In all Quechuan languages, the word sinchi is frequent and has the meaning “hard, resilient, stubborn, strong, brave”. In Ayacuchan Quechua, its main meaning is “abundant” or, as an adverb, “enough”.[2] It applies both to people and to things or conditions, and for this reason it can also mean "huge, great".[3] It can also mean “warrior” or “soldier”, especially in the context of the Incas. The plural of sinchi in Quechua is sinchikuna.[4]
After Juan Velasco Alvarado's coup, the Sinchis no longer received US support. However, in 1969 the unit was sent to Huanta in the Department of Ayacucho to put down a student rebellion against the imposition of a charge of at least one hundred soles on those who failed a course. In the so-called Huanta Rebellion, some twenty students and peasants were killed by the Sinchis and other police forces. Nevertheless, the Velasco dictatorship repealed the decree.[8]
On September 5, 1979, peasants from the community of San Juan de Ondores occupied the lands of the Atocsaico estate, which had been taken over by the Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation in 1926 and in the Agrarian Reform of 1969 was not returned to the community but rather handed over to the Túpac Amaru Agricultural Society of Social Interest, although in 1963 a court had annulled the sale of Atocsaico. The peasants demanded the restitution of the lands to the community. On December 18, 1979, the government of Francisco Morales Bermúdez sent 300 Sinchis who forced the peasants to vacate the state lands. The latter responded with stones. The Sinchis opened fire resulting in two peasants being killed, some 15 wounded and 44 detained.[9][10][11]
On October 12, 1981, when the Shining Path attacked the Tambo police post in the La Mar Province in Ayacucho, President Fernando Belaunde Terry declared a state of emergency in Ayacucho and sent 193 police officers, including 40 Sinchis, to Ayacucho. The Sinchis had their headquarters in the city of Huamanga, where there were never more than 120 of them. However, in their helicopters they arrived very quickly at the towns of the region, never more than nine men.[12] Almost all of the Sinchis were coastal residents who did not speak the language of the region’s peasant population, Ayacuchan Quechua, or know anything about their culture. According to testimonies kept by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Sinchis committed numerous human rights abuses.[13]
In September 1982, the Sinchis arrived in two helicopters in Chalcos, presented themselves as protectors against the Shining Path terrorists and organized sports activities. After two weeks, however, they got drunk, arrested the teachers and killed them, accusing them of being terrorists.[13]
In January 1983, the Sinchis entered the community of Uchuraccay and instilled in the peasants to kill everyone who came on foot because the Sinchis always came by helicopter. A few days later, on January 26, 1983, the community members killed eight journalists and two other people, calling them terrorists. In the months afterward, the town was eradicated by the Shining Path.[14][15]
One of the most well-known atrocities was the Socos (or Soccos; Quechua: Suqus or Soqos) massacre, a community in Huamanga Province, in which 32 men, women and children were murdered on November 13, 1983 by one unit of Sinchis.[13][16]
On February 8, 1984, criminal proceedings were opened by the First Court of Huamanga for aggravated homicide and attempted homicide, and on July 15, 1986, eleven defendants were sentenced, including six Sinchis, for the murder of the 32 inhabitants of Socos and for attempted murder, while 15 defendants were acquitted. The subjects were sentenced to prison terms between 10 and 25 years, but the first was released on December 1, 1988, the last on June 17, 1991, with parole. Civil Guard Lieutenant Luis Alberto Dávila Reátegui, sentenced to no less than 25 years, was released on parole on April 5, 1991.[17]
In 1989, the Shining Path began to infiltrate the Ene River valley in the Satipo Province in the Department of Junín. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Green Berets took over the Cutivireni mission in the Río Tambo District of the same province, where some 700 Asháninka lived with Franciscanmissionaries, as a military base to combat terrorists and drug traffickers. Some Ashaninkas abandoned the mission and joined Shining Path, while others began to fight with the Sinchis against the guerrillas. Many Ashaninka on both sides fell. 169 Asháninka under the direction of Father Mariano Gagnon were transferred to Kirigueti, a Machiguenga town in the Urubamba valley.[18][19]
The Shining Path, officially the Communist Party of Peru, is a communist guerrilla group in Peru following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path to distinguish it from other communist parties in Peru.
Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, also known by his nom de guerreChairman Gonzalo, was a Peruvian Maoist revolutionary and guerrilla leader, considered a terrorist by various governments during his lifetime. He founded the organization Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path (PCP-SL) in 1969 and led rebellion against the Peruvian government until his capture by authorities in September 1992. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism and treason.
Ayacucho is the capital city of Ayacucho Region and of Huamanga Province, Ayacucho Region, Peru.
Ayacucho is a department and region of Peru, located in the south-central Andes of the country. Its capital is the city of Ayacucho. The region was one of the hardest hit in the 1980s during the guerrilla war waged by Shining Path known as the internal conflict in Peru.
