Diverse Directions along the Shining Path

Abstract

The year 1980 was seminal in Peru’s political history. Citizens elected a president for the first time in more than a decade. The new constitution allowed illiterate citizens and 18-year-olds to vote for the first time ever. And a new social movement known as Shining Path held a rare plenum of its Central Committee that, among other things, adopted the slogan “Initiate the armed struggle.”