Counterinsurgent Warriors: The Early History of the Peruvian Commandos

• Autor: Hurtado Meza, Lourdes Cecilia
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2025
• Institución: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Repositorio: Revistas - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/27564
• Enlace del recurso: http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/anthropologica/article/view/27564
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Army; Commandos; Masculinity; Special Forces; Pachacutec; Ejército; Comandos; Masculinidad; Fuerzas Especiales; Pachacútec

This article examines the early history of the Peruvian rangers, the commandos, at the beginning of the 1960s. I suggest that the foundation of the School of Commandos shaped a new way of being a military man in Peru, which was more aggressive, performative, and with an emphasis on the destruction of the enemy to defend the motherland. Although this new paradigm of being a soldier was spread to the rest of the armed forces in the 1960s and 1970s, its most lethal features were contained because Peru lived in a situation of peace. However, the internal conflict that Peru experienced between 1980 and 2000 facilitated the spread of violent practices associated with the Special Forces. The war originated a phenomenon that I have called the «commandization» of the Peruvian army. During the internal conflict, thousands of drafted men were exposed to the most lethal aspects of a military culture that had been taking shape since the 1960s.