Peruvian community organizer, feminist and Afro-Peruvian activist who was assassinated by the Maoist Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) terrorist group. Although only one of many atrocities committed during the most violent period of Peru’s modern history, her death resulted in a public outcry. She is popularly known as Madre Coraje (“Mother Courage”).
In 1984, aged 25, she was elected president of the Federación Popular de Mujeres de Villa El Salvador (Fepomuves), a federation of women from Villa El Salvador. Under her leadership, the organization grew to encompass public kitchens, health committees, the Vaso de Leche program (which supplied children with milk), income-generating projects, and committees for basic education. In 1990, Moyano left her position in Fepomuves and shortly thereafter was elected deputy mayor of the municipality of Villa El Salvador.
The Shining Path considered Moyano a counter-revolutionary and a manipulator. She blamed the leftist movement in Peru for supporting the Shining Path. Moyano went on to publicly confront Shining Path by calling them terrorists and no longer revolutionaries. She also confronted the police, accusing them of violence and murders.
On 15 February 1992, Moyano was celebrating her son’s birthday when she went outside to a parilla or a barbeque. There armed men and women surrounded Moyano and other people on the beach. Moyano was shot various time by a woman in front of her son Gustavo and her husband David Pineki (she married him in 1980). Her body was then dragged to the town square and blown up with dynamite. She was 33. It was because of her defiance to the Shining Path that Moyano was targeted for elimination.
Moyano has been honored through a film made after her death titled Coraje (Courage). The film was written and directed by Alberto Durant.
Link to Wikipedia biography