Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T05:02:35.023Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Two “Waves” of Guerrilla-Movement Organizing in Latin America, 1956–1990

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2013

Timothy Wickham-Crowley
Timothy Wickham-Crowley*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The organization of revolutionary guerrilla movements by the Latin American left came in two largely discrete waves. The first was occasioned by the success of the Cuban 26th of July movement against the late 1950s regime of Fulgencio Batista. Within less than a year it was triggering imitative efforts across Latin America via the cultural diffusion of its “foco model” both indirectly and directly, as indicated by the timing, internal movement evidence, direct training, and other sources concerning the 1960s guerrilla movements. A clear dampening of such efforts followed upon the multiple failures of the imitators, the late 1967 death of Che Guevara in Bolivia, the withdrawal of Soviet-line communists in Latin America from their previous support for insurgency, and finally Cuba's own rapprochement with the USSR. At this juncture, “surviving” movements from the earlier period were few—notably in Colombia, less true in Guatemala and Nicaragua—but a second, narrower cluster of far larger, more intensive and active movements developed by the later 1970s. Such strong survivors or newcomers can be best understood, not as imitations of Cuba 1959, but via their new strategies of long-term patient organizing and by the types of “closed regimes” they were confronting in the 1970s–1980s. They, too, then mostly faded away in the face of national-level experiences of massive military repression or ever-more-competitive electoral democracies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 215 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aguilar, Luis E. 1970. Fragmentation of the Marxist Left. Problems of Communism 19 (July–Aug.): 1–12.Google Scholar
Alegría, Claribel and Flakoll, D[arwin]. J.. 1984. Nicaragua: La revolución sandinista—Una crónica política, 1855–1979. México, D. F.: Era.Google Scholar
Alexander, Robert J. 1960 [1957]. Communism in Latin America. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. (The 1960 printing differs only in an added preface.)Google Scholar
Allemann, Fritz René. 1974. Macht und Ohnmacht der Guerilla. Munich: R. Piper.Google Scholar
Almeida, Paul D. 2008. Waves of Protest: Popular Struggle in El Salvador, 1925–2005. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Jon Lee. 2010. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. Rev. ed. New York: Grove Press.Google Scholar
Arango Z., Manuel. 1984. FARC: Veinte años—De Marquetalia a la Uribe. Bogotá: Ediciones Aurora.Google Scholar
Baloyra, Enrique. 1982. El Salvador in Transition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Béjar, Héctor. 1970. Peru 1965: Notes on a Guerrilla Experience. New York: Monthly Review Press. (Also available in Spanish.)Google Scholar
Berardo, João Batista. 1981. Guerrilhas e guerrilheiros no drama da América Latina. São Paulo: Edições Populares.Google Scholar
Black, George. 1981. Triumph of the People: The Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Bonachea, Ramón L. and Martín, Marta San. 1974. The Cuban Insurrection, 1952–1959. New Brunswick: Transaction.Google Scholar
Camacho, Daniel and Menjívar, Rafael. 1985. De lo corporativo a lo político: Proyectos alternativos (Guatemala y El Salvador). In Camacho, D. and Rafael, M., eds., Movimientos populares en Centroamérica. San José, Costa Rica: Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana, 38–41.Google Scholar
Castañeda, Jorge. 1993. Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left after the Cold War. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Chaliand, Gerard. 1977. Revolution in the Third World: Myths and Prospects. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Chaskel, Sebastian and Bustamente, Michael J.. 2012. Can Santos's Colombia Turn the Page? Current History (Feb.): 67–74.Google Scholar
