Abimael Guzmán was held in a maximum-security prison for three decades before his death last month, having had very little contact with the outside world. His Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path almost fully disbanded shortly after his arrest in 1992. Yet his name and organization are still constantly discussed in Peruvian society — especially so since the return of the left to government in Peru earlier this year.
“Debates in Congress have shown that the people who need the ghost of terrorism the most are the country’s right-wingers,” government ally Guillermo Bermejo argued recently, after the opposition...