Guerrillas

Three parallel wars were fought in the latter half of the twentieth century in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. These wars were long and brutal, dividing international opinion sharply between US support for dictatorial regimes and the USSR’s sponsorship of guerrilla fighters. This fascinating study of the ‘guerilla generation’ is based on in-depth interviews with both guerilla comandantes and political and military leaders of the time. Dirk Kruijt analyses the dreams and achievements, the successes and failures, the utopias and dystopias of an entire Central American generation and its leaders. “Guerillas” ranges widely, from the guerilla movement’s origins in poverty, oppression and exclusion; its tactics in warfare; the ill-fated experiment with Sandinista government in Nicaragua; and the subsequent ‘normalisation’ of guerilla movements within democratic societies. The story told here is vital for understanding contemporary social movements in Latin America.