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The Guerrilla Women of Latin America
Just when you thought only men could effectively fight in wars, along comes a group of women that turns that notion on its head.
A Brief Overview of Guerrilla Movements in Latin America
In Spanish, the word “guerrilla” is the diminutive form of the word “guerra,” or war. It means “small war.”
In military terms, guerrilla warfare is an irregular, asymmetrical form of warfare in which a smaller group of combatants, paramilitary, or civilians use ambushes, sabotage, hit-and-run raids, and other extremely mobile tactics to attack a larger force. It is said, that a guerrilla strategy is the poor man’s way of fighting a war.
While these tactics date back thousands of years, the word “guerrilla” was first used during the 19th century Peninsular Wars between the combined forces of Spain and Portugal against the Napoleonic troops.
Latin America’s Guerrillas
From the mid-1940s forward, considered the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union identified guerrilla insurgencies as a viable strategy to overthrow governments that were either supported or propped up by the United States. This was the case in Latin America where the…