Chernick, Marc W. 2003. Colombia: Does Injustice Cause Violence? In Eckstein, Susan Eva and Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P., eds., What Justice? Whose Justice? Fighting for Fairness in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 185–214.Google Scholar
Christian, Shirley. 1984. Rebel Factions. In Falcoff, Mark and Royal, Robert, eds., Crisis and Opportunity: U.S. Policy in Central America and the Caribbean. Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 233–45.Google Scholar
Christian, Shirley. 1985. Nicaragua: Revolution in the Family. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Colburn, Forrest D. 1994. The Vogue of Revolution in Poor Countries. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Debray, Régis. 1970. Strategy for Revolution. Blackburn, Robin, ed. London: Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar
Debray, Régis. 1980 [1967]. Revolution in the Revolution? Armed Struggle and Political Struggle in Latin America. Ortiz, Bobbye trans. from French and Spanish. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Elkins, Zachary and Simmons, Beth. 2005. On Waves, Clusters, and Diffusion: A Conceptual Framework. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 598 (Mar.): 33–51.Google Scholar
Fonseca Amador, Carlos. 1982. Nicaragua: Zero Hour. In Tomás Borge, Carlos Fonseca, Daniel Ortega, Humberto Ortega, and Jaime Wheelock, co-authors, Sandinistas Speak. New York: Pathfinder, 23–42.Google Scholar
Galeano, Eduardo, González, José, and Campos, Antonio. 1983. Guatemala: Un pueblo en lucha. Madrid: Editorial Revolución.Google Scholar
Gall, Norman (interviewer). 1972. Teodoro Petkoff: The Crisis of the Professional Revolutionary. Part I: Years of Insurrection. American Universities Field Staff Reports—East Coast South America Series 16, 1 (Jan.): 1–19.Google Scholar
Gall, Norman (interviewer). 1973. Teodoro Petkoff: The Crisis of the Professional Revolutionary. Part II: A New Party. American Universities Field Staff Reports—East Coast South America Series 17, 9 (Aug.): 1–20.Google Scholar
Goldenberg, Boris. 1970. The Strategy of Castroism. Military Review 50 (Apr.): 36–51.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Jeff. 2001. No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945–1991. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Jeff, Jasper, James M., and Polletta, Francesca, eds. 2001. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Jeff and Skocpol, Theda. 1989. Explaining Revolutions in the Contemporary Third World. Politics and Society 17, 4 (Dec.): 489–509.Google Scholar
Gott, Richard. 1973. Rural Guerrillas in Latin America. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. (Reissue of Guerrilla Movements in Latin America [London: Nelson and Sons, 1970].)Google Scholar
Gouldner, Alvin V. 1979. The Future of Intellectuals and the Rise of the New Class. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Gross, Liza. 1995. Handbook of Leftist Guerrilla Groups in Latin America and the Caribbean. In collaboration with the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA). Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Guerra Borges, Alfredo. 1964. The Experience of Guatemala: Some Problems of Revolutionary Strategy. World Marxist Review (UK) 7 (June): 10–14.Google Scholar
Guevara, Ernesto ‘Che’. 1968. Venceremos: The Speeches and Writings of Che Guevara. Edited and with an Introduction by Gerassi, John. New York: Clarion/Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Guevara, Ernesto ‘Che’. 1985. Guerrilla Warfare. With an introduction and case studies by Brian Loveman and Thomas M. Davies, Jr. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Htun, Mala. 2003. Women and Democracy. In Domínguez, Jorge I. and Shifter, Michael, eds., Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America. 2d ed.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 118–36.Google Scholar
INDAL (Información Documental de América Latina). 1972. Movimientos revolucionarios de América Latina. Vol. I: Documentación propia. 2d ed.Caracas: INDAL.Google Scholar
Jung, Harald. 1979. Behind the Nicaraguan Revolution. New Left Review 117 (Sept.–Oct.): 69–90.Google Scholar
