ABSTRACT
Existing research on Peru’s internal armed conflict focuses predominantly on violence perpetrated by Shining Path militants and state security forces despite the important role different types of armed civilian groups played during the conflict. This chapter begins with a brief history of two prominent paramilitary groups from the conflict period: the Rodrigo Franco Group and the Colina Group. It examines the origins and evolution of each group, as well as their relationships to political parties, state security forces, and elite interests. The chapter then presents an assessment of how the state military helped organize paramilitary forces during its heavy-handed counterinsurgency campaign in the countryside by providing examples of state-led efforts to arm civilians to combat Shining Path militants and to reestablish the state’s authority in remote regions of Peru. It challenges the idea that all anti-guerrilla civilian armed groups were mobilized by the state and reveals that initial efforts to organize resistance to the Shining Path usually came through a community’s own initiative. The state only provided assistance and co-opted the organizations later. The chapter is based on 22 months of fieldwork between 2011 and 2017, including over 200 personal interviews with self-defense force members, community leaders, military officials, and civilians.
