The final sheathing of 'La Cuarta Espada'

'The future lies in guns and cannons! The armed revolution has begun! Glory to the Marxist-Leninist-Mao Zedong thought! Let us initiate the armed struggle!' (Guzman 2005: 330). So concluded Abimael Guzman's famous 'We Are the Initiators' speech at the conclusion of the First Military School of the Partido Comunista del Peru-Sendero Luminoso (Communist Party of Peru- Shining Path, hereinafter CPP-SP) on 19 April 1980, signalling the beginning of the party's move from theory to practice. Barely a few months after the fall of the Maoist Communist Party of Kampuchea (the so-called Khmer Rouge), as the world was taking toll of the tragedy that had enfolded Cambodia, Guzman was putting Peru, Latin America, and the world on notice (Degregori 2012: 4). Guzman (2005: 327) continued.