This week’s reading allowed me to understand a situation in Latin America, where civil wars and political and economical stabilities were present. Guerrilla groups organized and took violent actions to oppose right wing government. Peru, for instance, had the largest armed insurgents in Latin America and they differed from other groups in terms of finance. The conflict occurred due to struggles between a Marxist left and a free market right. The civil war  in Peru had some similarities with Guatemala and Columbia in which they showed capacity to take over vast territories for short time. However, the most intriguing thing was how armed insurgents in Peru was able to resist for long time. Unlike other guerrilla forces in Latin America, where they did not have a stable source of income, Sendero Luminoso, armed insurgents in Peru, had a reliable source of income, which was cocain trades. As a result, they could better arm themselves and continue a war against well equipped government troops.

Until, Alberto Fujimori was inaugurated as the president of Peru, the country was in a constant instability. However, when he took over the power, he managed to weaken Senderos, even though some people criticize him for adopting fee market system, in which it destroyed the domestic economy and manufacturer. In addition, because of that, income disparity grew even more and cutting a budget for social welfare created a huge discontent among lower class. The president Fujimori took measures to attack the guerrilla group by expanding National Intelligence Service to go after terrorists. Alienated by his brutality and total destruction, Senderos were significantly weakened by 1990s. As a result many people admired and thought him as a savior of the nation especially after capturing the president Gonzalo, the leader of Sendero. In my opinion, he certainly inflicted struggles to lower classes due to his economy policy, but he should definitely receive some credits for destroying Senderos.

In sum, Latin America was a proxy war between America and the Soviet Union and civil wars and unstable politics created violent guerrilla forces such as Sendero Luminos.