For Shining Path they are, like resistant peasant communities, 'counter-revolutionary'. Four children were badly injured. Just over a year earlier, the then Mayor of Villa El Salvador, Maria Elena Moyano, was shot dead by the Shining Path and her body dynamited. In shanty towns such as this thousands of displaced families live in absolute misery, lacking public services, schooling and health care. Water is trucked in and sold to an already impoverished population.
Survival is a matter of community effort.
What stands between them and starvation is often the work of women. They organize Lima's 9,000 popular kitchens, free milk distribution to children, shops and other community activities. Shining Path executions are not the only problem for these communities. President Fujimori rules as a virtual dictator with military support. The Peruvian people are caught in the middle.