| Support Committees for the Peruvian Revolution | |
| Native Name: | Comités de Apoyo a la Revolución Peruana |
| Native Name Lang: | es |
| Caption: | Bulletin cover for the Madrid branch of CARP |
| Other Name: | CARP |
| Active: | 1980s–2000s |
| Allegiance: | Shining Path |
| Ideology: | Marxism-Leninism-Maoism Anti-imperialism Gonzalo Thought |
| Position: | far-left |
| Attacks: | Assassination of Juan Vega Llona, Various attacks on Peruvian embassies |
| Status: | Defunct |
| Partof: | Peru People's Movement |
| Opponents: | Peruvian Armed Forces National Intelligence Service |
| War: | Internal conflict in Peru |
Support Committees for the Peruvian Revolution (Spanish: Comités de Apoyo a la Revolución Peruana, CARP) were a series of associations purposed to rally support for the Communist Party of Peru-Shining Path, as part of the party's international arm
Support committees were established in Sweden, France, Spain, United States, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Mexico, and Bolivia.[1]
Objectives include performing proselytism, collecting funds, making propaganda, and spreading a positive image of the Shining Path.[2] [3]
The committee's financial support for the Shining Path was raised through cultural and artistic events such as the Musical Guerrilla Army, conferences, and selling brochures such as
El Diario, the official newspaper of the group.The support committees were also involved in the Shining Path's clandestine terrorism, such as the 1988 assassination of Peruvian captain Juan Vega Llona and the 1992 Peruvian embassy attack in Stockholm.[4] [5]
In 1988, Peruvian captain Juan Vega Llona was shot to death during a trip to La Paz, Bolivia by a hit squad of Shining Path assassins supported by CARP-Bolivia. The Central Committee had ordered for Llona's annihilation in retribution for his involvement in the 1986 Peruvian prison riots, in which 224 Shining Path prisoners were killed during an uprising.[6]
CARP's branches were also used to vandalize and threaten numerous Peruvian embassies, a tactic mainly inspired by the 1992 attempted assassination of Peruvian ambassador Gustavo Silva Aranda in Stockholm, Sweden.[7]
Due to the brutal nature of Shining Path, these Committees often faced opposition.
After these committees published a petition supporting Guzman after he was arrested, the Peru Peace Network (P.P.N.), a group of U.S. religious and human rights organizations working in Peru, launched a counter-campaign, approaching signers of the ad individually and giving them a flier.[8]
Likewise, when Alberto Fujimori visited San Francisco, Amnesty International picketed both the hostel where he spoke and a Berkeley library solding Senderist propaganda.[9]
The Peruvian government published a booklet listing the atrocities of the groups and asked the European host countries to withdraw political asylum status from Peruvians who propagandize for the guerrillas.