Rebel Armed Forces
The Rebel Armed Forces (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes, FAR) was a Guatemalan guerrilla
organization established in 1961 and lasting until the peace agreements in 1996.
In the late 1960s, the Guatemalan government began a United States-backed counter-insurgency
campaign that killed between 2,800 and 8000 FAR supporters in eastern Guatemala. The survivors of this
campaign, which devastated the FAR, regrouped in Mexico City in the 1970s, and founded the Guerrilla
Army of the Poor (EGP), which succeeded in mobilizing tremendous popular support over the next few
years.[1]
FAR is most significantly known for having killed the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, John Gordon
Mein, in 1968. Also killed that year were two U.S. military advisers, Colonel John Webber and Ernest
Munro, although they might have been killed at the command of PGT leader Leonardo Castillo Johnson.
In 1970, the group briefly kidnapped Guatemala's foreign minister Alberto Fuentes Mohr, but freed him
in exchange for the release of a student leader. Karl von Spreti, West German ambassador to Guatemala,
was kidnapped and murdered by the FAR as well in that year. Further actions that year included the
kidnapping of U.S. labor attaché Sean Holly, he was freed for the release of FAR prisoners.
Notes and references
References
1. McAllister 2010.
Sources
McAllister, Carlota (2010). "A Headlong Rush into the Future". In Grandin, Greg; Joseph,
Gilbert (eds.). A Century of Revolution. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. pp. 276–309.
See also
Revolutionary Movement 13th November
External links
Collection of FAR documents ([Link]
mbrepais=Guatemala&nombregrupo=Fuerzas%20Armadas%20Rebeldes%20%28FAR%2
9)
Rebel Armed Forces
Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes
Leaders Luis Augusto Turcios Lima
(Until 1966)
Dates of operation 1960–1971
Active regions Guatemala
Ideology Communism
Marxism-Leninism
Size unknown
Part of URNG
Allies EGP
ORPA
MR-13
PGT
URNG
Cuba (Support)
Soviet Union (Until 1991)
Nicaragua (1979–1990)
FMLN
Opponents Guatemala
United States (Support)
Israel (Support)
Taiwan (Support)
Chile (Support)
Argentina (Support)
South Africa (Support)
Battles and wars Guatemalan Civil War
Emblem
Retrieved from "[Link]
