ABSTRACT
Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru M ovim iento Revolucionario Tupac Am aru (MRTA) is a Peruvian guerrilla organization born out of the fusion of two previous organizations, the Maoist PSR (M-L) (Revolutionary Socialist PartyMarxist-Leninist) and the Guevarist MIR-el militante (Revolutionary Movement of the Left - Militant). In 1984 the MRTA launched the armed struggle, though its early activities were limited to acts of propaganda, confrontations with the police and terrorist actions; it later moved to the phase of guerrilla war (see guerrillas). The MRTA char acteristically launched spectacular actions like the occupation of the Japanese Ambassador’s residence in Lima between December 1996 and April 1997; in fact, however, its numbers were already severely diminished before the occupation, and the crush ing of the siege left most of its members dead or in prison.
