Shining Path of this group are generally called "senderistas". All documents, periodicals and other materials produced by the organization are signed by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). Academics often refer to them as PCP-SL. The Shining Path was founded in the late 1960s by Abimael Guzmán, a former university philosophy professor (his followers referred to him by his nom de guerre which was "Presidente Gonzalo"). His teachings created the foundation of its militant Maoist doctrine. It was an offshoot of the Communist Party of Peru — "Bandera Roja" (red flag), which in turn split from the original Peruvian Communist Party, a
Shining Path that sometimes included "slitting throats, strangulation, stoning, and burning." Peasants were offended by the rebels' injunction against burying the bodies of Shining Path victims. The Shining Path followed Mao's dictum that guerrilla warfare should start in the countryside and gradually choke off the cities. The Shining Path banned continuous drunkenness, but they did allow the consumption of alcohol. In 1991, President Alberto Fujimori issued a law that gave the "rondas" a legal status, and from that time they were officially called "Comités de auto defensa" ("Committees of Self Defence"). They were officially armed, usually with 12-gauge shotguns, and trained by