Down the shining path of the university. The presence of PCP-Sendero Luminoso in the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos: historic revision from the memory of the student leaders (1980-1991)

Abstract

In the decade of the 80’s and part of the 90’s, Perú experienced the development of an internal war where the Communist Party of Peru (PCP-SL) rose up in arms with delimited political objectives. Through the advance of the insurgents in the urban zones, the universities are usually understood like spaces directed by the PCP-SL. The Nation University of San Marcos (UNMSM) will be in the dynamics of fight between the PCP-SL and the Peruvian State, and this last will generate an offensive on many places were suppose participated the insurgents, including the university centres. The predeterminate idea currently is the preponderance which the sanmarquino student movement were “dominate” for the PCP-SL, however, the complexity of the university scene, the political conditions inside and outside of San Marcos, the different stages of the internal war’s development and the reactions against the advance of the PCP-SL discuss with this idea. Next to the written source, the memory of the ex-leaders will useful for reframe and set a different experience to the raised by the official speech, till the popular, about the conformation of the political movement inside of the UNMSM.