Singularities and Transversalities in the Insurgent Cycle

Colombia is the country with probably the highest number of victims during the Latin American insurgency and counterinsurgency cycles. The consecutive guerrilla movements emerged within the large tradition of rural rebellion. The Mexican government prevented an insurgency-counterinsurgency cycle by offering a ceasefire and the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional changed its possible politico-military beginning for a transformation in a movement which requested indigenous rights. In Colombia the guerrilla movements of the 1940s and 1950s were irregular peasant armies, persecuted by conservative governments and the only military dictatorship in Colombia’s post–WWII history. Cuba never supported the Mexican guerrilla because its diplomatic relations with Mexico were a lifeline and the only formal transport hub in the region. The indigenous paramilitary force of approximately 400,000 members were maybe even more decisive in crushing the guerrilla columns of Sendero Luminoso. The Organizacion Latinoamericana de Solidaridad conference in Cuba had facilitated the initial contacts between national guerrilla movements operating in the some countries.