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. Unlike many other terrorists groups, Sendero Luminoso is founded upon an intellectual infrastructure crafted by the now legendary Abimael Guzman, a former philosophy professor. The body of the movement, however, is drawn from Peru's long-neglected Indian and mestizo populations. Peru's already fragile democracy is further weakened as the rural and urban underclasses become attached to Sendero Luminoso ideologically and emotionally. 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. The Peruvian cocaine syndicate and Sendero Luminoso have different objectives and ideologies, but share a mutual enemy--the Peruvian government and its armed services. Hence they have combined forces to form a powerful and destructive alliance. Gabriela Tarazona-Sevillano assesses the impact of the Sendero Luminoso on Peruvian society, a new democratic government already besieged by complex and far-reaching problems. The book presents a detailed understanding of the peculiar and very personal nature of Peru's affliction as well as its possible international repercussions.

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. Unlike many other terrorists groups, Sendero Luminoso is founded upon an intellectual infrastructure crafted by the now legendary Abimael Guzman, a former philosophy professor. The body of the movement, however, is drawn from Peru's long-neglected Indian and mestizo populations. Peru's already fragile democracy is further weakened as the rural and urban underclasses become attached to Sendero Luminoso ideologically and emotionally. 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. The Peruvian cocaine syndicate and Sendero Luminoso have different objectives and ideologies, but share a mutual enemy--the Peruvian government and its armed services. Hence they have combined forces to form a powerful and destructive alliance. Gabriela Tarazona-Sevillano assesses the impact of the Sendero Luminoso on Peruvian society, a new democratic government already besieged by complex and far-reaching problems. The book presents a detailed understanding of the peculiar and very personal nature of Peru's affliction as well as its possible international repercussions.

The Sendero Luminoso (SL, Shining Path) insurgency in Peru evolved from its initial revolutionary warfare organization, based on the Maoist "People's War" model, to a narcoterrorist organization closely aligned with Peruvian and Colombian drug traffickers in Peru. This evolution shaped the insurgency in terms of its funding, ideology, and its modus operandi. Sendero Luminoso, as a narcoterrorist organization, has also developed operating characteristics that it has in common with the narcoterrorists in Colombia, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). Given that Sendero is a narcoterrorist organization, defeating it will require Peru's counterterrorist strategy to be at a minimum, coordinated, and preferably synchronized, with Peru's counternarcotics strategy, to be truly effective. Defeating narcoterrorism will also require that the Government of Peru (GoP) successfully address the socio-economic, political, and security conditions that led to support for the Sendero Luminoso insurgency and significantly contributed to the GoP's unsuccessful attempt to defeat the insurgency between 1980 and 1992.

Drawing on declassified documents and extensive firsthand research, The Politics of Cocaine takes a hard look at the role the United States played in creating the drug industry that thrives in Central and South America. Author William L. Marcy contends that by conflating anti-Communist and counternarcotics policies, the United States helped establish and strengthen the drug trade as the area's economic base. Increased militarization, destabilization of governments, uncontrollable drug trafficking, more violence, and higher death tolls resulted. Marcy explores how the counternarcotics policies of the 1970s collapsed during the 1980s when economic calamity, Andean guerrilla insurgencies, and Reagan's anti-Communist struggle with Nicaragua and Cuba became conflated as part of the War on Drugs. The book then explores how the U.S. invasion of Panama and narcotics related violence throughout Andean region during the 1990s led to the militarization of the War on Drugs as a way to confront narcotics production, narco-traffickers, and narco-guerrillas alike. Marcy brings to the reader up to the end of the George W. Bush administration and explains why to this date the United States remains unable to control the flow of cocaine into the United States and why the War on Drugs appears to be spiraling out of control. The Politics of Cocaine fills in historical gaps and provides a new and controversial analysis of a complex and seemingly unsolvable problem.

Using a framework that highlights how societal and international factors have shaped state capacities, Philip Mauceri examines Perus volatile politics in the countrys move from a developmentalist state to neoliberalism. He explores the challenges to state authority during the military regimes reformist experiment, arguing that they were intensified in the 1980s by poor planning and limited policy choices. He then examines how social and international conditions have influenced the Fujimori regimes attempt to retool the state along neoliberal lines. }Using a framework that highlights how societal and international factors have shaped state capacities, Philip Mauceri examines the volatile politics in Peru from the Velasco through the Fujimori regimes as the country has moved from a developmentalist state to neoliberalism.Dr. Mauceri begins by reassessing the reformist experiment of the Peruvian military regime (19681980), arguing that it led to the development of unexpected challenges to state authority, both from new social actors and international financial organizations. During the 1980s, these challenges intensified, made even worse by poor planning and limited policy choices. The author then argues that the attempt by the Fujimori regime, backed by a neoliberal coalition, to retool the state indicates the degree to which state capacities are determined by social and international conditions. Mauceri also gives special attention to the relation between changing state power and social control. Separate chapters on the evolution of a Lima shantytown and the Shining Path examine how changes in state-society relations have had impacts at the grassroots level.

Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues offers a multidisciplinary, comprehensive exploration of domestic and international terrorism that helps students develop the knowledge and skills needed to critically assess the expressions and underlying causes of terrorism. Martin explores theory and provides in-depth analysis in an accessible, engaging manner that helps readers develop the knowledge and skills they need to engage meaningfully with this robust course.