Foco
A guerilla foco is a small cadre of
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
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
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.[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
Rural guerilla strategy
While foco theory drew from previous
Like other communist and socialist theorists of his era (such as
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"
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
Authoritarian reaction
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
In
Criticism
Urban guerilla strategists
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
- Guevarism
- 26 of July Movement
- National Liberation Army
- Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
- National Liberation Army
- Tupamaro
- Oriental Revolutionary Movement
- Paraguayan People's Army
- Fidel Castro
- People's war
- Urban guerrilla warfare
- Wars of national liberation
Notes
- ISBN 9780842026789.
- ISBN 9780792351825.
- ISBN 9780896082274.
- ^ "Bockman", Chapter 2.
- ^ ISBN 9780674044197.
- ISBN 9781786736475.
- ISBN 9780199740819.
- ^ "The Legacy of Che Guevara: Internationalism Today" by Dr. Peter Custers, Sri Lanka Guardian, 24 February 2010.
- ^ Ernesto Che Guevara French ed.: Oeuvres I, Petite collection Maspero, 34, 1968, p. 32.
- ^ Guevara, Che. Guerrilla War: A Method.
- ISBN 9781781684801.
- ISBN 9780190900861.
- ISBN 9781134631759.
- ^ Decree No. 261/75. Archived 15 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine. NuncaMas.org, Decretos de aniquilamiento.
- ^ ISBN 9781440857683.
References
- Guevara, Ernesto: ISBN 978-0-285-63680-4.