Editing Shining Path (section)

=== Capture of Guzmán and collapse (1992–1993) ===
On 12 September 1992, the [[Special Intelligence Group]] (GEIN) [[Operation Victoria|captured Guzmán and several Shining Path leaders]] in an apartment above a dance studio in the [[Surquillo]] district of Lima. GEIN had been monitoring the apartment since a number of suspected Shining Path militants had visited it. An inspection of the garbage of the apartment produced empty tubes of a skin cream used to treat [[psoriasis]], a condition that Guzmán was known to have. Shortly after the raid that captured Guzmán, most of the remaining Shining Path leadership fell as well.{{sfn|Rochlin|2003|p=71}}

The capture of Guzmán left a huge leadership vacuum for the Shining Path. "There is no No. 2. There is only Presidente Gonzalo and then the party," a Shining Path political officer said at a birthday celebration for Guzmán in Lurigancho prison in December 1990. "Without President Gonzalo, we would have nothing."<ref>[http://www.deseretnews.com/article/247397/GUZMAN-ARREST-LEAVES-VOID-IN-SHINING-PATHS-LEADERSHIP.html "Guzman arrest leaves Void in Shining Path Leadership"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422133139/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/247397/GUZMAN-ARREST-LEAVES-VOID-IN-SHINING-PATHS-LEADERSHIP.html |date=22 April 2018 }} Associated Press/[[Deseret News]].com, 14 September 1992</ref>

At the same time, the Shining Path suffered embarrassing military defeats to self-defense organizations of rural ''campesinos'' – supposedly its social base. When Guzmán called for peace talks with the Peruvian government, the organization fractured into splinter groups, with some Shining Path members in favor of such talks and others opposed.<ref name=":8" /><ref>Sims, Calvin (5 August 1996) [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9402E5D81E3FF936A3575BC0A960958260&scp "Blasts Propel Peru's Rebels From Defunct To Dangerous."]. ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved 17 January 2008</ref>