The nineties became an age filled with internal conflict, the Shining Path and the MRTA had gained widespread support on rural zones and the amount of attacks on civilians were rising at a alarming level.
The Masacre of Lunamarca happened and the Shining Path, with the explicit aproval of Abimael Guzman himself, masacrated a entire town in the Peruvian andes. However, as is well known, the millitary wasn't better, which just radicalizated both sides.
Things became worse with the victory of populist Alberto Fujimori in 1990, whose goverment caused a economic shock which ended up radicalizating more civilians. The goverment didn't knew it, but the worst was to begin.
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The Tragedy of Abimael Guzman
While Abimael Guzman and the Shining Path were always violent, the nineties were the moment were many historians considerate that Guzman went to the deep end and started to propose more and more radical means and measures. The current Peruvian economic crisis was too extreme, enough that many were willing to call it a Failed State which just served to radicalizate the populace. While the people in the coastal cities were able to stand the crisis without many issues, the Shining Path eventually annunciated themselves with the Tarata bombings.
Abimael Guzman was a teacher turned terrorist leader and infamous for his charisma. Under his leadership, the Shining Path eventually devoloped a doctrine known as "Demolition", referincing one of Abimael's more iconic phrases.
If we want to rebuild a new world, we should demolish, demolish, the old elites. If they cry, shoot them in the head! If their children cry, then give them a choice, to redeem themselves from the crimes of their parents and become real men or to join to their corrupt parents in the bottom of the abyss.
For many, it was hard to understand Abimael's brutality, but a quick look to his life reveals reasons behind his brutality.
Ilegimate son of a bussinessman who ignored him and a mother who abandoned him as soon had the opportunity, Abimael's life was far from pleasant. As weird as it sounds, the biggest killer of Peruvian soldiers in the modern era used to dream to be a militar and admired the WW2 Allies as a whole.
I don't hope that my writings are seen as a apology, Chairman Gonzalo is truly a monster, even Hitler and Stalin were victims of their era before becoming monsters, I'm of the personal belief that the biggest monsters are born from tragedy...but that there a point were the brutality is so vast that even the saddest past can't justify them, that is when we stop talking about mere brutality and start to call it for another word:
Evil.
Eventually, Abimael's Demolition strategy manifested in many ways. The infamous Lucanamarca Massacre that killed dozens of civilians is widely considered to the the Divergence Point where Abimael's idealism vanished completely and was remplaced for nothing but blind rage. The exact reason is unknown, but many biographers considerate that after the massacre that he himself ordered caused him to have a time of meditation which made him to embrace the violence even more than in the past.
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Note: The Demolition doctrine is from this TL, Abimael's brutality wasn't that planned ITTL and he had some moral concerns, this TL had a the premise that, after the Lucanamarca massacre, Abimael, now even more radical due to the fails of the Peruvian govt., decides to embrace the brutality.
However, this is also motivates for his own personality cult, which also existed IOTL...lets see how this goes and how it will affect Peru for the years to come.
...Let's say that Abimael had...a ego.