Professor Orin Starn reflects on Guzman's passing and the state of Marxist/Maoist thought in Latin America.
"Maoism was a global phenomenon in the 1960s. It was fresh and exciting and promised revolution and that was a big part of its appeal to young people, who weren't interested in old-fashioned Soviet communism, which was perceived as the establishment, " says Starn. .
"In the international romanticization of Mao, people either did not know or were ignorant of the atrocities that his government was committing," he adds, clarifying that in Peru Maoism was not "really associated with terror until the conflict began in 1980."