Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso)

Sendero Luminoso or the "Shining Path" ranks among the most elusive, secretive, and brutal guerrilla organizations in the world. Once a radical uprising limited to the Andean highlands of Ayacucho, it is now a movement of national proportions that has woven itself into the fabric of Peruvian society. This book provides a comprehensive overview of this guerrilla organization and the Peruvian government's dilemma in dealing with it and the emergence of "narcoterrorism," a mutually beneficial relationship between the cocaine syndicate and Sendero Luminoso.

This is the only comprehensive case study in English of the highly complex Peruvian military and its place in Peruvian society. Covering the early 1930s to present, it is based on extensive Latin American and U.S. archival sources and personal interviews. Emphasis is placed on the impact of French and U.S. military theory; revolutionary politics up to and including Sendero Luminoso; the rationale behind General Alvarado's reforms (1968-75); Velasco's legacy; and an examination of the Soviet Union's involvement in Peru. For students and scholars of contemporary Latin America.

An account of the social experiences at the heart of the war waged between Shining Path and the Peruvian military during the 1980s and early 1990s. The book analyzes the brutal reshaping of life and politics during a war that cost tens of thousands of lives.

Several democratic countries have used emergency powers to restrict or suspend individual liberties in order to fight terrorism more effectively. Emergency powers are controversial in their potential to undermine democracy and civil liberties. Freeman challenges popular arguments of both the supporters of emergency powers, who focus on their expected effectiveness, and the critics, who focus on the dangers.

Although no longer the site of surrogate competition between rival political-economic systems, the "Third World" is the main focus of instability in the post-Cold War world. Wars of secession, bloody ethnic conflicts, chaotic violence in failing states, domestic and international terrorism, essentially criminal insurgencies with no political objective - all are flourishing wherever "world peace" has left a vacuum. In Distant Thunder, Donald M. Snow traces the dynamics of disorder in the new international environment and the ways in which U.S. policy will need to adapt to new realities.

This ecological history of peasant society in the Peruvian Andes focuses on the politics of irrigation and water management in three villages whose terraces and canal systems date back to Inca times. Set in a remote valley, the book tells a story of domination and resulting social decline, showing how basic changes in the use of land, water, and labor have been pivotal in transforming the indigenous way of life. The author carries out a comparison of contemporary practices in communities that vary systematically along certain dimensions. He analyzes the communities' similarities and differences in hydraulic organization, landscaping, water use, and other variables. Strikingly diverse patterns appear in local practice, which prove to be the key to unraveling the area's history. The book concludes by describing the recent intensification of a water conflict. This struggle between peasants and former landlords ultimately led villagers to rise up against the national government. The story culminates in the violent intrusion of the revolutionary group known as Shining Path.