One tactic of the Peruvian government, in its war against the Maoist terrorist organization that called itself “El Sendero Luminoso” (The Shining Path), was to supply arms to village militias which had already formed spontaneously. These village militias were known as “Rondas.”
Sometimes Rondas created their own parallel judicial system, outside the formal legal system. Yet their community defense was very consistent with the Peruvian Constitution, which declares that the protection of the human person (a term from Catholic thought) is the supreme objective of the state, and that every person has the right to legitimate defense:
art. 1: