Blood quota

The blood quota (Spanish: cuota de sangre) is a concept developed by Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path, through which a communist militant must sacrifice their life for the world proletarian revolution. As part of the blood quota communist militants willfully promoted hatred and violence to attract adherents, instrumentalizing the masses in their favor and tolerating cruelty against their opponents to gain obedience, viewing violence as a necessary element on the path to communism and death as a heroic act. As such, it formed a core tenet of Gonzalo Thought.

The implementation of the "Blood Quota" led to widespread atrocities, including targeted assassinations, bombings, massacres, and other acts of terrorism. The Shining Path's campaign of violence resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and widespread suffering across Peru until Guzman's capture in the early 1990s.

Background
The Shining Path believed in the necessity of a violent revolution to overthrow the Peruvian government and establish a communist state. The concept of the "Blood Quota" was an integral part of Gonzalo thought and reflected the belief that a certain number of people needed to be killed or sacrificed in order to achieve their revolutionary goals. Increasing conflicts and radicalizing oppositions cannot have any other effect than to accelerate history, bringing closer the day of final triumph.

This notion itself is rooted in Maoist ideology, which advocated for the use of violence and protracted people's war as a means of achieving a communist revolution.

The People's War
Guzmán announced that “the triumph of the revolution will cost a million deaths.” "Paying the quota" meant that the senderista would "cross rivers of blood" for the triumph of the "people's war". The aim was to incite the Peruvian State to carry out acts of violence against the civilian population so that, in this way, the Shining Path could obtain popular support and the capacity for mass mobilization: the violence of the reaction had revolutionary effects by growing hatred and a desire for revenge among those affected, which in turn would lead to an acceleration of the ruin of the old order.

In December 1982 President Fernando Belaúnde declared a state of emergency and ordered that the Peruvian Armed Forces fight the Shining Path, granting them extraordinary powers. Military leadership adopted practices used by Argentina during the Dirty War, committing state terrorism, with entire villages being massacred by the armed forces while civilians endured forced disappearance. When the military started organizing peasant militias ("rondas") to fight Senderistas, the Shining Path heavily retaliated: during the Lucanamarca massacre, nearly 70 indigenous people were murdered. The youngest victim was six months old, the oldest about seventy. Most were killed by machete and axe hacks; some were shot in the head at close range. Discussing the massacre, Guzman asserted that "the main point was to make them understand that we were a hard nut to crack, and that we were ready for anything, anything (..)".

Media depiction
The violence perpetuated by the Shining Path and the government inspired Alonso Cueto to write about the insecurity of the period, with his most well-known novel The Blue Hour (2005) being adapted into an eponymous movie in 2014.