Exactly 30 years ago today, the leader of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) was arrested in Lima. Called the "capture of the century", it is one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of counterterrorism. Here's how Abimael Guzmán was taken down. THREAD/
Guzmán was a philosopher professor and fanatical Maoist, nicknamed “Champú” because he washed his students’ minds like he was shampoo. Sendero’s insurgency began in the mountains of Peru in 1980. A decade later it threatened the capital, in a conflict that took ~70,000 lives.
On the run, Guzmán’s strategy was to hide where the authorities wouldn’t look: middle-upper class residential neighbourhoods, close to the police/military HQs. (Similar to Bin Laden hiding in Abbottabad). Two safehouses were just a few blocks from the army’s “Little Pentagon”
The police had their own strategy. A new counterterrorism team (at first with just 5 people!) was set up in 1990. And their aim was Sendero leadership. Instead of the blunt approach of “arresting to investigate”, they decided on something more patient: “investigate to arrest”.
The new team (GEIN) would follow Senderistas (especially those just released from prison) in Lima to map out the group's network. They observed Arana Franco, believed to be Sendero's money man, meeting comrades. Following those comrades they found new safehouses and people...
They searched one of those safehouses in January 1991, and made perhaps the most surreal discovery in the history of terrorism. They found a home video of Guzmán with the central committee of Sendero Luminoso... dancing to music... ...from the 1964 film Zorba the Greek
For years they weren't sure if Guzmán was even alive (never mind in Lima). Yet here he was, a bit drunk – and with the group’s leadership – a video recorded in the house they had just raided, only 4 blocks from the army's HQ. Totally absurd.
Material from these searches gave new leads to follow, as did the arrest of Arana Franco, the money man. He talked, in exchange for a new identity and protection from prosecution. One address was of particular interest: a dance studio in a well-to-do neighbourhood...
Who lived there? A ballerina and an architect, and the police watch them 24hrs. When the couple were away, they knocked on the door to see what happens. No answer. But there was a ruffle of the curtain; there was someone else living there, and they never left the house.
Police also went undercover as street vendors, opinion pollsters, and rubbish collectors. Sifting through the house's rubbish, they found empty packages of Winston cigarettes (Guzmán's favourite) and psoriasis medication (a skin condition he had).
The ballerina's behaviour was also suspicious. She: - Drove aggressively, circling the block before parking - Bought way more food than two people needed - Bought clothes too big for her partner - Even dropped a note in the gutter about Sendero's activity. It was time to act.
So on September 12th, 1992, the GEIN police raided the dance studio. And just like that, they found Abimael Guzmán sitting in an office on the first floor. They were shocked it was that easy, and even celebrated by cooking a meal in Guzmán's kitchen in the early hours.
Footage from the arrest was leaked. His second in command (and lover) Elena Iparraguirre stood next to him, holding a tiny flag of the Communist Party of Perú, telling police "don't touch him! nobody touch don't the president!".
In a famous moment, Guzmán told the detectives from GEIN: "You can take everything from a man except for what he has here [pointing to his head], no one can take it away, even if he's killed. If one dies, this remains with others, and you are never going to erase that"
With “Champú” now in custody, it was time to reveal him to the world. And it was a circus show. They put him in a giant cage, dressed in cartoonish prison stripes, in front of a hundred journalists. He shouted a speech; journalists responded by singing the national anthem.
[If this looks familiar, it's because Rage Against the Machine made a video glorifying Guzmán, complete with the band their own giant cage. By this point Sendero's brutality (e.g. the massacre of Lucanamarca, the car bombing in Tarata) was well known]
youtube.com/watch?v=MUaL1F…
Sendero never recovered from Guzmán's capture, because he was the core of its project - ideologically and structurally - in what amounted to a cult of personality. After he fell, so did others. By the end of 1992, 19 of the 22 members of Sendero's central committee were caught.
