San Cristóbal of Huamanga University
The San Cristóbal of Huamanga National University is a public university located in the city of Ayacucho in southern Peru.
The university was established in 1677 by Cristóbal de 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.
In the 1960s, the university became a breeding ground for 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 campaign against the government of Perú and against rival leftists groups.
The rector of the university is Homero Ango Aguilar, a biologist.
