¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo!
Marxist-Leninist political-military organization from Ecuador. / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! (AVC) (Alfaro Lives, Dammit![1]), another name for the Fuerzas Armadas Populares Eloy Alfaro (Eloy Alfaro Popular Armed Forces), was a clandestine left-wing group in Ecuador, founded in 1982 and named after popular government leader and general Eloy Alfaro.[2] The group was labeled as a terrorist organization by the Ecuadorian state[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] during the period of the former president León Febres Cordero. It existed between 1983 and 1991, when it carried out various armed actions and criminal acts in Ecuador,[11] with Colombian (M-19) and Nicaraguan (Nicaraguan Revolution) influence.[12] The group was initially formed sometime in the 1970s, but was not active militarily for the first few years of the 80's.[13]
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Eloy Alfaro Popular Armed Forces | |
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Fuerzas Armadas Populares Eloy Alfaro | |
Also known as | ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! |
Leader | Arturo Jarrin |
Foundation | 1970s |
Dates of operation | 1980s |
Dissolved | 1991 |
Country | Ecuador |
Ideology | Left-wing militancy |
Political position | Left-wing |
Major actions | Theft Kidnapping Robbery Insurgency |
Size | 200-300 |
Means of revenue | Bank robbery |
Part of | America Battalion |
Allies | M-19 MRTA |
Opponents | Government of Ecuador |
Battles and wars | Terrorism in Ecuador |
Designated as a terrorist group by | Ecuador |
An openly leftist organization, but not Marxist, they identified with the Democratic Left coalition. The AVC first received national attention in 1983, when it broke into a museum and stole swords used by former president and leader of the liberal revolution, Eloy Alfaro. Some of the group's leaders were thought to be affiliated with Cuba, Libya and Nicaragua, and the group itself was linked to militant groups in other Latin American countries, such as M-19[14] and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, establishing a group of joint operations called America Battalion with these two groups. Between 1986 and 1987, AVC carried out several kidnappings, robbed banks and a factory, seized several radio stations to broadcast their manifesto, and killed four policemen while retrieving a member of the group from police custody. At its height, the AVC had between 200 and 300 members.[15] The AVC did not carry out attacks against the population or large-scale attacks since according to Santiago Kingman, the main ideologue of the AVC ...any bomb exploding alone, senseless... any killing of an unarmed person was stupid.[16]
In response to this activity, the government began conducting raids against the group. The group's leader, Arturo Jarrin, was killed during a shootout against government forces in October 1986.[13] By 1987, a large number of AVC leaders and members had been killed or arrested.[14] In 1989, the Ecuadorian government reached an agreement with the AVC, and the group agreed to end its violence.[13] In 1991, the group was officially reformed as a legitimate political party. A year later, eight members of the group made an illegal but non-violent entry into the British embassy in Quito, demanding the release of a group leader who was later imprisoned by the Ecuadorian government.[2]
They were responsible for several criminal actions including robberies and kidnappings; highlighting the kidnapping of Nahim Isaías Barquet, who was the general manager of the bank Filanbanco in September 1985, who was killed while the intervention for his rescue was being carried out by the Anti-Terrorist Unit of the Special Forces Brigade of the Ecuadorian Army, ordered by the then president León Febres-Cordero.[17] Due to the death in 1986 of its leader, Arturo Jarrín, arrests and the death of several other members in the same year took place as a result of the actions carried out by the security forces of the Ecuadorian State, AVC lost strength and was practically eliminated.[15][17][18] According to the book The remnant of AVC, it formally handed over its weapons in 1991. The balance of the AVC campaign between 1983 and 1988 was: 16 AVC members, six members of the M-19, 14 police officers killed, more than 20 injured.[19][17][18][20]