Chuschi ballot burning incident

{{Short description|1980 terrorist attack in Peru}}

The Chuschi ballot burning incident occurred on the night of May 17, 1980, in the Peruvian district of Chuschi in Ayacucho. It was the first attack perpetrated by the militant Maoist group Shining Path.{{Cite news|title=Sendero Luminoso inició un día como hoy demencial ataque contra el Perú|url=https://andina.pe/agencia/noticia-sendero-luminoso-inicio-un-dia-como-hoy-demencial-ataque-contra-peru-710354.aspx|newspaper=andina.pe|location=|page=|number=}}{{Cite web|url=https://rpp.pe/politica/actualidad/chuschi-pueblo-testigo-del-primer-golpe-de-sendero-luminoso-noticia-366247|title=Chuschi: Pueblo testigo del primer golpe de Sendero Luminoso|website=RPP|date=17 May 2011|language=es}}{{Cite web|url=https://lum.cultura.pe/actividades/visita-mediada-el-caso-chuschi-or%C3%ADgenes-del-periodo-de-violencia|title=Visita Mediada "El caso Chuschi: orígenes del periodo de violencia"|website=lum.cultura.pe}}

In 1980, the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces called for elections after 12 years of electoral pause. Shining Path was a terrorist organization that opposed these elections, and opted to start an armed conflict in the form of Guerilla warfare in the northern provinces of the Department of Ayacucho. On May 17, 1980, on the eve of the presidential elections,{{Cite web|url=https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/10/14/internacional/1160796742.html|title=Historia de la lucha armada de Sendero Luminoso en Perú|website=elmundo.es}}

members of Shining Path (group which then lacked notoriety) forced themselves through the door of the offices of the Electoral Registry that was locked with a stick. One of the hooded members came through the door and pointed his revolver at Florencio Conde Núñez, who was the registrar of Chuschi at the time. They told Conde Núñez that they were soldiers from Pampa Cangallo, capital of the district of Morochucos. They stole 24 ballot boxes, seals, a registration notebook, unused ballots, and other electoral materials. After thirty minutes, they told Conde Núñez that he go to the military base the next day.{{Cite web|url=https://larepublica.pe/politica/298890-chuschi-el-pueblo-donde-sendero-inicio-el-terror/|title=Chuschi, el pueblo donde Sendero inició el terror|website=larepublica.pe|date=17 May 2005|language=es}}{{Cite web|url=http://idehpucp.pucp.edu.pe/yuyanapaq/|title=Relato visual del conflicto armado interno en el Perú, 1980-2000|website=Yuyanapaq. Para recordar}}

When the members of Shining Path walked off, a bell was sounded to summon the varayocc (mayors, aldermen, bailiffs) and the entire community. They all gathered and went in search of the ballot boxes. They found a portion of the ballot boxes burnt at a bridge in Quispillaqta. They later found another portion of these burnt ballot boxes in the main plaza of Chuschi.{{Cite web|url=https://elcomercio.pe/peru/ayacucho/historia-atentado-chuschi-primera-accion-violenta-sendero-luminoso-noticia-520690-noticia/|title=La verdadera historia del atentado en Chuschi, primera acción violenta de SL|website=El Comercio|date=17 May 2020|language=en |last1=León |first1=Ricardo }}

The villagers took into custody an elementary school teacher named Bernardino Azurza Páucar, who was found awake with a kerosene lamp in hand, and a group of Shining Path members who participated in the incident who were hiding out in an abandoned house in Quispillaqta, before bringing them into the custody of the military. New electoral material was moved on a military transport to Chuschi, and the elections were carried out without major incident.{{Cite book|url=https://revistaideele.com/ideele/content/chuschi-i-la-quema-de-%C3%A1nforas|title=El desmembramiento de Chuschi. Chuschi: I. La quema de ánforas|number=236|language=es|doi=|pmid=}}

This was the first terrorist attack carried out by Shining Path, and therefore did not receive much attention in the Peruvian press;{{Cite book|title=Sendero: historia de la guerra milenaria en el Perú|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JZLaAAAAMAAJ|isbn=978-9972-239-46-5|language=es|last1 = Ellenbogen|first1 = Gustavo Gorriti|year = 2008| publisher=Editorial Planeta Perú }} only two of the capital's newspapers, La Prensa and Diario de Marka, covered the story, attributing the attack to a group of exalts.