User:Gmd114/ The Armed Forces of National Liberation (Venezuela)

The Armed Forces of National Liberation (in Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional, FALN) was a Venezuelan guerrilla group formed by the Communist Party of Venezuela to foment revolution against the democratically elected governments of Rómulo Betancourt and Raul Leoni.

Contents

 * 1Background
 * 2In popular culture
 * 3See also
 * 4References
 * 5External links

Background[edit]
In 1958, Betancourt's Democratic Action (Acción Democrática, AD) party largely sidelined the extreme left wing, notably the Communist Party of Venezuela (Partido Comunista de Venezuela, PCV).[clarification needed] The 1959 Cuban Revolution influenced PCV and student groups hoping to recreate Fidel Castro's regime in Venezuela. Many leftist students formed the Revolutionary Left Movement (Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria, MIR) in April 1960.

Betancourt's firm stance against Castro, especially Cuba's expulsion from the Organization of American States (OAS) led to bloody military uprisings in 1962, first at Carúpano on the Península of Paria, then at Puerto Cabello. After the unsuccessful revolts, Betancourt suspended civil liberties and arrested the MIR and PCV members of the forerunner to the National Assembly of Venezuela bicameral Congress (Congreso) in 1962. This drove the leftists underground and founded the FALN on January 1, 1963.

The FALN were engaged in rural and urban guerrilla activities, including seized the Venezuelan cargo ship Anzoátegui, kidnapping Real Madrid soccer star Alfredo DiStefano (both performed by Paul del Rio), sabotaging oil pipelines, kidnaping of American Colonel Michael Smolen, bombing a Sears Roebuck warehouse, and bombing the United States Embassy in Caracas. FALN failed to rally the rural poor and to disrupt the December 1963 elections.[non-primary source needed]

The FALN fought through the Llanos of Venezuela and along the Colombian border near the city of San Cristóbal for many years. The president of Venezuela at the time, Raul Leoni, sent troops to fight against the guerrillas. General Rafael Sanchez Agüero eliminated the FALN in the state of Táchira in 1969. Along side Colonel Arturo Julio Salazar.

'''The FALN was the most active of the Venezuelan terrorist and guerrilla organizations. The kidnapping for ransom in which these groups engaged was an extremely lucrative business that made uncertain the ideological motivation of their actions.'''

The FALN started its guerrilla campaign with the bombing of oilfield installations in 1962 and "carried out numerous and spectacular actions in the 1960s and early 70s, but was defeated  by security forces by 1975.” It is also known that FALN leadership took advantage of a "pacification policy" in the late 1970s establishing a ceasefire, evolving from concealment and entering electoral politics. Douglas Bravo, a key figure of the FALN, received an amnesty in September 1979. Bravo, now leader of the PRV, was reportedly arrested in May 1992  "in the wake of continuing social tensions attributed to small left-wing groups.” Bravo later died in 2019 due to the pandemic COVID-19.

Fabricio Ojeda [edit]
'''A Venezuelan guerrilla commander who presided the National Liberation Front of Venezuela, Fabricio Ojeda, wrote a document "Why the liberation of Venezuela?" Fabricio Ojeda stated that FALN's purpose was to change the economic and social structure in Venezuela during the 1960's. Ojeda goes on to say that the revolutionary forefront forces created the National Liberation Front to be the main source of the struggle. The FLN was to come up with the revolutionary strategy and tactics.'''

'''Ojeda says that the National Liberation Front controls organized revolutionary activity with all forms of struggle. It has also created the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) as a central tool which are its armed wing. This organization is ruled by the same principles and guidelines that support the FLN. The FLN and FALN are not made to replace the party regime or change some armed forces for others. Both organizations are known to be open to all patriots civilian and military.'''

Ojeda suggests that in order for a government of national liberation to carry out its program of dealing with the counterrevolutionary reaction, it needs powerful armed forces.

Activities
'''Between May and June 1963, it was announced that the FALN terrorists had decided to focus on attacking US interests due to the fact that they felt they were isolating themselves from the masses by attacking Venezuelan targets. Even though there have been several attacks on bridges, gas, oil lines, and on Venezuelan police and military personnel, most of the terrorist activities have been against American targets. Terrorists had turn to political targets, for instance, on September 13 there was an attempt to break up a meeting of Betancourt's Democratic Action (AD) party in Caracas which was held to observe the party's 22nd anniversary. In this attempt, they exploded home-made bombs in numerous parts of the city, puncture tires, burned cars and participated in hit-and-run shootings. All of these incidents were unsuccessful in disturbing the AD rally completely. FALN spokesmen have multiple times expressed their intention to kidnap the US Ambassador and possibly other US Embassy personnel.'''

In popular culture[edit]
The 1975 film Chronicle of a Latin American Subversive (Spanish: Crónica de un subversivo latinoamericano) by director Mauricio Walerstein, narrates the real life FALN kidnapping of American Colonel Michael Smolen (portrayed as Colonel Robert Whitney by actor Claudio Brook) in revenge for Nguyen Van Troi's death sentence.