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On May 17, 1980, the Communist Party of Peru-Shining Path (Partido Communista del Perú-Sendero Luminoso or PCP-SL) launched an armed revolt against the Peruvian government with the symbolic act of burning ballot boxes in the town of Chuschi in the rural, mountainous region of Ayacucho. For the next twenty years, the internal armed conflict between the government and PCP-SL and other armed insurgent groups would define Peru’s national security agenda and lead to massive violations of internationally recognized human rights. The twenty-year conflict would result in more deaths than in the combined total of those killed in all Peru’s foreign and civil wars since its independence nearly 200 years ago.