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{{Short description|Theory of revolution by way of guerrilla warfare}}
{{Short description|Theory of revolution by way of guerrilla warfare}}
[[File:Raulche2.jpg|thumb|310px|[[Raul Castro|Raúl Castro]] (left) and [[Che Guevara]] (right) in their Sierra de Cristal Mountain stronghold south of Havana, in 1958. It was during this time as a guerilla commander in the [[Cuban Revolution]], that Guevara would base his theory of a foco centered revolution.]]
[[File:CheInCongo1965.jpg|thumb|185px|[[Che Guevara]] (left), whose plan was to use the communist zone on the western shores of [[Lake Tanganyika]] as a training ground for the Congolese and fighters from other revolutionary communist movements]]
The '''foco''' theory of [[revolution]] by way of [[guerrilla warfare]], also known as {{wiktspa|foquismo}} ({{IPA-es|foˈkismo|lang}}), was formulated by French intellectual and government official [[Régis Debray]], whose main source of inspiration was [[Marxism|Marxist]] revolutionary [[Che Guevara]]'s experiences surrounding his rebel army's victory in the 1959 [[Cuban Revolution]].


A guerilla '''foco''' is a small cadre of [[revolutionaries]] operating in a nation's countryside. This guerilla organization was popularized by Che Guevara in his book ''[[Guerrilla Warfare (book)|Guerilla Warfare]]'', which was based on his experiences in the [[Cuban Revolution]]. Guevara would go on to argue that a foco was politically necessary for the success of a socialist revolution. Originally Guevara theorized that a foco was only useful in overthrowing personalistic military dictatorships and not liberal democratic capitalism where a peaceful overthrow was believed possible. Years later Guevara would revise his thesis and argue all nations in Latin America, including [[liberal democracies]], could be overthrown by a guerilla foco. Eventually the foco thesis would be that political conditions would not even need to be ripe for revolutions to be successful, since the sheer existence of a guerilla foco would create ripe conditions by itself. Guevara's theory of foco, known as '''''foquismo''''' ({{IPA|es|foˈkismo|lang}}), was self-described as the application of [[Marxism-Leninism]] to Latin American conditions, and would later be further popularized by author [[Régis Debray]]. The proposed necessity of a guerilla foco proved influential in Latin America, but was also heavily criticized by other socialists.<ref name=gw>{{cite book |last=Guevara |first=Che |date=1997 |title=Guerrilla Warfare |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRg2GDIohVcC&q=foco |publisher=SR Books |pages=9–17 |isbn=9780842026789}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |date=1998 |title=Women and Revolution Global Expressions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LWhgw4HheN4C&dq=foco+theory&pg=PA286 |publisher=Springer Netherlands |page=286 |isbn=9780792351825}}</ref>
Its central principle is that [[vanguardism]] by cadres of small, fast-moving [[paramilitary]] groups can provide a focus (in Spanish ''{{wiktspa|foco}}'') for popular discontent against a sitting regime and thereby lead a general [[rebellion]]. Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, many foco ideas were adapted into [[urban guerrilla warfare]] movements by the late 1960s.

This theory of foco proved heavily influential among armed militants around the world. Che Guevara's success in the [[Cuban Revolution]] was seen as proof of his thesis and thus popularized foco theory. Some of the famous militant groups to adopt foco theory included the [[Red Army Faction]], [[Irish Republican Army]], and [[Weather Underground]]. The theory became especially popular in the [[New Left]] for its breaking with the strategy of incremental political change supported by the [[Soviet Union]], while also encouraging the possibility of immediate revolution.<ref>{{cite book |last=Katsiaficas |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PjCRRVjalVoC&dq=foco+theory&pg=PA35 |title=The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968 |date=1987 |publisher=South End Press |isbn=9780896082274 |pages=35–37}}</ref>


