Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru

Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru
Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement flag
Leader(s)	Néstor Cerpa Cartolini  † Víctor Polay (captured)
Dates of operation	1982–1997
Motives	To establish a socialist state in Peru
Active region(s)	Peru
Ideology	Marxism–Leninism Socialism Guevarism Peruvian nationalism Anti-imperialism
Notable attacks	Japanese embassy hostage crisis

The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (Spanish: Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru, abbreviated MRTA) was a Peruvian radical group which started in the early 1980s. The group was led by Víctor Polay Campos until he was sentenced to 32 years imprisonment in 1992 and by Néstor Cerpa Cartolini ("Comrade Evaristo") until his death in 1997.

The MRTA took its name in homage to Túpac Amaru II, an 18th-century rebel leader who was himself named after his ancestor Túpac Amaru, the last indigenous leader of the Inca people. MRTA was designated a terrorist organization by the Peruvian government, the US Department of State and the European Parliament but was later removed from the United States State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations on October 8, 2001.

At the height of its strength, the movement had several hundred active members. Its stated goals were to establish a socialist state and rid the country of all imperialist elements.

The MRTA originated in 1980 from the merging of the Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Socialist Party and the militant faction of the Revolutionary Left Movement, MIR El Militante (MIR-EM). The former gathered several ex-members of the Peruvian armed forces that participated in the leftist dictatorial government of Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975), and the latter represented a subdvision of the Revolutionary Left Movement, a Castroist guerrilla faction which was defeated in 1965. The MRTA attempted to ally with other leftist organizations following the first democratic elections in Peru after a military government period (1968–1980).