Kiessler, Richard. 1975. Guerilla und Revolution: Parteikommunismus und Partisanenstrategie in Lateinamerika. Bonn-Bad Godesberg: Verlag Neue Gesellschaft GmbH.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Ruud. 1993. The Dynamics of Protest Waves: West Germany, 1965 to 1989. American Sociological Review 58, 5 (Mar.): 637–58.Google Scholar
Kruijt, Dirk. 2008. Guerrillas: War and Peace in Central America. London and New York: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Lamberg, Robert F. 1965a. Kommunismus und Castrismus am Scheideweg: Stationen des Differenzierungprozesses bei den Linksradikalen Lateinamerikas. Vierteljahresberichte—Forschungsinstitut der Friederich-Ebert-Stiftung 20 (June): 375–92.Google Scholar
Lamberg, Robert F. 1965b. Kubas Einfluss auf Lateinamerika. Der Ostblock und die Entwicklungsländer (Vierteljahresberichte—Forschungsinstitut der Friederich-Ebert-Stiftung) 20 (June): 136–51.Google Scholar
Lamberg, Robert F. 1971. Die castristiche Guerilla in Lateinamerika: Theorie und Praxis eines revolutionären Modells. Hannover, Germany: Verlag für Literatur und Zeitgeschehen.Google Scholar
Lamberg, Robert F. 1972. Consideraciones concluyentes en torno a las guerrillas castristas en Latinoamérica. Aportes 25 (July): 107–18.Google Scholar
Laqueur, Walter. 1976. Guerrilla: A Historical and Critical Study. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Lartéguy, Jean. 1970. The Guerrillas. New York: World Press.Google Scholar
Lŏpez [sic], Rigoberto. 1984. Unity for Victory. World Marxist Review (UK) 27, 1 (Jan.): 49–51.Google Scholar
Mahoney, James. 2001. The Legacies of Liberalism: Path Dependence and Political Regimes in Central America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Mannheim, Karl. 1936. Ideology and Utopia. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co.Google Scholar
Zedong, Mao. 1961. Mao Tse-tung on Guerrilla Warfare. Translated and with introduction by Griffith, Samuel B.. New York: Frederick A. Praeger.Google Scholar
Maschke, Günter. 1973. Kritik des Guerillero. Frankfurt, Germany: S. Fischer.Google Scholar
Maspero, François, ed. 1968. Avec Douglas Bravo dan les maquis vénézuéliens. Paris: François Maspero.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug and Rucht, Dieter. 1993. Cross-National Diffusion of Movement Ideas. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 528: Citizens, Protest, and Democracy (July): 56–74.Google Scholar
McClintock, Cynthia. 1982. Sendero Luminoso: Peru's Maoist Guerrillas. Problems of Communism 32, 5 (Sept.–Oct.): 19–34.Google Scholar
McClintock, Cynthia. 1989. Peru's Sendero Luminoso Rebellion: Origins and Trajectory. In Eckstein, Susan, ed., Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements. Berkeley: University of California Press, 61–101. (2d ed. also available in Spanish.)Google Scholar
Mercier Vega, Luis. 1969. Guerrillas in Latin America: The Technique of the Counter-State. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Tommie Sue. 1983. Liberation and Revolution: Christianity as Subversive Activity in Central America. In Diskin, Martin, ed., Trouble in Our Backyard: Central America and the United States in the Eighties. New York: Pantheon, 75–99.Google Scholar
Moroni Bracamonte, José Angel and Spencer, David E.. 1995. Strategy and Tactics of the Salvadoran FMLN Guerrillas. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.Google Scholar
Nolan, David. 1984. The Ideology of the Sandinistas and the Nicaraguan Revolution. Coral Gables, Fla.: Institute of Interamerican Studies, University of Miami.Google Scholar
ORPA (Organización Revolucionaria del Pueblo en Armas). 1983. Eight Years of Silent Organizing. In Fried, Jonathan L., Gettleman, Marvin E., Levenson, Deborah T., and Peckenham, Nancy, eds., Guatemala in Rebellion: Unfinished History. New York: Grove, 269–72.Google Scholar
Palmer, David Scott. 1986. Rebellion in Rural Peru: The Origins and Evolution of Sendero Luminoso. Comparative Politics 18, 2 (Jan.): 127–46.Google Scholar
Pampel, Fred C. and Hunter, Lori M.. 2012. Cohort Change, Diffusion, and Support for Environmental Spending in the United States. American Journal of Sociology 118, 2 (Sept.): 420–48.Google Scholar
