DIGEST OF FOREIGN TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06626208
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: January 23, 2020
• Case Number: F-2016-02132
• Publication Date: May 1, 1984

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Directorate of
Intelligence
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4 40
Digest of Foreign Terrorism
and Political Violence
A Reference Aid
�Secret,
GI 84-10033
CR 84-11066
'w""32 4
Copy
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Thtreret,_
Activities
The PGT/O engages in relatively few operations. The organization's military unit
consists of only 20 to 30 individuals, poorly armed with an assortment of pistols,
.22-caliber rifles, and Machetes. Its preferred activity is kidnaping for ransom. In
1982 the group kidnaped the publisher of La Prensa, the country's most
prestigious paper, and extorted $500,000. In 1983 it targeted La Prensa again, this
time obtaining not only a substantial ransom but also the publication of a
manifesto in return for the release of the kidnap victim.
Sources of Support
the PGT/O receives modest
support from the Soviet Union and Cuba, the latter primarily providing paramili-
tary training. The org s also sent members to El Salvador to obtain
Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Union
(URNG)
Guatemala
Guerrilla Army of the
Poor (EGP)
Guatemala
with the Internationa e ations epartmen of the Communist-dominated Uni-
fied Socialist Party of Mexico, as well as with representatives of numerous Latin
American Communist parties, terrorist groups, and solidarity organizations. The
organization also receives some arms smuggled through Mexico from sympathetic
third countries.
(Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca.)
The URNG was established under Cuban tutelage in 1982 as the official umbrella
organization for the four main Guatemalan guerrilla groups:
� Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP).
� Organization of the People in Arms (ORPA).
� Rebel Armed Forces (FAR).
� Guatemalan Labor Party/Dissident Faction (PGT/D).
Despite Cuban efforts to have the URNG coordinate political and military
strategy, it remains little more than a propaganda shell, even though on occasion
operations have been carried out in its name. For more information on the
constituent groups, see the individual entries.
(Ejercito Guerrillero de los Pobres)
Established: Early 1970s
Strength: 800 to 1,000 full-time combatants
Nature: Marxist, rural-based insurgent group
Headquartered: Guatemala
Area of operation: Northwest highlands. Departments a- Huehuetenango, El
Quiche, and Alta Verapaz.
Leadership: Mario de Jesus Payeras Solares,
Ricardo Ramirez de Leon
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Background
The Guerrilla Army of the Poor, formed by dissidents from the Rebel Armed
Forces (which see), is the largest Guatemalan insurgent group; traditionally, it has
been one of the most effective and violent. Unlike other Guatemalan terrorist
groups, the EGP advocates a broad-based rural structure and has recruited heavily
among the highland Maya Indians. As a result of the relatively enlightened "beans
and bullets" program instituted in 1982 by the Rios Montt government, the EGP
suffered severe military reverses, lost considerable support in villages and towns
that formerly composed its traditional sources of strength, and subsequently split
over doctrinal issues
Activities
Terrorists belonging to antecedent groups have targeted foreign personalities and
facilities in Guatemala. Before 1980 they were responsible for the murders of US
Ambassador John Gordon Mein, two US military attaches, and West German
Ambassador Count Karl von Spreti. Since then, acts of international terrorism
attributable to the EGP include a rocket attack on the American Embassy; the
murders of the American manager of the Guatemalan subsidary of the Goodyear
Tire Company and the American head of the Seventh-Day Adventist School; and
bombings of the Guatemala City offices of the US Chamber of Comnierce office,
Pan American Airways, the Salvadoran and Honduran national airlines, and the
Guatemala City Chevron Oil depot. In addition, members of an EGP front group
seized the Salvadoran and Spanish Embassies�the latter operation resulting in
the deaths of 39 individuals.
The EGP has also captured and held remote towns for short periods of time. Its
members have murdered military officers and enlisted men; police and civil
officials; union, business, and media figures; as well as peasants who have been
suspected of cooperating with the government or resisting EGP control.
Sources of Support
Since its founding, Cuba has provided the EGP extensive guidance, funding, and
logistic support. As of March 1983, an estimated 250 EGP members are believed
to have received training in Cuba. EGP operations have been financed by
kidnapings of wealthy landowners, government officials, and industrialists; these
operations have yielded ransoms as high as US $4 million. Cuba, Libya, and
sympathetic socialist states also provide some financial assistance. The EGP
obtains its weapons through raids on police stations and army patrols, clandestine
purchases in Mexico and the United States, as well as from Cu a, other socialist
countries, and probably Nicaragua.
GUNT See Transitional Government of National Unity.
Hector Riobe Brigade
Haiti
Small insurgent organization established 1982 ... composed of 25 to 35 Haitian
exiles ... based in Miami with supporters in Haiti ... named for ,Hector Riobe,
who committed suicide in 1960 after unsuccessfully attempting to topple regime of
Francois Duvalier ... group appears motivated more by hatred of current dictator
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