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71  3 The Mat­ u­ ra­ tion of a Cos­ moc­ rat and the Con­ struc­ tion of a Com­ mu­ nity of Dis­ course Up until 1977, Sen­ dero Lu­ mi­ noso was one of nu­ mer­ ous ­ groups of the rad­ i­ cal Pe­ ru­ vian Left that pro­ claimed the need for armed strug­ gle to con­ quer power. This chap­ ter ana­ lyzes the im­ por­ tance for this ef­ fort of the elab­ ora­ tion of a dis­ course, the ap­ pear­ ance of a “cos­ mo­ cratic fig­ ure,” and the con­ struc­ tion of a “com­ mu­ nity of dis­ course”­ around him. These phe­ nom­ ena help to ex­ plain the trans­ for­ ma­ tion of Sen­ dero, which until then had been a tiny, mar­ gi­ nal pro­ vin­ cial group, into a “war ma­ chine” that would play a de­ ci­ sive role in Pe­ ru­ vian po­ lit­ i­ cal life dur­ ing the 1980s and 1990s, even after the cap­ ture of its ­ leader in 1992 and its sub­ se­ quent col­ lapse. T There is no po­ lit­ i­ cal vi­ o­ lence with­ out dis­ course, for peo­ ple need to con­ vince them­ selves or be con­ vinced by oth­ ers in order to carry out such vi­ o­ lence. In this light, a ­ little-known text by David Apter (1993; cf. 1997) draws on dis­ course the­ ory to de­ velop an ap­ proach to the phe­ nom­ e­ non of po­ lit­ i­ cal vi­ o­ lence that seems es­ pe­ cially use­ ful to ex­ plain the trans­ for­ ma­ tion of Sen­ dero and es­ pe­ cially its ­ leader, Ab­ i­ mael ­ Guzmán, to­ ward the end of the 1970s. That trans­ for­ ma­ tion was the key ele­ ment that drove Sen­ dero to un­ leash vi­ o­ lence be­ gin­ ning in 1980, and it also helps to ex­ plain its vir­ u­ lence, ca­ pac­ ity 72 A C o s m o c r a t a n d C o m m u n i t y D i s c o u r s e for re­ sis­ tance and ­ growth dur­ ing the 1980s, as well as its sud­ den col­ lapse fol­ low­ ing ­ Guzmán’s cap­ ture in 1992. To be sure, this ­ discourse-based ap­ proach does not ex­ plain the en­ tire Sen­ dero phe­ nom­ e­ non or po­ lit­ i­ cal vi­ o­ lence more gen­ er­ ally. One can­ not ig­ nore the struc­ tu­ ral roots of vi­ o­ lence or the his­ tor­ i­ cal and so­ ci­ ocul­ tu­ ral con­ texts cru­ cial, as I have ­ argued else­ where, to under­ stand­ ing po­ lit­ i­ cal vi­ o­ lence in Peru (De­ gre­ gori 1985b, 1989b, 1996). But I share ­ Pizarro’s (1996) as­ sess­ ment that at the in­ itial mo­ ment of vi­ o­ lence, po­ lit­ i­ cal will plays a de­ ci­ sive role. That in­ itial mo­ ment is the sub­ ject of this chap­ ter. Dis­ course Anal­ y­ sis and the Vi­ o­ lence of Sen­ dero Ac­ cord­ ing to Apter, the dis­ course nec­ es­ sary for po­ lit­ i­ cal vi­ o­ lence be­ gins with ­ events that serve as raw ma­ te­ rial from which a rea­ soned inter­ pre­ ta­ tion is elab­ orated. That inter­ pre­ ta­ tion ­ emerges ­ through a pro­ cess that draws on cer­ tain in­ gre­ dients, par­ a­ digms, or ex­ am­ ples; doc­ trines, myths, and the­ o­ ries; magic or fan­ tasy and logic; meta­ phor and met­ o­ nym; nar­ ra­ tive and text. It is­ through that lin­ guis­ tic al­ chemy, for ex­ am­ ple, that spon­ ta­ ne­ ous up­ ris­ ings, dem­ on­ stra­ tions, and mu­ ti­ nies may be­ come ­ self-sustaining move­ ments. With­ out dis­ course, how­ ever pro­ found or long­ stand­ ing the anger of some peo­ ple or how se­ ri­ ous their grie­ vances, these ­ events can ex­ plode like fire­ works: they shine for a mo­ ment only to peter out as ­ quickly as they were ig­ nited. It is when ­ events are in­ cor­ po­ rated in inter­ pre­ tive dis­ courses and em­ bod­ ied in what Apter la­ bels “dis­ cur­ sive com...

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