Abimael guzman reynoso biography books
Abimael Guzmán
Peruvian Maoist revolutionary leader (1934–2021)
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Guzmán and the second or maternal family name is Reinoso.
Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reinoso (Latin American Spanish:[maˈnwelruˈβenaβimaˈelɡusˈmanrejˈnoso]; 3 December 1934 − 11 September 2021), also known by his nom de guerreChairman Gonzalo (Spanish: Presidente Gonzalo), was a Peruvian Maoist guerrilla leader. 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 on 12 September 1992. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism and treason.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Guzmán was a professor of philosophy active in far-left politics strongly influenced by Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism. He developed an ideology of armed struggle stressing the empowerment of the Indigenous people. He went underground in the mid-1970s to become the leader of the Shining Path, which began "The People's War" or the "Armed Struggle" on 17 May 1980.
Early life
Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reinoso was born on 3 December 1934 in Mollendo, a port town in the province of Islay, in the region of Arequipa, about 1,000 km (620 mi) south of Lima. He was the illegitimate son of a well-off merchant, who had eight children by five different women. Guzmán's mother, Berenice Reinoso, died when he was five.
At Arequipa, Guzmán completed bachelor's degrees in philosophy and law. His dissertations were titled The Kantian Theory of Space and The Bourgeois Democratic State. In 1962, Guzmán was recruited as a professor of philosophy by the rector of San Cristóbal of Huamanga University in Ayacucho, a city in the central Peruvian Andes. The rector was Efraín Morote Best, an anthropologist who some believe later became the true intellectual A sustained or protracted campaign has to be launched to save the life or Dr.Abimael Guzman or Chairman Gonzalo.He is on the verge of dying with continuous deterioration of health. The reactionary State cites untreated skin cancer which has now metastasized as the cause for Gonzalo’s admission to the hospital. Chairman Gonzalo’s condition is easily diagnosed and treatable at an early stage. As the most closely watched political prisoner on earth, there is no reason other than intentional homicide that the State would allow his disease to progress to this point. They want to murder Gonzalo, believing that by doing so they can crush the PCP and the People’s War in Peru. The fight for his release is not only an issue for the Maoist forces, but for all revolutionary democrats or humanitarians. It is part of the worldwide trend to challenge fascism, with India also glaring example. Like India, the Peruvian state is proto-fascist and not a genuine bourgeois democracy. Similar to Charu Mazumdar in 1972, the Peruvian government is attempting to assassinate Gonzalo. Even Non Maoists or Marxists have to wage a crusade for his release as for decades he was the voice of the opressed.Whatever serious errors in mass line he should be recognized as one of the great Marxist leaders of our times. History can never absolve the achievements of the Peoples War in Peru after 1980 to the early1990’s.The Peruvian leaders have not given him the political asylum which any genuine bourgeois democratic state would. The life of chairman Gonzalo is that of one of the most outstanding Marxist political Revolutionaries whose evolution is a study for any Marxist Leninist cadre. No Marxist leader after the Chinese revolution crystallised a peoples war or challenged a dictatorial state in such depth as Chairman Gonzalo.Whatever aberrations the Collected works of the Peruvian Communist Party are a classic in their own right, applying Maoism at a scale unp Abimael Guzmán liked to present himself as a studious man who dedicated himself, body and soul, to learning and teaching Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, a doctrine that he held aloft as insurmountable truth. In this sense, he was more of a prophet, or messiah, than a scientist. He was someone who felt that he was called, due to his exceptional intellectual gifts, to lead the socialist revolution in Perú. Thus, he assumed the mantle of representing the poor, strongly condemned the social order, and cried out for justice. His statement was categorical. From his in-depth knowledge of Marxism, it was impossible to be wrong. There was no room for doubt. And this sense of his convictions gave him a poise and security that enhanced his power to convince others, even more so because Guzmán said what people wanted to hear. Children starve and people suffer while the powerful exploit and monopolise the fruits of everyone’s efforts. Only a radical revolution could change this abject situation. — Gonzalo Portocarrero, Profetas del Odio [Prophets of Hate], 2012 ‘The future lies in guns and cannons! The armed revolution has begun! Glory to the Marxist-Leninist-Mao Zedong thought! Let us initiate the armed struggle!’ (Guzmán 2005: 330). So concluded Abimael Guzmán’s famous ‘We Are the Initiators’ speech at the conclusion of the First Military School of the Partido Comunista del Perú–Sendero Luminoso (Communist Party of Perú–Shining Path, hereinafter CPP-SP) on 19 April 1980, signalling the beginning of the party’s move from theory to practice. Barely a few months after the fall of the Maoist Communist Party of Kampuchea (the so-called Khmer Rouge), as the world was taking toll of the tragedy that had enfolded Cambodia, Guzmán was putting Perú, Latin America, and the world on notice (Degregori 2012: 4). Guzmán (2005: 327) continued: Marxism, reaching the great pinnacle of Mao Zedong Thought, has brought us a new moment: the p
Save The Life Of Abimael Guzman
The Shining Path of Peru
I had issues with the overall framing set out by Palmer in the introduction and conclusion, and with the perspectives of some of the contributors, but the book benefitted from having a wide range of chapters from diverse perspectives and authors. Revolution is considered almost entirely from the perspective of governments and counter insurgency strategy - much of this book is written almost as advice to the Peruvian state on dealing with the Communists as a "security" or "terrorist" threat. Even when the racism and inequality of Peruvian society is addressed, it is almost entirely as an unfortunate fact "exploited" by the Communists; state terror is not pathologised - as Sendero revolutionary terror is - instead it is again seen as simply counter productive or an overly zealous response to "terrorism". At one point, the introduction states that successful revolutions are almost always a result of failures on the government side, rather than of the competence and legitimacy of the revolutionary side. This is history writing entirely from above, from a state viewpoint, which ignores the constant wellspring of struggle, resistance, and feats of revolutionary organisation from below.
It would have been interesting to have at least one chapter from someone sympathetic to the Peruvian communists.
The chapters took a wide range of approaches - ethnographic, sociological, political, etc - and discussed different aspects of SL's history, organisation, and support base. I got a good sense of how they were rooted in a regional context, and how centralisation and ruthless use of terror both facilitated their rapid expansion and proved their Achilles heel. I think the critiques of their "semi feudal, semi colonial" analysis of Peruvian The Final Sheathing of La Cuarta Espada