GUATEMALA: DEVELOPMENT AND INSURGENCY IN THE NORTHERN FRONTIER

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06626212
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: January 23, 2020
• Case Number: F-2016-02132
• Publication Date: January 1, 1983

Approved for Release: 2020/01/21 C06626212
Directorate of
Intelligence
Guatemala: Development
and Insurgency in
the Northern Frontier
An Intelligence Assessment
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January 1983
Copy 356
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The Insurgency
The current insurgency in Guatemala can be traced to
the early 1960s when disgruntled former Army offi-
cers and leftist students joined in a guerrilla war
against the government. Dislodged from rural strong-
holds in the east, they turned to urban terrorism. By
the early 1970s, apparently concluding that the sup-
port of the large Indian population was needed, they
became active in the western highlands; for the
remainder of the decade they concentrated, with some
success, on recruitment and entrenchment. In 198
he number of
combatant insurgents was about 2,000 and growing,
nsurgents con-
trolled 85 percent of the Department of Huehuete-
nango. Extensive areas elsewhere were also believed
to be in guerrilla hands. But over the vast six months
US Embassy reports indicate that
counterinsurgency by government forces has signifi-
cantly reduced the area under insurgent control.
The three most active insurgency organizations are:
the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), created in the early
1960s; the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), an
offshoot tithe FAR dating from the early 1970s; and
the Organization of the People in Arms (ORPA), a
splinter group from the EGP that began operations in
1979. A November 1982 assessment placed the num-
ber of full-time insurgents at 2,000 to 3,000�with
the FAR at 150 to 300, the EGP at about 1,000 to
1,300, and the ORPA at about 600 to 800. (We
estimate the Guatemalan armed forces at more than
25,000 men.) The insurgents have received consider-
able support, including training, from Cuba, but they
continue to be plagued by disunity.
Army patrol looking for insurgents. Dense vegetation covering
much of the northern lowlands provires excellent hidinz Dlaces and
sites from which to stage ambushes.
A well-armed band of insurgents, members of the Guerrilla Army
of the Poor.
Thetrot_
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