Payeras, Mario. 1983. Days of the Jungle: The Testimony of a Guatemalan Guerrillero, 1972–1976. Monthly Review 35, 3 (July–Aug.): entire issue. (Also published as a book.)Google Scholar
Peña, Alfredo. 1978. Conversaciones con Américo Martín. Caracas: Editorial Ateneo.Google Scholar
Petras, James. 1968. Revolution and Guerrilla Movements in Latin America: Venezuela, Colombia, Guatemala, and Peru. In Petras, James and Zeitlin, Maurice, eds., Latin America: Reform or Revolution? Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett, 329–69.Google Scholar
Pettee, George S. 1938. The Process of Revolution. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Ramirez, Francisco, Soysal, Yasemin, and Shanahan, Suzanne. 1997. The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship: Cross-National Acquisition of Women's Suffrage Rights, 1890–1990. American Sociological Review 62, 5 (Oct.): 735–45.Google Scholar
Ratliff, William E. 1976. Castroism and Communism in Latin America, 1959–1976. Washington, D.C. and Stanford: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace.Google Scholar
Saíz Cidoncha, Carlos. 1974. Guerrillas en Cuba y otros paises de Iberoamerica. Madrid: Editora Nacional.Google Scholar
Simmons, Beth A., Dobbin, Frank, and Garrett, Geoffrey. 2006. The International Diffusion of Liberalism. International Organization 60, 4: 781–810.Google Scholar
Sweig, Julia E. 2002. Inside the Cuban Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, Hugh. 1971. Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Tijerino, Doris. 1978. Inside the Nicaraguan Revolution. As told to Margaret Randall. Vancouver: New Star.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 1978. From Mobilization to Revolution. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Tirado, Manlio. 1983. La revolucion [sic] sandinista. México, D. F.: Nuestro Tiempo.Google Scholar
Valencia, Enrique. 1970. Notas para una sociología de la guerrilla. Revista mexicana de sociologia 32 (Mar.–Apr.): 335–55.Google Scholar
Valsalice, Luigi. 1973. Guerriglia e politica: L'esempio del Venezuela. Florence, Italy: Valmartina Editore. (Also published in two Spanish-language editions.)Google Scholar
Võ Nguyên Giáp. 1970. The Military Art of People's War: Selected Writings of Vo Nguyen Giap. Edited and with an introduction by Stetler, Russell. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Wada, Takeshi. 2012. Modularity and Transferability of Repertoires of Contention. Social Problems 59, 4 (Nov.): 544–71.Google Scholar
Wang, Dan J. and Soule, Sarah A.. 2012. Social Movement Organizational Collaboration: Networks of Learning and the Diffusion of Protest Tactics, 1960–1995. American Journal of Sociology 117, 6 (May): 1674–722.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1964 [1922]. The Sociology of Religion. Fischoff, Ephraim, trans; introduction by Fischoff, Ephraim, Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Barbara, Wejnert. 2005. Diffusion, Development, and Democracy. American Sociological Review 70, 1 (Feb.): 53–81.Google Scholar
Weyland, Kurt. 2009. The Diffusion of Revolution: ‘1848’ in Europe and Latin America. International Organization 63, 3: 391–423.Google Scholar
Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P. 1991. Exploring Revolution: Essays on Latin American Insurgency and Revolutionary Theory. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P. 1992. Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Insurgents and Regimes since 1956. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P. 1994. An Epitaph for Latin American Revolutionaries. Third World Quarterly 15, 3: 528–32.Google Scholar
Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P. 1997. Structural Theories of Revolution. In Foran, John, ed., Theorizing Revolutions. London and New York: Routledge, 38–72.Google Scholar
Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P. 2006. Guerrilla Warfare and Revolution. Vol. 1 of DeFronzo, James, ed., Revolutionary Movements in World History. 3 vols. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 336–40.Google Scholar
Wolf, Eric R. 1969. Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Zago, Angela. 1972. Aquí no ha pasado nada. Caracas: El Sobre.Google Scholar