THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2026 49 Stephen G. McFarland was ambassador to Guatemala from 2008 to 2011. A career Foreign Service officer (1976-2014), he served 12 overseas tours focused on democracy and development in conflict and postconflict countries, including Peru, El Salvador, Iraq (in a Marine regiment), Venezuela, and Afghanistan. He received an interagency reporting award for his work in Peru. Previous FSJ articles include “A Roadmap for New Hires” (July-August 2016) and “Right of Boom: A Bomb and a Book” (September 2021) about resilience in conflict zones. The author can be reached at mcfarlandsg@gmail.com. FEATURE You cannot defeat an enemy you do not understand. Peru’s elites had underestimated the Sendero Luminoso (“Shining Path”) guerrillas’ capabilities, intentions, motivation, and appeal. By 1988 the country was eight years into war with the Shining Path. More than 40,000 persons had died in this conflict that struck “like lightning from a clear sky,” historian Alberto Flores Galindo wrote, taking by surprise the Peruvian government, the private sector, academics, and the gamut of political parties. In 1980 a democratically elected president, Fernando Belaunde, had returned to power after a leftist military coup 12 years earlier. Marxist parties, some of which had supported the military government, had abandoned calls for rebellion and instead contested the elections. The Shining Path, however, had done the opposite. Based in Huamanga University in the mountain town of Ayacucho, it was led by the charismatic philosophy professor Abimael Guzmán. A Maoist who had visited China during the Cultural Revolution, Guzmán made that version of Maoism his template for crushing the Peruvian state and installing a “People’s Republic of New Democracy.” The Shining Path’s terrorism spread outward from the mountains of south-central Peru, and the group had expanded attacks in Lima, seeking the war’s tipping point. I was the embassy political officer reporting on the armed conflict. And, concerned about its impact on the drug trade and stability, the Washington interagency wanted more. Peru was one of the two top producers of coca leaf for the cocaine trade, and To assess extremist non-state actors, you have to risk taking a “dance with the devil.” BY STEPHEN G. MCFARLAND Like Lightning from a Clear Sky WATCHING GUERRILLAS Recruit in Peru
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