WEEKLY SITUATION REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06626241
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: January 23, 2020
• Case Number: F-2016-02132
• Publication Date: July 6, 1977

Approved for Release: 2020/01/15 C06626241
Weekly Situation Report
on
International Terrorism
6 July 1977
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6 July 1977
The Guatemalan Guerrilla Army of the Poor
The Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), the latest coalition
of various Guatemalan guerrilla and terrorist organizations,
poses a growing threat to the lives and property of U.S. and
other foreign nationals in Guatemala. With its links to
Cuba, South American radical guerrilla and terrorist groups,
and Salvadoran terrorists, the EGP could eventually become a
threat to the other countries of Central America.
The EGP consists of three operating groups or usegments;"
the Urban Segment, the Plains Segment, and the Mountain
Segment. All three groups are responsive to a single national
leadership. The Guatemalan government in mid-1976 estimated
the EGP's hard core membership to be from 255-320 with
another 1800-1900 people involved in support activities.
The strategy of the EGP, as enunciated in an internal
document dated December 1975, is to convince mass organiza-
tions to support guerrilla warfare, thus assuring that the
EGP's terrorist acts do not occur in a vacuum. The same
document proposes that it engage in political-assassinations,
kidnapings, and economic sabotage in both urban and rural
areas.
Leaders of the EGP and its predecessor groups have
maintained contact with Cuba since the 1960s through the
Cuban embassy in Mexico City. Over the years there have
been reports that Cuba has provided the EGP with weapons,
communications equipment, and financial assistance. Although
aid has, in fact, been given, it is not known in precisely
what amounts. Cuba has been helpful in aiding the EGP to
establish contacts with Latin and Central American leftist
revolutionary and terrorist groups.
Earlier this year the EGP kidnaped a Guatemala City
businessman-who holds dual U.S./Guatemalan citizenship,
releasing him in March after his family paid the $300,000 in
ransom. On 26 November 1976 the EGP raided Shenandoah Oil
properties. In late 1976 the Sheraton Conquistador was the
target of an EGP bombing. From January 1968 to April 1970
terrorists belonging to groups that later ,formed the EGP
were responsible for the assassination of two military
officers � attached to the U.S. embassy, the murder of U.S.
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6 July 1977
Ambassador John Gordon Mein the kidnaping of a U.S. embassy
labor attache. the West German ambassador.
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