María Elena Moyano Delgado (29 November 1960 – February 12 1992) was a Peruvian community organizer and activist who was assassinated by the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) rebel movement. Although only one of many atrocities committed during the most violent period of Peru's modern history, her death resulted in a public outcry.

Moyano was born in the Barranco district of Lima. Her activism began in her teens, as a member of the Movimiento de Jóvenes Pobladores, a youth movement in Villa el Salvador, a vast shantytown (pueblo joven) on the outskirts of the capital, largely populated by migrants from the interior of the country. In 1984, at age 24, she was elected president of the Federación Popular de Mujeres de Villa el Salvador (Fepomuves), a federation of women from Villa el Salvador. Under her leadership, it grew to encompass public kitchens, health committees, the Vaso de Leche program (which supplied children with milk), income-generating projects, and committees for basic education.

In 1990, Moyano left her position in Fepomuves and shortly thereafter was elected deputy mayor of the municipality of Villa el Salvador. At this time, Shining Path was trying to consolidate its hold on the poorer neighborhoods of Lima, and the circumstances obliged local political leaders to not make a firm commitment towards the grassroots organizations but to also take a principled stand on and pronounce a clear condemnation of terrorist methods. Shining Path was particularly suspicious of women's organizations, which it accused of reformism, of collaboration with the government, and of opportunism; in short, of betraying the revolution as envisaged by Abimael Guzmán and other the leaders of the organization.

In mid-1991, Shining Path began an open attack on popular women leaders in Lima. In September, Juana López, coordinator of the Vaso de Leche program in the Carmen de la Legua district, was murdered after she had denounced the presence and activity of Sendero in the neighborhood. Protestors took to the streets to denounce and repudiate the methods of Sendero. Moyano was a speaker at the final gathering, strongly condemning the terrorist activities of Sendero as threatening the very existence of the country.

Undaunted, Shining Path extended the death threats to other women leaders, among them Moyano and Emma Hilario, the president of the national federation of public kitchens. In October, Sendero bombed the Fepomuves food storage depots. In November, as threats intensified, she left the country, but returned after ten days saying that she would rather lose her life struggling against Sendero than die "feelings of anguish and impotence" away from her country. On December 19, Shining Path militants attacked Hilario with a shotgun in her own house, but she miraculously survived and fled the country.

Two police agents were then assigned to Moyano as bodyguards. The death threats continued, as did her systematic condemnation of Sendero's methods and actions. These denunciations inspired her nomination as "Personality of the Year" by the national press. Shining Path, however, eventually caught up with Moyano. On February 15, 1992, during a fund-raising rally in Villa el Salvador, in the presence of her two children and other onlookers, she was machine-gunned to death and her corpse blown up with dynamite.

Thousands of people attended her funeral. Later, in a plaza in the center of Villa el Salvador, a statue honoring Moyano was erected, and her autobiography was published.

The assassination of Moyano was one of the last major atrocities carried out by Shining Path. In September 1992, Guzmán was arrested and the leadership of the organization fell shortly thereafter. Subsequently, Shining Path was largely eradicated.

External links

• "The Assassination of María Elena Moyano"
• Website dedicated to María Elena Moyano (in Spanish)
• Review of The Autobiography of Maria Elena Moyano (2000)