San Cristóbal of Huamanga University
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The San Cristóbal of Huamanga National University (in Spanish, Universidad Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga) is a public university located in the city of Ayacucho (formerly known as Huamanga) in southern Perú.
The university was first established in 1677 by Cristóbal Castilla y Zamora, the Catholic archbishop of La Plata o Charcas. Until it was closed in the mid-19th century, it operated mostly as a seminary for the training of Catholic priests. The government of Perú reopened it in 1959 as a national university. The modernizing spirit that impregnated the environment during that period called for a new type of educational institution, centered on the applied sciences and focused on improving the conditions of the local population.
In the 1960s, the university became a breeding ground for various communist organizations, including the Shining Path. This group, led by philosophy professor Abimael Guzmán, started there before growing into a violent guerrilla movement that conducted a bloody 13-year-long campaign against the government of Perú and against rival leftists groups. (See also Efraín Morote.)
The current rector of the university is César Cruz Carbajal, a mining engineer.