== Background ==
== Background ==
=== Cuban Revolution ===
Like other socialist theorists of his era (such as [[Mao Zedong]], [[Ho Chi Minh]] and [[Amílcar Cabral]]), [[Che Guevara]] believed that people living in countries still ruled by [[colonialism|colonial powers]], or living in countries subject to [[Neo-colonialism|newer forms of economic exploitation]], could best defeat [[colonial power]]s by taking up arms. Guevara also believed in fostering armed resistance not by concentrating one's forces in urban centers, but rather through the accumulation of strength in mountainous and rural regions where the enemy had less presence.<ref name="SLG">
{{Main|Cuban Revolution}}
[http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/02/legacy-of-che-guevara-internationalism.html "The Legacy of Che Guevara: Internationalism Today"] by Dr. Peter Custers, ''Sri Lanka Guardian'', 24 February 2010.</ref>
[[File:Fidel Castro and his men in the Sierra Maestra.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Fidel Castro]] and his small band of rebels in 1956. This small rebel army would eventually win the [[Cuban Revolution]].]]


Foco theory was originally based on Che Guevara's experiences in the Cuban Revolution. In which he was party of a guerilla army of 82 members who landed in Cuba on board of the ''[[Granma (yacht)|Granma]]'' in December 1956 and initiated a guerrilla war in the [[Sierra Maestra]]. During two years, the poorly armed ''[[escopeteros]]'', at times fewer than 200 men, won victories against [[Fulgencio Batista]]'s army and police force, which numbered between 30,000 and 40,000 in strength.<ref name="Bockman2">[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/BLJ.htm "Bockman"], Chapter 2.</ref> The [[26th of July Movement]] itself had a rural guerilla army as well as an urban underground that participated in the revolution. Che Guevara often accused the urban section of the movement as being without proper radicalism, which stirred internal controversy.<ref name= inside>{{cite book |last=Sweig |first=Julia |author-link= |date=2009 |title=Inside the Cuban Revolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ob-I8MyTqx8C&dq=foco+myth+cuba&pg=PA2 |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=1–5 |isbn=9780674044197}}</ref> The urban wing was responsible for arming the rural guerillas and engaged in its own urban warfare campaign. During the final months of the revolution an alliance of the [[Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil]], [[Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)|Popular Socialist Party]], [[Partido Auténtico|Authentic Party]] and [[26th of July Movement]] was able to overthrow the Batista government. In their new provisional government the M-26-7 rebel army garnered the most popularity and influence.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kapcia |first=Antoni |date=2020 |title=A Short History of Revolutionary Cuba Revolution, Power, Authority and the State from 1959 to the Present Day
== Cuban Revolution ==
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jmMNEAAAQBAJ |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |pages=15–20 |isbn=9781786736475}}</ref>
Foco theory, which was formally theorized by Régis Debray, draws on Guevara's experience of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, where a small group of 82 members landed in Cuba on board of the ''[[Granma (yacht)|Granma]]'' in December 1956 and initiated a guerrilla war in the [[Sierra Maestra]]. During two years, the poorly armed ''[[escopeteros]]'', at times fewer than 200 men, won victories against [[Fulgencio Batista]]'s army and police force, which numbered between 30,000 and 40,000 in strength.<ref name = "Bockman2">[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/BLJ.htm "Bockman"], chapter 2.</ref> The small group finally took [[Havana]] after the December 1958 [[Battle of Santa Clara]].


=== Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution ===
This surprising success led to the foco theory which inspired by Mao Zedong's doctrine of [[people's war]] counted on the support of the people to win the war. However, the foco theory stated that this popular support would be created during the [[armed struggle]] itself, therefore against the predominant [[Marxist philosophy|Marxist theory]] there was no need to wait for the "objective conditions" of a popular uprising to engage the last stage of the revolutionary struggle (i.e. armed struggle). In other words, a small group of revolutionaries was considered to be enough to jumpstart a revolution since this group could begin the revolutionary struggle while at the same time developing the conditions necessary for popular support for the revolution. This theory focused heavily on the notion of [[vanguardism]] and on the moral value of the example.
{{Main|Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution}}
Che Guevara played an integral role as one of the first historians of the Cuban Revolution. After the revolutionaries' victory, Guevara published various articles in Cuba of his experiences in the revolution. These articles helped formalize his foco theory and a history of the Cuban Revolution that stressed the role of the rural guerillas as the main revolutionary force.<ref name= inside /> This idea of the lone rural guerrillas deciding the revolution became immediately popular among the rebel army while consolidating their new government, and became a driving force in Cuban politics as a nation-building myth. Many early proponents saw the potential of repeating the model of the Cuban Revolution throughout Latin America, and often encouraged it.<ref>{{cite book |last=Swing |first=Julia |date=2009 |title=Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fBHMcllXHtMC&dq=foco+myth+cuba&pg=PA104 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |page=104 |isbn=9780199740819}}</ref>


== Theory ==
== Theory ==
=== Rural guerilla strategy ===
While foco theorists drew from previous [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] ideas and the [[Maoism|Maoist]] strategy of "[[protracted people's war]]", they broke from many of the mid-[[Cold War]] era's established [[communist parties]]. Despite [[Nikita Khrushchev]]'s eager support for "[[wars of national liberation]]" and the foco's enthusiasm for [[Soviet Union]] patronage, [[Cuba]]'s [[Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)|Popular Socialist Party]] retreated from active confrontation with the [[Fulgencio Batista]] regime. [[Castroism]]/[[Guevarism]] substituted the foco [[militia]] for a traditional [[vanguard party]].
While foco theory drew from previous [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] ideas and the [[Maoism|Maoist]] strategy of "[[protracted people's war]]", it simultaneously broke with many of the mid-[[Cold War]] era's established [[communist parties]]. Despite [[Nikita Khrushchev]]'s eager support for "[[wars of national liberation]]" and the foco's own enthusiasm for [[Soviet Union]] patronage, [[Cuba]]'s own [[Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)|Popular Socialist Party]] had retreated from active confrontation with the [[Fulgencio Batista]] regime and [[Castroism]]/[[Guevarism]] substituted the foco [[militia]] for the more traditional [[vanguard party]].


Like other communist and socialist theorists of his era (such as [[Mao Zedong]] and [[Ho Chi Minh]]), [[Che Guevara]] believed that people living in countries still ruled by [[colonialism|colonial powers]], or living in countries subject to [[Neo-colonialism|newer forms of economic exploitation]], could best defeat [[colonial power]]s by taking up arms. Guevara also believed in fostering armed resistance not by concentrating one's forces in urban centers, but rather through the accumulation of strength in mountainous and rural regions where the enemy had less presence.<ref name="SLG">
In ''[[Guerrilla Warfare (book)|Guerrilla Warfare]]'' (''La Guerra de Guerrillas''), Guevara did not count on a [[Leninism|Leninist]] insurrection led by the [[proletariat]] similar to the 1917 [[October Revolution]]. Instead, he relied on popular uprisings, initially gaining strength in rural areas, eventually replacing the regime. The vanguard guerrilla was supposed to bolster the population's morale, not to take control of the [[State (polity)|state apparatus]]. In theory, the replacement would occur without any external or foreign help. According to him, guerrillas were supported by [[conventional warfare|conventional armed forces]]: <blockquote>Guerrilla warfare constitutes one of the phases of war; this phase can not, alone, lead to victory.<ref>Ernesto Che Guevara French ed.: ''Oeuvres'' I, ''Petite collection [[François Maspero|Maspero]]'', 34, 1968, p. 32.</ref></blockquote>
[http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/02/legacy-of-che-guevara-internationalism.html "The Legacy of Che Guevara: Internationalism Today"] by Dr. Peter Custers, ''Sri Lanka Guardian'', 24 February 2010.</ref>


