Abimael Guzman, the founder of the Peruvian rebel group Shining Path, known as ‘Sendero Luminoso’ in Spanish, died in prison on Saturday, according to the country’s National Penitentiary Institute. He was 86.
A Maoist rebel group, Shining Path was active in the 1980s and 1990s, spreading terror in the country through a bombing campaign that targeted buildings and infrastructure such as electricity towers.
Its prominence began to fade after Guzman, known as Camarada Gonzalo, was captured and sentenced to life in prison in 1992.
“At approximately 6:40 in the morning in the maximum-security detention center of the El Callao Naval Base, inmate Abimael Guzman Reynoso died due to complications with his health,” the Penitentiary Institute said in a brief statement.
El Callao Naval Base is about 15 kilometers east of Peru’s capital, Lima.
Under Guzman’s leadership, the group declared war on the Peruvian government in 1980, carrying out bombings and assassination operations, which by official accounts killed more than 30,000 Peruvians during the next 20 years.
