People

The followers were first found or indoctrinated in the university where Presidente Gonzalo , was the philosophy professor; it could be defined as the foundation or  first foothold, the party had obtained,where many students adopted the Shining Path's radical ideology. Soon after,between 1973 and 1975, Shining Path followers  in the Universities of Huancayo and La Cantuta developed a significant presence the oldest university in the Americas, the National University of San Marcos. A while after, the left members lost many student elections in the universities that The Shining Path decided to abandon recruiting at the universities and re- unite and come up with other strategies on recruitment .Beginning on March 17, 1980, the Shining Path held a series of private  meetings in Ayacucho, known as the Central Committee's second plenary.Which formed a "Revolutionary Directorate" that was political and military in nature, and ordered its militias to transfer to strategic areas in the provinces to start the "armed struggle". The group also held its "First Military School" where members were instructed in military tactics and weapons use. They also engaged in the "Criticism and Self-Criticism"- a Maoist practice intended to purge bad habits and avoid repeating mistakes. During the First Military School, members of the Central Committee came under heavy criticism. Guzmán did not, and he emerged from the First Military School as the clear leader of the Shining Path. The people of Peru ,according to opinion polls,regarding The Shining Path and their doings , in June 1991, "the total sample disapproved of the Shining Path by an 83 to 7 percent margin, with 10 percent not answering the question. Among the poorest, however, only 58% stated disapproval of the Shining Path; 11 percent said they had a favorable opinion of the Shining Path, and some 31 percent would not answer the question." A September 1991 poll found that 21 percent of those polled in Lima believed that the Shining Path did not kill and torture innocent people. The same poll found that 13% believed that society would be more just if the Shining Path won the war and 22% believed society would be equally just under the Shining Path as it was under the government.
YouTube Video click link:
A video of Shining Path rebels training (not brutal)    -open in another tab