In ''[[Guerrilla Warfare (book)|Guerrilla Warfare]]'' (''La Guerra de Guerrillas''), Guevara did not count on a [[Leninism|Leninist]] insurrection led by the [[proletariat]] as had happened during the 1917 [[October Revolution]], but on popular uprisings which would gain strength in rural areas and would overthrow the regime. The vanguard guerrilla was supposed to bolster the population's morale, not to take control of the [[State (polity)|state apparatus]] itself and this overthrow would occur without any external or foreign help. According to him, guerrillas were to be supported by [[Conventional warfare|conventional armed forces]]: <blockquote>It is well established that guerrilla warfare constitutes one of the phases of war; this phase can not, on its own, lead to victory.<ref>Ernesto Che Guevara French ed.: ''Oeuvres'' I, ''Petite collection [[François Maspero|Maspero]]'', 34, 1968, p. 32.</ref></blockquote>
According to Guevara, his theory was formulated for [[developing countries]]. Hence, guerrilleros enforced support among the working class.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1963/misc/guerrilla-war-method.htm Guevara, Che. "Guerrilla War: A Method."]</ref>


Guevara added that this theory was formulated for [[Developing country|developing countries]] and that the guerrilleros had to look for support among both the workers and the [[peasant]]s.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1963/misc/guerrilla-war-method.htm Guevara, Che. Guerrilla War: A Method].</ref>
After they seized power, Castro sided with the [[Soviet Union]] in the 1961 [[Sino-Soviet split]] while Guevara sympathized with [[China]]. Perhaps accelerated by this divide, the latter man shifted his energies away from Cuba to adventurism, promoting his guerrilla foco theory overseas. Although this method triumphed in Cuba because of soviet assistance, Guevara saw it collapse throughout Africa and Latin America. His sole 'success' was [[Laurent-Désiré Kabila]] in [[Congo Crisis|Congo]]. Guevara's attempt to forge a jungle-based [[Ñancahuazú Guerrilla|insurgency]] in [[History of Bolivia|Bolivia]] led to his capture and execution in 1967, bringing to a close the soviet-backed overthrow of legitimate governments in the New World.


== After Guevara ==
=== Guerilla "new man" ===
The guerilla foco will be able to draw the support of the rural peasantry by demonstrating impeccable moral character and self-sacrifice. In the armed struggle the guerillas themselves would be shaped by hardship into individuals who had an affinity for solidarity and justice. Once the guerillas overthrow the existing government and come into power, the moral spirit of the guerillas would become the national ethos of the new government.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bustos |first=Ciro |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hWvnDwAAQBAJ&dq=che+myth+of+foco&pg=PT76 |title=Che Wants to See You: The Untold Story of Che Guevara |date=2013 |publisher=Verso |isbn=9781781684801}}</ref>
The collapse of Guevara's campaign in Bolivia dampened Castro's overt support of focoist wars. During this period of experimentation, most of those seeking to destabilize functioning governments split into different factions, such as [[New Left]], [[Maoism|Maoist]], and/or urban guerrilla breakaways from previous Moscow-line parties and/or ''foco'' groups. By the mid-1970s, Castro revived and escalated his previous zeal, directly deploying his military in Africa before the collapse of [[détente]]—e.g. sending cash, supplies, and soldiers to bulwark some of the factions within the [[MPLA]] government in [[Angolan Civil War|Angola]].


