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3. The Maturation of a Cosmocrat and the Construction of a Community of Discourse
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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...