it was a much more complicated situation. It's also important for revolutionaries, especially in settler-colonial states, to consider these matters (and especially their causes and implications) for the future revolutionary moments in their own states.
Genuinely?
Communist party of Peru, PCP, also known as Shining Path. Led by Gonzalo, who died in prison last year (or two years ago maybe? Time moves fast).
Gonzalo considered himself not just a Maoist, he considered himself to be improving and building upon Mao's work. Gonzaloists put his face after the
.
The Shining Path is controversial at best. The vast majority of MLs denounce them as ultraleft. They never amounted to much more than a terrorist organisation, often attacking civilians. Why they didn't succeed — that depends on who you ask.
Current Gonzaloists, at least from my experience with them, denounce everyone, all AES, and follow Gonzalo's writing as if it was scripture and the writer infallible.
So, "eating babies". In the early 80's, a local leader of the Shining Path (not a high-up guy) was captured by indigenous people. They took him back to their village Lucanamarca. There they stoned him, set him on fire, and shot him. In a reprisal attack, the shining path killed 70 inhabitants of Lucanamarca. A quarter of the victims were children. The youngest six months old.
They did so by setting them on fire, shooting, strangling, and torturing people with boiling water. now this is the origin: somewhere in the 2010's, someone online started a rumour/joke that they boiled babies alive. While the Shining Path and modern Gonzaloists recognise that they used boiling water to torture some of the people in Lucanamarca, they deny having done so to the children — who they did still kill 18 of, mind you. Since 2019, 2020, I've seen people make memes about them eating the children, an evolution of the boiling children rumour developed through a game of telephone.
Long text, not essential to the above, but here's what Abimael Guzman, aka Gonzalo, said about the attack in an interview — and how he justified it
edit after Huldra's comment: changed "boiled alive" to "tortured with boiling water"
If I understand correctly, they didn't boil anyone alive in like a big cauldron, but they did pour boiling water on people as a method of torture, so thats the first step in the game of telephone that got transformed into "boiling people."
That makes sense. Thanks for your contribution. If anyone knows where to look for secondary sources of the time, or primary like diaries, that'd be helpful to figure out what exactly did happen.
I'm basing most of what I wrote off of what I learned during and after my membership of a Gonzaloist organisation, the leader of which told me that the PCP did not boil children, and I took that to mean they did to the adults, but that doesn't really make sense. Impractical. More practical for torture.
That's why I've always dismissed it out of hand. A bigass cauldron kept boiling to throw people in? That's so much work, fuel, and time. Any participant who isn't truly a sadist with a very specific desire to watch people boil would lose motivation before even having a chance to do it
Edit: even one sized for babies ffs
For every comically oversized spoon, a comically oversized stock pot
That was one of the few things I knew about him which piqued my curiosity.
Holy SHIT!
So he admitted he wanted to do terrorism. And not to colonizers, but to the natives?
Ultraleft + terrorist is a strange combination. They're willing to make excuses for the terror, but only their terror.
Thanks, Obama! This is the kind of summary I was looking for.
Gonzalo (Abimael Guzman) attempted to synthesize Maoist theory in relation to how the Chinese peasantry were the main actors in revolutionary praxis and to apply this universally. He was a university professor in the more rural, remote areas of Peru in the 1960s and recruited students and staff toward his cause. His base was always in the hinterlands and the protracted people's war began in the earnest in the early 80s which ended up being a low-level civil war that lasted more than a decade but only really affected the rural areas. The Peruvian government created death squads whose brutality exceeded that of the Shining Path with somewhere around 100k people, mostly innocent villagers, dying in the fighting. I saw a documentary that showed the areas where Shining Path had the most influence were in areas where the agrarian reform of the late 60s/early 70s was least effective in redistributing arable land.
Yes, that's good background info on Guzman, hadn't thought of adding that. His biggest contribution to Maoism was that he thought the idea of the PPW could and had to be applied universally.
The PCP (Shining Path) officer that the Lucanamarca townsfolk kidnapped and killed, was kidnapped by what were basically indigenous patrol "vigilantes". I say vigilante because they weren't legally recognised by the Peruvian state. The indigenous peoples turned to these structures as a form of community self defence, because they were stuck in between a rock and a hard place: the horrific Peruvian state and the PCP.
Guzman died in prison at age 86 after falling ill and possibly (probably) not being given the proper care by the Peruvian State. Died on 9/11 BTW lol
Yeah, I'm being earnest.
Well I gave you an earnest answer, hope that was informative.
It was. Thanks, Obama!
I have to push back and clarify a few things:
👍 good addition
It's worth noting that the PCP were rather heavy-handed with how they treated the indigenous peoples and there is a mixture of fearmongering and genuine threat that the PCP represented to the indigenous peoples.
To be objective about it, and somewhat glib, the indigenous peoples (at least at the time) were generally "conservative" insofar as matters such as gender relations (i.e. they were typically very patriarchal societies and this conflicted with the PCP position on the role of women.) Obviously when I say "conservative" it doesn't mean that they fit neatly into the western political paradigm of progressive vs. conservative, but I'm sure you get what I'm driving at here. Essentially, the PCP represented a threat to the way of life for indigenous peoples and exactly how much of a threat that is depends upon your position on the matter.
The capture and execution of the PCP leader is almost certainly a consequence of how the PCP treated the indigenous peoples and there's at least a fair argument that anti-PCP fearmongering also played a role in this as well.
The reason that I'm adding this information is because it's important to understand the political and cultural context in which this event happened to avoid playing into colonial narratives about how "the savages" brutally kidnapped and murdered a noble-minded, civilised person without any provocation or warning when the reality is that it was a much more complicated situation. It's also important for revolutionaries, especially in settler-colonial states, to consider these matters (and especially their causes and implications) for the future revolutionary moments in their own states.