Editing Abimael Guzmán (section)

===Downfall===
In 1992, during the first administration of President [[Alberto Fujimori]], the National Directorate Against Terrorism (DIRCOTE) began casing several residences in Lima because agents suspected that terrorists were using them as safehouses. One of those residences, in the upper-class neighborhood of Surco, had been operating as a ballet studio. The DIRCOTE operatives routinely searched the garbage taken out from the house. The house was supposedly inhabited by only one person, the dance teacher Maritza Garrido Lecca, but it was soon noticed that the household produced more garbage than one person could account for. Furthermore, agents found discarded tubes of cream for the treatment of psoriasis, an ailment that Guzmán was known to have. On September 12, 1992, an elite unit of the DIRCOTE raided the Surco residence. On the second floor of the house, they found and arrested Guzmán and eight others, including Laura Zambrano and Elena Iparraguirre, Guzmán's female companion.

At the time of capture, the police seized Guzmán's computer, in which they found a very detailed register of his armed forces and the weapons each regiment, militia and support base had in each region of the country. Guzmán had recorded that, in 1990, the Shining Path had 23,430 members armed with approximately 235 revolvers, 500 rifles and 300 other items of military hardware such as grenades. The Shining Path remained active after Guzman's arrest.

Guzmán was tried by a court of hooded military judges under provisions of articles 15 and 16 of Law 25475 adopted by Fujimori's government in May 1992 after April's constitutional crisis. The reason for this was to protect the judges' lives, as Shining Path was known for brutal retaliation against judges who convicted their members. After a three-day trial, Guzmán was sentenced to life imprisonment and incarcerated at the naval base on the island of San Lorenzo off the coast of Lima.

Guzmán spent the rest of his life imprisoned in the maximum security prison of the naval base of Callao, the port of Lima. Fellow prisoners there included [[Víctor Polay]], leader of the [[MRTA|Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement]], and [[Vladimiro Montesinos]], the former head of the [[SIN|National Intelligence Service]] who supervised the construction of the prison and served under the (now also imprisoned) President [[Alberto Fujimori]]. Abimael Guzmán died in prison on September 11, 2021, a day before the 29th anniversary of his capture.
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[[Category:Destroyer of Innocence]]
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