== Legacy ==
== Argentina's People's Revolutionary Army ==
=== Authoritarian reaction ===
In [[History of Argentina|Argentina]], the [[People's Revolutionary Army (Argentina)|People's Revolutionary Army]] (ERP), led by Roberto Santucho, attempted to create a ''foco'' in the [[Tucumán Province]]. The attempt failed after the government of [[Isabel Perón]] signed in February 1975 the secret presidential decree 261, which ordered the army to neutralize and/or annihilate the ERP insurgency (which was not supported by a foreign power and also lacked popular support). [[Operativo Independencia]] gave power to the [[Argentine Armed Forces]] to "execute all military operations necessary for the effects of neutralizing or annihilating the action of subversive elements acting in the Province of Tucumán".<ref>[http://www.nuncamas.org/document/decreto_261_75.htm Decree No. 261/75] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061115180714/http://www.nuncamas.org/document/decreto_261_75.htm|date=15 November 2006}}. NuncaMas.org, ''Decretos de aniquilamiento''.</ref>
Many who opposed the formation of leftist guerillas took a focused approach to extinguish rural rebel groups from forming who were inspired by ''foquismo''. These measures were often supported by the United States and involved torturing and "disappearing" political enemies.<ref>{{cite book |date=2019 |title=Doctrine, Practice, and Advocacy in the Inter-American Human Rights System |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bd2ZDwAAQBAJ&dq=regis+debray+foquismo&pg=PA230 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=230 |isbn=9780190900861}}</ref> The development of guerrilla focos in various Latin American countries has been a factor proposed by historians, that legitimized military takeovers of their respective nations in order to defend against guerillas.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fowler |first=Will |date=2013 |title=Latin America Since 1780
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jwCnerAeorwC&dq=foquismo+authoritarian&pg=PA139 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |page=139 |isbn=9781134631759}}</ref>


=== Argentina's People's Revolutionary Army ===
General [[Acdel Vilas]] immediately deployed over 3,000 soldiers, including conscripts from the Fifth Infantry Brigade and two companies of elite commandos. While fighting the guerrillas in the jungle, Vilas concentrated on uprooting the ERP support network in the towns, using [[State terrorism|state terror]] tactics, inspired by the 1961 [[Battle of Algiers (1957)|Battle of Algiers]], later adopted nationwide as well as a civic action campaign. The ERP was quickly defeated, but this military campaign marked the beginning of the [[Dirty War]] in Argentina.
In [[History of Argentina|Argentina]], the [[People's Revolutionary Army (Argentina)|People's Revolutionary Army]] (ERP), led by Roberto Santucho, attempted to create a ''foco'' in the [[Tucumán Province]]. The attempt failed after the government of [[Isabel Perón]] signed in February 1975 the secret presidential decree 261, which ordered the army to neutralize and/or annihilate the ERP. Destined to collapse without any external pressure, ERP was not supported by a foreign power and lacked support of the working class. [[Operativo Independencia]] gave power to the [[Argentine Armed Forces]] to "execute all military operations necessary for the effects of neutralizing or annihilating the action of subversive elements acting in the Province of Tucumán."<ref>[http://www.nuncamas.org/document/decreto_261_75.htm Decree No. 261/75]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061115180714/http://www.nuncamas.org/document/decreto_261_75.htm|date=15 November 2006}}. NuncaMas.org, ''Decretos de aniquilamiento''.</ref>


== Central America ==
== Criticism ==
=== Urban guerilla strategists ===
After victories for a once-divided, recently reunited [[Sandinista National Liberation Front|Sandinista]] movement in [[History of Nicaragua|Nicaragua]] and the [[united front]]-style [[New Jewel Movement]] in [[History of Grenada|Grenada]] in 1979, Castro effectively supported the creation of the [[Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front]] of [[History of El Salvador|El Salvador]] by pushing for the merger of five other communist factions between December 1979 and October 1980. Similarly, Cuba supported four rival guerrilla groups' decision to form the [[Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity]] coalition of [[History of Guatemala|Guatemala]] in 1982.{{citation needed|date=July 2007}}
{{See also|Abraham Guillén|Tupamaros}}
[[Abraham Guillén]] was a writer who frequently made studies of urban warfare in European revolutions, and noted critic of foco theory. While he agreed with Guevara in their shared criticism of American imperialism, Guillén argued that the foco strategy was unideal compared to a strategy of urban warfare. Guillén regarded the foco as petit-bourgeois in origin. He regarded that very few peasants and workers actually joined these guerilla armies. He also argued that these rural guerillas only supplied for easy victories by the reigning state power who could easily defeat isolated rebels in the countryside who lacked connections to military resources. Guillén instead argued revolution was possible during dire political crisis, with a mass workers alliance, and taking place in urban centers where most modernized nations populations resided.<ref name=latam>{{cite book |last= Wright|first= Thomas|date=2018 |title=Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution and Beyond, 3rd Edition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rDFEDwAAQBAJ |publisher=ABC-CLIO |pages=102–105 |isbn=9781440857683}}</ref>

