Guerrilla Movements in Latin America

“The guerrilla attitude is not so much that Latin America is ripe for revolution, but rather that it needs a revolution. The task of the revolutionary, therefore, is not to go up to the hills, where he will be immediately recognized by the starved and oppressed masses as their savior, but rather to go out into the countryside, as the narodniks did in nineteenth century Russia, to stir up the passive peasantry to understand the nature of the wrongs they are obliged to suffer. With the people aware and mobilized, revolution would then be on the agenda. But in many countries in Latin America this type of activity is impossible except with gun in hand. Political agitation, the organization of peasant unions, and the holding of strikes are often illegal. The power of local landowners, reinforced by that of the state, is used to repress incipient signs of rebellion."