WEEKLY SITUATION REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06626237
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: January 23, 2020
• Case Number: F-2016-02132
• Publication Date: December 7, 1977

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Fltrkly Situation Report
on
International Terrorion
7 December 19;7
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7 Dfeember 1977
BACKGROUND ARTICLE
Guatemalan Guerrilla Army of the Poor.
The Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP) as it exists today
is the result ofIthe assimilation of splinter groups of
terrorists and radical leftists into a unified guerrilla/
terrorist movement. In 1968 the Edgar Ibarra Guerrilla
Front (FGEI), a predecessor to the EGP, assassinated two
U.S. military officers and U.S. Ambassador John Cordon Mein.
The leader of FGE1, Julio Cesar Macias Mayora, alias Cesar
Montes, remains the primary leader in the EGP. As of August
1977 the strength of the EGP was broken down as follows:
guerrillas 225, hardcore militants 320, and support personnel
1800 to 1900.
� ncp strategy, 'i as outlined in an internal document of
the organization dated December 1975,1s to promote a guer-
rilla war for the :overthrow of the current government. To
his end, the document revealed that the'EGP proposes several
types of military action including assassinations, kidnapings
economic sabotage, and armed propaganda actions, both in
.urban and rural areas. According to Guatemalan government
reportS, the -EGP also plans to aggravate tensions along the
Guatemalan/Belize border, to force Guatemalan action, thus
weakening and dispersing: government military strength.
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In
November 1975 the EGP issued a declaration of war
aims in u two-pageAmmphlet entitled "Popular Warfare". 'The
pamphlet said that a,"people's war" led, by the EGP was being
waged in Guatemuia and blamed previOuii revolutionary failures
onIthelack of a:unifiedipolitiLall and Military organization
which Was both revOlUtionary and clandestine.. The pamphlet
concluded 117 saying that: the EGP had corrected these.errors
and would continue the revolutionary struggle; until the
poor people of Guatemala: had been liberated from all forms
ofioppression. Since early 1976 the EGP has increasingly
promoted torroriskas a means to Its political ends as
evidenced by increasing 'numbers of Violent 'acts. Although
the majority of these terrorist _cts have been calculated to
attain polit;cal:goals and primarily affect the native
population, some have threatened U.S. persons : or U.S. interests
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Noteworthy were the 26: November 1976 -raid on the Shenandoah
011 Properties and the. February 1977 kidnaping of a local
businessman with atual U.S./Guatemalan citizenship. (See
the Iissues of 30 November 1976 and 8 February 1977.). The
businessman was 'subsequently ransomed. While there is a.
dearth of informatienlregarding EGP plans and intentions,
the leadelship of the!EGP 4*mains in the;hands of the same
individuals who planne0 and conducted the 1968 assassination
of Ambassador Mein, and the killing and kidnaping of other
foreign and U.S. officials -during that same period. The
momentum built up by the EGP from late 1973 to the present
has Continued without serious disruption to either its' organ-
izationor the recruitment and training of_support personnel.
1 Since 1973 theEGP his attempted todevelop clandestine
support mechanisms in foreign countries.: It established a
secret base in Mexico!to promote its "international rela-
tions" through a network of collaborators and contacts in
Central and South America, Europe, the United States and
Canada. 'Captured EGP:documents show the Mexican base as a
primary channel forsmuggling arms and other military equip-
ment across the theLbordei into Guatemala.: Documents also
.support,EGP claims OU"auxiliary" support structures'in the
United States and Europe.
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Principally through Cuban channels the EGP maintains'
contacts with pro-Cuban leftist revolutionary parties in
Latin America, somelof, which are associated with or are
charter imembers of: the Revolutionary Cootdinatirg Junta
(JCR). The. JCR Is the umbrella organizationlin Latin America
for Iradical extremiSt!urban and rural: guerrilla terrorist
movements. Documents!disdlose, that the JCR has helped the
EGP establish contact!with the Popular Liberation Forces
(FPL) and: the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) in El Salva-
dor; thelAuthentic'likeVOlutionary MoveMent (MRA) in Costa.
Rica; theNational Liberation Army (ELN) of Bolivia; and the
RevOlutionary Worker's Party (PRT) in Argentina.. While the
scope oUCuban support, to the EGP since August 1976 is not
known, Cuban support prior to that date was limited to
financial:and material support, training; and equipment and
materials 'for forging and fabricating travel' and identity
documents. I !
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)01 its :stretjth and Successes increase, the EGP could.
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7 December 1977
serve as a magnet drawing together the radical and leftist
groups in the region, posing a threat to area-wide political
stability. (SECRET)
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