The [[Tupamaros]] guerillas of Uruguay are also noted critics of foco theory. While the Tupamaros agreed with much of Guevara's theory of revolution, they argued that the rural theatre was inefficient for a rebel army. The urban setting houses a greater population which means more sympathizers to rely on. A rural setting is also open to military attack while a city is more populated and delicate which discourages open combat by the state.<ref name=latam />


== See also ==
== See also ==
* [[Guevarism]]
* [[26 of July Movement]]
* [[26 of July Movement]]
*[[National Liberation Army (Bolivia)|National Liberation Army]] (''Ejército de Liberación Nacional'')
*[[National Liberation Army (Bolivia)|National Liberation Army]]
* [[Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]]
* [[FARC]]
* [[National Liberation Army (Colombia)|National Liberation Army]]
* [[Tupamaro (Venezuela)|Tupamaro]]
* [[Oriental Revolutionary Movement]]
* [[Paraguayan People's Army]]
* [[Fidel Castro]]
* [[Fidel Castro]]
* [[Green Resistance]]
* [[Guevarism]]
* [[People's war]]
* [[People's war]]
* [[Urban guerrilla warfare]]
* [[Urban guerrilla warfare]]
* [[Viet Cong]]
* [[Viet Minh]]
* [[Wars of national liberation]]
* [[Wars of national liberation]]


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[[Category:Che Guevara]]
[[Category:Che Guevara]]
[[Category:Marxism–Leninism]]
[[Category:Communist terminology]]
[[Category:Communist terminology]]
[[Category:Cuban Revolution]]
[[Category:Cuban Revolution]]
[[Category:Guerrilla warfare tactics]]
[[Category:Guerrilla warfare tactics]]
[[Category:Marxism]]
[[Category:Revolution terminology]]
[[Category:Revolution terminology]]

Latest revision as of 06:20, 15 August 2024

Raúl Castro (left) and Che Guevara (right) in their Sierra de Cristal Mountain stronghold south of Havana, in 1958. It was during this time as a guerilla commander in the Cuban Revolution, that Guevara would base his theory of a foco centered revolution.

A guerilla foco is a small cadre of revolutionaries operating in a nation's countryside. This guerilla organization was popularized by Che Guevara in his book Guerilla Warfare, which was based on his experiences in the Cuban Revolution. Guevara would go on to argue that a foco was politically necessary for the success of a socialist revolution. Originally Guevara theorized that a foco was only useful in overthrowing personalistic military dictatorships and not liberal democratic capitalism where a peaceful overthrow was believed possible. Years later Guevara would revise his thesis and argue all nations in Latin America, including liberal democracies, could be overthrown by a guerilla foco. Eventually the foco thesis would be that political conditions would not even need to be ripe for revolutions to be successful, since the sheer existence of a guerilla foco would create ripe conditions by itself. Guevara's theory of foco, known as foquismo (Spanish: [foˈkismo]), was self-described as the application of Marxism-Leninism to Latin American conditions, and would later be further popularized by author Régis Debray. The proposed necessity of a guerilla foco proved influential in Latin America, but was also heavily criticized by other socialists.[1][2]

This theory of foco proved heavily influential among armed militants around the world. Che Guevara's success in the Cuban Revolution was seen as proof of his thesis and thus popularized foco theory. Some of the famous militant groups to adopt foco theory included the Red Army Faction, Irish Republican Army, and Weather Underground. The theory became especially popular in the New Left for its breaking with the strategy of incremental political change supported by the Soviet Union, while also encouraging the possibility of immediate revolution.[3]

Background

[edit]

Cuban Revolution

[edit]
Fidel Castro and his small band of rebels in 1956. This small rebel army would eventually win the Cuban Revolution.