Huanta Province is the northernmost of the eleven provinces in the Ayacucho region in Peru. The capital of the Huanta province is the city of Huanta.
The internal conflict in Peru is an ongoing armed conflict between the Government of Peru and the Maoist guerilla group Shining Path. The conflict began on 17 May 1980, and from 1982 to 1997 the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement waged its own insurgency as a Marxist–Leninist rival to the Shining Path. It is estimated that there have been between 50,000 and 70,000 deaths, making it the bloodiest war in Peruvian history, since the European colonization of the country.
The Lucanamarca massacre was a mass murder that took place in and around the town of Lucanamarca on 3 April 1983, by Sendero Luminoso terrorists. The attack, which claimed the lives of 69 members of indigenous peasant families, was ordered by central leadership of Peruvian terrorist organization Shining Path in reprisal for a lynching death of its local commander.
Uchuraccay is a village in the Peruvian province of Huanta, Ayacucho Region. It is located 4,000 metres above sea level. The population as of the census of 1981 was 470 inhabitants. In 1983, eight Peruvian journalists were murdered in Uchuraccay, resulting in a presidential commission headed by Mario Vargas Llosa to find the facts of the case. Uchuraccay community members (comuneros) were put on trial for the murders. The town was deserted in 1984 due to the Peruvian government's struggle against Sendero Luminoso, but some families eventually returned.
Huanta is a town in Central Peru, capital of the province Huanta in the region Ayacucho.
The Putis Massacre was a massacre of 123 campesinos carried out by the Peruvian Army in a rural hamlet in the Santillana District of the Huanta Province in the Ayacucho Region of Peru. The massacre occurred in December 1984.
Edith Lagos was a Peruvian insurgent who was a member of the party Shining Path, one of the multiple Communist Parties of Peru. Lagos was a prominent promoter of the group's agenda.
Magaly Solier Romero is a Peruvian actress and recording artist.
The Assault of Ayacucho prison was an incident in the Peruvian city of Ayacucho, also known as Huamanga, on March 2, 1982. A group of 150 armed terrorists, members of the Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, staged simultaneous assaults on two local police stations before staging an assault on the prison, resulting in the release of 255 inmates. After a 5-hour battle, 16 people, including two prison guards, were dead and 12 people were wounded.
Marayniyoq or Marayniyoc is an archaeological site in the region of Ayacucho in Peru. It lies southeast of the town of Huanta and southwest of Huamanguilla at the border of the Huanta Province, Huamanguilla District and the Huamanga Province, Pacaycasa District in a plain called Vega Pampa. It is considered a Wari site.
Angélica Mendoza de Ascarza was a Peruvian Quechua human rights activist. She is considered to be a symbol of human rights in Peru and of those who disappeared in the country from 1980 to 2000 as a result of the internal violence in Peru and has been recognized by the International Red Cross and Amnesty International as a "tireless advocate for those women who lost their loved ones."
Tania Pariona Tarqui is a Quechua leader, social worker, politician and human rights activist who represented the Department of Ayacucho in the Congress of the Republic of Peru. As an activist, she works largely to establish social equality for the Indigenous, youth and women. In 2016, she was elected to the Peruvian Congress by the Broad Front for Justice, Life and Freedom. In September 2017, she joined the New Peru bloc. On 15 August 2018, she became president of the Women and Family Commission of the Congress.
Women in the Internal conflict in Peru were active in a large variety of roles, both making significant impacts on the Conflict and with the Conflict having significant impacts on them. Post-conflict women, especially Indigenous women, have played major roles in reconciliation efforts.
The Republic of Iquicha, also known as the Republiqueta of Iquicha, was a republiqueta and de facto autonomous region formed in Huanta by General Antonio Huachaca, a mestizo loyal to the Spanish Empire against the newly formed Peruvian Republic. The state existed from Peru's declared independence in 1821 until its incorporation to the country on November 15, 1839.
Antonio Huachaca was a Peruvian indigenous peasant and loyalist of the Spanish Empire who fought for Spain during the Viceregal era, and then for the Royalist cause during and after the Peruvian War of Independence, reaching the rank of brigadier general of the Royal Army of Peru. He later took part in establishing the Peru–Bolivian Confederation, eventually holding the title of "Justice of the Peace and Governor of Carhuaucran District" until the Confederation's dissolution in 1839.
The Iquicha War of 1839 was a brief armed conflict during and after the War of the Confederation between the United Restoration Army and indigenous peasants from Huanta who tried to defend the defeated Peru–Bolivian Confederation.
Gorriti Ellenbogen, Gustavo (2009). Sendero: historia de la guerra milenaria en el Perú (2nded.). Editorial Planeta Perú.
Ludescher, Monika (1999). Estado e Indígenas en el Perú. Una Análisis del Marco Legal y su Aplicación. Law & Anthropology: International Yearbook for Legal Anthropology. Vol.10. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
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