Abstract, Small Groups Don’t Win Revolutions: Armed Struggle in the Memory of Maoist Militants of Política Popular

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Small Groups Don’t Win Revolutions: Armed Struggle in the Memory of Maoist Militants of Política Popular
by Jorge Ivan Puma Crespo


Política Popular, an unarmed Maoist group operating from 1968 to 1979 in northern Mexico, developed as it did because of the attraction of the “mass line” in its interpretation as a direct-democratic model for political participation. This is why activists from the student movement of 1968 adopted Maoist ideas as an ideological guide. Maoism as a simple organizational catechism easily captured their imagination and persuaded squatters and workers to join them in challenging the authoritarian Mexican regime.

Abstract, The Araguaia Guerrilla War (1972–1974): Armed Resistance to the Brazilian Dictatorship

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The Araguaia Guerrilla War (1972–1974): Armed Resistance to the Brazilian Dictatorship
by Janaína de Almeida Teles    

The Araguaia guerrilla war (1972–1974) was an attempt to reconcile armed struggle and political awareness that became a sort of “guerrilla focus” with roots in the peasant population, which assumed a decisive role in the resistance to military repression. This period was characterized by the centralization of operations of information and repression, consolidating the tactic of “political disappearance” in Brazil. The military occupation terrorized the population to mitigate any multiplier effect of the insurgency, and its success reverberated throughout the continent. At the same time, denunciations of its human rights abuses helped to erode the dictatorship.

Political Report #1046 AELN Commander Manrique Dies: What Is Next?

By Eliza Davis and Michael Paczkowski, Research Associates at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

On Sunday, June 14, 2015, the Colombian military announced the death of prominent ELN commander José Amín Hernández Manrique in the northern department of Antioquia. The Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army; ELN) is a left-wing guerilla movement, operating under a Marxist platform with the aim of liberating Colombia. The death of Manrique, also known as "Marquitos," illustrates the rising tensions between the Colombian government and its left-wing guerilla adversaries, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revoluationary Armed Forces of Colombia; FARC) and the ELN. Colombia has been plagued by widespread violence for more than 50 years, which has produced some 220,000 deaths and another 5 million refugees. The Colombian government and the FARC, the largest and oldest guerilla group in Colombia today, renewed peace negotiation talks-the fourth such attempted in the past 30 years-in December 2012 in Havana, Cuba. So far, the parties have agreed upon three terms of agreement: land reform, political integration, and drug trafficking. Consequentially, Bogotá and the FARC have yet to agree upon the reparations for the conflict's victims, the disarmament of the rebel forces, and the methods of implementation once a finalized agreement has been signed. While the ELN has had only a minimal presence in the Havana negotiations, the FARC has repeatedly encouraged a greater ELN participation in the discussion, facilitated by Bogotá's recent lift of the 182 arrest warrants against FARC Commander-in-Chief Rodrigo Londono Echeverri.[1] >>>To continue reading this article, please click here

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