Foco theory was originally based on Che Guevara's experiences in the Cuban Revolution. In which he was party of a guerilla army of 82 members who landed in Cuba on board of the Granma in December 1956 and initiated a guerrilla war in the Sierra Maestra. During two years, the poorly armed escopeteros, at times fewer than 200 men, won victories against Fulgencio Batista's army and police force, which numbered between 30,000 and 40,000 in strength.[4] The 26th of July Movement itself had a rural guerilla army as well as an urban underground that participated in the revolution. Che Guevara often accused the urban section of the movement as being without proper radicalism, which stirred internal controversy.[5] The urban wing was responsible for arming the rural guerillas and engaged in its own urban warfare campaign. During the final months of the revolution an alliance of the Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil, Popular Socialist Party, Authentic Party and 26th of July Movement was able to overthrow the Batista government. In their new provisional government the M-26-7 rebel army garnered the most popularity and influence.[6]

Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution

[edit]

Che Guevara played an integral role as one of the first historians of the Cuban Revolution. After the revolutionaries' victory, Guevara published various articles in Cuba of his experiences in the revolution. These articles helped formalize his foco theory and a history of the Cuban Revolution that stressed the role of the rural guerillas as the main revolutionary force.[5] This idea of the lone rural guerrillas deciding the revolution became immediately popular among the rebel army while consolidating their new government, and became a driving force in Cuban politics as a nation-building myth. Many early proponents saw the potential of repeating the model of the Cuban Revolution throughout Latin America, and often encouraged it.[7]

Theory

[edit]

Rural guerilla strategy

[edit]

While foco theory drew from previous Marxist–Leninist ideas and the Maoist strategy of "protracted people's war", it simultaneously broke with many of the mid-Cold War era's established communist parties. Despite Nikita Khrushchev's eager support for "wars of national liberation" and the foco's own enthusiasm for Soviet Union patronage, Cuba's own Popular Socialist Party had retreated from active confrontation with the Fulgencio Batista regime and Castroism/Guevarism substituted the foco militia for the more traditional vanguard party.

Like other communist and socialist theorists of his era (such as Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh), Che Guevara believed that people living in countries still ruled by colonial powers, or living in countries subject to newer forms of economic exploitation, could best defeat colonial powers by taking up arms. Guevara also believed in fostering armed resistance not by concentrating one's forces in urban centers, but rather through the accumulation of strength in mountainous and rural regions where the enemy had less presence.[8]

In Guerrilla Warfare (La Guerra de Guerrillas), Guevara did not count on a Leninist insurrection led by the proletariat as had happened during the 1917 October Revolution, but on popular uprisings which would gain strength in rural areas and would overthrow the regime. The vanguard guerrilla was supposed to bolster the population's morale, not to take control of the state apparatus itself and this overthrow would occur without any external or foreign help. According to him, guerrillas were to be supported by conventional armed forces:

It is well established that guerrilla warfare constitutes one of the phases of war; this phase can not, on its own, lead to victory.[9]

Guevara added that this theory was formulated for developing countries and that the guerrilleros had to look for support among both the workers and the peasants.[10]

Guerilla "new man"

[edit]

The guerilla foco will be able to draw the support of the rural peasantry by demonstrating impeccable moral character and self-sacrifice. In the armed struggle the guerillas themselves would be shaped by hardship into individuals who had an affinity for solidarity and justice. Once the guerillas overthrow the existing government and come into power, the moral spirit of the guerillas would become the national ethos of the new government.[11]

Legacy

[edit]

Authoritarian reaction

[edit]

