Augusta La Torre
{{Short description|Peruvian revolutionary (1946–1988)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{family name hatnote|La Torre|Carrasco|lang=Spanish}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Augusta La Torre
|image = Camarada Norah.png
|caption = Portrait of Augusta La Torre
|birth_date = {{birth date|1946|8|29|df=y}}
|birth_place = Huanta, Ayacucho, Peru
|death_date = {{death date and age|1988|11|14|1946|8|29|df=y}}
|death_place = Peru
|party = Shining Path
|spouse = {{marriage |Abimael Guzmán |1964}}
}}
Augusta Deyanira La Torre Carrasco (29 August 1946 – 14 November 1988), also known as Comrade Norah, was a Peruvian communist, recognized as the number two in command of the guerrilla group Shining Path. La Torre's influence on her husband, Shining Path founder Abimael Guzmán, is credited with establishing equality for women with regard to participation within the revolutionary organization, and during its militant actions.Diamond, M.J., Women and Revolution: Global Expressions, Springer, 1998, p309, {{ISBN|0-7923-5182-7}}
Biography
La Torre was born in Huanta in 1946 into a land-owning family with a prominent political lineage,{{Cite book |last1=Starn |first1=Orin | authorlink=Orin Starn| title=The Shining Path: Love, Madness, and Revolution in the Andes |last2=La Serna |first2=Miguel |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-393-29280-0 |location=United States |pages=33}} later leaving to study in Ayacucho as a teenager. The daughter of Communist party leader Carlos La Torre Córdova and Delia Carrasco, "she grew up in a family where political activity, party membership and protest against the Peruvian state were routine, making it unsurprising that she too entered radical politics."{{Citation | title = Family Ties: The Political Genealogy of Shining Path's Comrade Norah | year = 2010 | author = Heilman, Jaymie Patricia | journal = Bulletin of Latin American Research | pages = 155–169 | volume = 29 | issue = 2 | doi=10.1111/j.1470-9856.2009.00321.x}}
She joined the Peruvian Communist Party in 1962 at the age of 17. She met Abimael Guzmán, a professor of philosophy, through her parents. Guzmán was a regular guest to their home in Ayacucho, meeting with La Torre's father to discuss politics. On February 3, 1964, she married Guzmán.[http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14095&ArticleId=200941 Bloody Peruvian terrorist also had fuzzy side] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004024826/http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14095&ArticleId=200941 |date=4 October 2020 }}, Latin American Herald Tribune, 2008, Retrieved 6 January 2009{{Cite news |title=El matrimonio entre Abimael Guzmán y Augusta La Torre contado por un testigo excepcional |date=2017-09-12 |url=https://rpp.pe/peru/terrorismo/el-matrimonio-entre-abimael-guzman-y-augusta-la-torre-contado-por-un-testigo-excepcional-noticia-1076034 |work=RPP Noticias}} La Torre also encouraged Guzmán to establish the Popular Women's Movement in Ayacucho in 1965. She was active within the Maoist political organization, Bandera Roja (Red Flag), and helped found the People's Aid of Peru.[http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/category,COI,,QUERYRESPONSE,PER,3ae6ad9710,0.html Peru: Information on Augusta La Torre, wife of Abimael Guzmán] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007050743/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/category%2CCOI%2C%2CQUERYRESPONSE%2CPER%2C3ae6ad9710%2C0.html |date=7 October 2012 }}, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, PER12684, 1 January 1993
File:Entierro_Augusta_La_Torre.jpg with his fist raised during La Torre's funeral.]]
La Torre was instrumental in helping Guzmán to create the Shining Path (known in Spanish as the Sendero Luminoso).Nathanial C. Nash, "Lima Journal; Shining Path Women: So Many and So Ferocious" New York Times, 22 September 1992Mahan, Sue and Pamala L. Griset, Terrorism in Perspective, p 253-4. On December 24, 1980, the beginning of the "armed struggle" (Inicio de la Lucha Armada), she led one of the first attacks of the Shining Path, which targeted a small farm, Hacienda San Agustín de Ayzarca, and culminated in the torture and murder of the farm manager, Benigno Medina and a 19 year old worker named Ricardo Lizarbe.{{cite book |title=Informe Final |url=https://www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/ |chapter=Patrones en la perpetración de los crímenes y de las violaciones de los derechos humanos |chapter-url=https://www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/pdf/TOMO%20VI/SECCION%20CUARTA-Crimenes%20y%20violaciones%20DDHH/FINAL-AGOSTO/1.1.%20LOS%20ASESINATOS%20Y%20MASACRES.pdf |volume=VI |location=Lima |publisher=Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación |date=2003 |language=es |access-date=24 July 2022}}
She went into hiding with Guzmán in 1978 and died in November 1988, although the circumstances of her death remain unclear.{{cite journal | title=
Family Ties: The Political Genealogy of Shining Path's Comrade Norah | last1=Heilman | first1=Jamie Patrica | journal= Bulletin of Latin American Research | date= April 2010 | volume=29 | issue=2 | pages=155–169 | doi=10.1111/j.1470-9856.2009.00321.x| access-date=March 20, 2025 | url=https://eds.p.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=90b67d8f-62b3-4388-9b66-e26c00855b0c%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=48345612&db=bth}} La Torre was succeeded as the group's number two by Elena Yparraguirre, who married Guzmán in 2010 after La Torre was declared legally dead.{{cite journal | title=Beyond the Gonzalo Mystique: Challenges to Abimael Guzmán's Leadership inside Peru's Shining Path, 1982–1992. | last1=La Serna | first1=Miguel | last2=Starn | first2=Orin | journal=Latin American Research Review | date=December 2023 | volume=58 | issue=4 | pages=743–761 |doi=10.1017/lar.2023.25| doi-access=free }}
In 2021, Peruvian journalist {{ill|Umberto Jara|es}} claimed that, according to evidence that included a police document with testimonies and a 400-page manuscript written by Guzmán after his 1992 capture, La Torre was assassinated on Guzmán's orders due to alleged disagreements with him and the risk of a schism, and that Guzmán had reportedly ordered that her remains never be found, while publicly stating that her cause of death was a suicide.{{Cite news |title=La primera esposa del fundador de Sendero fue asesinada, revela investigación |date=2021-11-20 |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/la-primera-esposa-del-fundador-de-sendero-fue-asesinada-revela-investigaci%C3%B3n/47127264 |work=SWI swissinfo}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20121007050743/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/category%2CCOI%2C%2CQUERYRESPONSE%2CPER%2C3ae6ad9710%2C0.html Peru: Information on Augusta La Torre, wife of Abimael Guzm n], Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, PER12684, 1 January 1993, at UNHCR Refworld online.
- {{YouTube|xF9dgFvgLFA|Video of Augusta la Torre's funeral}}, posted 9 February 2009.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torre, Augusta La}}
Category:Peruvian revolutionaries
Category:Members of the Shining Path
Category:Women in war in South America
Category:Women in war 1945–1999
Category:People from the Department of Ayacucho