ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates state responses to insurgency during the 1980s and the changes in state counterinsurgency initiated by the Fujimori regime. It examines state responses to Sendero between 1980 and 1989. State elites were initially divided over how to respond to Sendero and unwilling to commit significant resources to the conflict. These divisions reflected deep conflicts among differing state elites over the role of the state in society and even the nature of Peruvian society itself. Peru's state had a limited capacity to mobilize society against Sendero Luminoso. During the Fujimori period rondas successfully competed with Sendero to fill the organizational gap that existed in state-society relations in much of the countryside. The Peruvian military's efforts to confront the insurgent challenge of Sendero Luminoso during the 1980s occurred in a context of conflicts within the armed forces over the nature of Sendero and how best to combat it.