Many who opposed the formation of leftist guerillas took a focused approach to extinguish rural rebel groups from forming who were inspired by foquismo. These measures were often supported by the United States and involved torturing and "disappearing" political enemies.[12] The development of guerrilla focos in various Latin American countries has been a factor proposed by historians, that legitimized military takeovers of their respective nations in order to defend against guerillas.[13]

Argentina's People's Revolutionary Army

[edit]

In Argentina, the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), led by Roberto Santucho, attempted to create a foco in the Tucumán Province. The attempt failed after the government of Isabel Perón signed in February 1975 the secret presidential decree 261, which ordered the army to neutralize and/or annihilate the ERP. Destined to collapse without any external pressure, ERP was not supported by a foreign power and lacked support of the working class. Operativo Independencia gave power to the Argentine Armed Forces to "execute all military operations necessary for the effects of neutralizing or annihilating the action of subversive elements acting in the Province of Tucumán."[14]

Criticism

[edit]

Urban guerilla strategists

[edit]

Abraham Guillén was a writer who frequently made studies of urban warfare in European revolutions, and noted critic of foco theory. While he agreed with Guevara in their shared criticism of American imperialism, Guillén argued that the foco strategy was unideal compared to a strategy of urban warfare. Guillén regarded the foco as petit-bourgeois in origin. He regarded that very few peasants and workers actually joined these guerilla armies. He also argued that these rural guerillas only supplied for easy victories by the reigning state power who could easily defeat isolated rebels in the countryside who lacked connections to military resources. Guillén instead argued revolution was possible during dire political crisis, with a mass workers alliance, and taking place in urban centers where most modernized nations populations resided.[15]

The Tupamaros guerillas of Uruguay are also noted critics of foco theory. While the Tupamaros agreed with much of Guevara's theory of revolution, they argued that the rural theatre was inefficient for a rebel army. The urban setting houses a greater population which means more sympathizers to rely on. A rural setting is also open to military attack while a city is more populated and delicate which discourages open combat by the state.[15]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Guevara, Che (1997). Guerrilla Warfare. SR Books. pp. 9–17. ISBN 9780842026789.
  2. ^ Women and Revolution Global Expressions. Springer Netherlands. 1998. p. 286. ISBN 9780792351825.
  3. ^ Katsiaficas, George (1987). The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968. South End Press. pp. 35–37. ISBN 9780896082274.
  4. ^ "Bockman", Chapter 2.
  5. ^ a b Sweig, Julia (2009). Inside the Cuban Revolution. Harvard University Press. pp. 1–5. ISBN 9780674044197.
  6. ^ Kapcia, Antoni (2020). A Short History of Revolutionary Cuba Revolution, Power, Authority and the State from 1959 to the Present Day. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 15–20. ISBN 9781786736475.
  7. ^ Swing, Julia (2009). Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 104. ISBN 9780199740819.
  8. ^ "The Legacy of Che Guevara: Internationalism Today" by Dr. Peter Custers, Sri Lanka Guardian, 24 February 2010.
  9. ^ Ernesto Che Guevara French ed.: Oeuvres I, Petite collection Maspero, 34, 1968, p. 32.
  10. ^ Guevara, Che. Guerrilla War: A Method.
  11. ^ Bustos, Ciro (2013). Che Wants to See You: The Untold Story of Che Guevara. Verso. ISBN 9781781684801.
  12. ^ Doctrine, Practice, and Advocacy in the Inter-American Human Rights System. Oxford University Press. 2019. p. 230. ISBN 9780190900861.
  13. ^ Fowler, Will (2013). Latin America Since 1780. Taylor and Francis. p. 139. ISBN 9781134631759.
  14. ^ Decree No. 261/75. Archived 15 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine. NuncaMas.org, Decretos de aniquilamiento.
  15. ^ a b Wright, Thomas (2018). Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution and Beyond, 3rd Edition. ABC-CLIO. pp. 102–105. ISBN 9781440857683.

References

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