The founder and head of the Sendero Luminoso terrorist group, Abimael Guzman, died: he was 86 years old and was serving a life sentence for terrorism at the naval base of Callao. Guzman in recent weeks had had a number of health problems for which he was treated in the maximum security prison where he was serving his sentence. However, he refused to be transferred to a health center and even refused food for a few days. He died “of complications” in his health, the prison authorities said.
Responsible for the deaths of some 69,000 Peruvians during the group’s bloody “Maoist revolution”, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Guzman had been Peru’s most wanted man for several years. Recently, the idea of forgiveness and liberation of Guzman and other ‘senderist’ leaders had been advanced in various sectors of Sendero, but the idea had never been enthusiastically embraced by public opinion or the political sectors.
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Arrested in 2002, he was to serve a life sentence. The latest conviction came in 2018 for a car bomb in Lima which in 1992 caused over twenty deaths. His followers regarded him as Mao’s heir. After his capture, the terrorist group had lost its military effectiveness in guerrilla actions.
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