Shining Path the Peruvian Army. According to the government, there were approximately 7,226 "comités de auto defensa" as of 2005; almost 4,000 are located in the central region of Peru, the stronghold of the Shining Path. The Peruvian government also cracked down on the Shining Path in other ways. Military personnel were dispatched to areas dominated by the Shining Path, especially Ayacucho, to fight the rebels. Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Apurimacwere, and Huanuco were declared emergency zones, allowing for some constitutional rights to be suspended in those areas. Initial government efforts to fight the Shining Path were not very effective or promising. Military units
Shining Path returned to the areas where the Shining Path had been active. Although the organization's numbers had lessened by 2003, a militant faction of the Shining Path called "Proseguir" ("Onward") continued to be active. On May 21, 2002, a car bomb exploded outside the U.S. embassy in Lima just before a visit by President George W. Bush. Nine people were killed and 30 were injured; the attack was determined to be the work of the Shining Path. On June 9, 2003, a Shining Path group attacked a camp in Ayacucho, and took 68 employees of the Argentinian company Techint and three