Amibael Guzman, Founder Of Peru's Sendero Luminoso, Dies At 86

Abimael Guzman, leader of the Shining Path rebels who nearly toppled the Peruvian state in a bloody Maoist revolution, died on Saturday while in prison and following several weeks of poor health, the government said. He was 86, Marcelo Rochabrun reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Demonstrators raise a placard of Shining Path leader Amibael Guzman at a pro-communism rally.

Guzman was captured in 1992 in Lima and jailed for the rest of his life after being convicted as a terrorist. He died one day before the anniversary of his capture when he was paraded in front of the press in a striped white and black uniform that is not normally used in Peru.

Susana Silva, head of Peru's prison system, told RPP radio on Saturday that Guzman had been ill in recent months and had been released from a hospital in early August.4

She said his health condition worsened in the past two days, without elaborating further, adding Guzman was set to receive more medical attention on Saturday but died in his cell around 6:40 a.m. local time (1140 GMT). Defense minister Walter Ayala said Guzman had died of a "generalized infection."

"The terrorist leader Abimael Guzman has died, responsible for the loss of an uncountable number of lives" tweeted President Pedro Castillo.

"Our position condemning terrorism is firm and unwavering. Only in democracy will we build a just Peru."

A former philosophy professor, Guzman was a lifelong communist who traveled to China in the late 1960s and was awed by Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. He resolved to bring Mao's brand of communism to Peru through a class war that he launched in 1980 on the day that Peru held its first democratic elections following over a decade of military dictatorship.

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