Escape from LA thoughts

 Feral Historian did a video on this. I was watching it at work. Or rather listening while I run out the clock

https://www.patreon.com/posts/escape-from-la-140746111

Then something chilled my heart

 I haven't seen this film in a while.  I never realized Jones is supposed to be Shining Path. ( Or SL in Spanish) I saw Escape from LA before I got married.  I may have even seen it before I went to UNC.  I may have rewatched it, but not since I got married
I married a Peruvian woman. I lived in Lima. Every time there was a power cut. There would be a feeling of quiet dread in that noisy Third World megapolis. No one advertising the price of papayas, no bluetoothed music. Rather a  long  nervous gasp 
 The Shining Path had destroyed  electric pylons to plunge Lima into darkness. In the darkness they were able to murder and rape with impunity. There was a neighbour of mine- a local beauty. Shining Path got into her home- and left her near  insensible  Shining Path- had decreed that after the revolution there would no electricity. Peru would be illuminated by Guzman's thought alone.  Shining Path killed the mentally disabled.
 Oh and you still see their grafitti in Lima. They haven't gone away you know.
 So  mentioning the Jones is Shining Path actually makes this movie - a terrifying horror for me. Everyone I knew I liked, I loved is dead or enslaved. My father in Law, dead. The Cadets and officers I taught. dead. The church ladies. dead. My sister in law, dead or used as a sex slave.  The Amayraya are gone. From Terra del Fuego to the Rio Grande their isn't a candle of hope
 The Americans have had an argument and thus have handed Shining Path a victory over the world. The Shining Path  will control the darkness forever with their machetes and axes. Also the President's daughter is now Lori Berenson. An American woman who gave aid an comfort to MRTA a different red terror group in Peru
  I don't think my reading is anything close to what  John Carpenter intended. I figure he just threw in Shining Path as they were in the news- and not Mexican or Colombian which would have caused upset. A similar thing happens in Iron Eagle 2. The bad guys are Peruvian  Oh and Jones is based on Che, not Guzman. He is too flamboyant

Except that the US apparently discussed invading Peru to fight Shining Path once or twice.  So..

Now you point out that fact. I cannot unsee it. A whole bit of media changes it meaning.