The stories and memories of the militants of Alfaro Vive Carajo (AVC), the short-lived guerrilla force that operated in Ecuador in the early 1980s, were first portrayed in a book by Spanish political scientist and oral historian Nicolás Buckley.
In “The last guerrillas of Ecuador”, Buckley collects the testimonies of several members of this guerrilla and analyzes the reasons which pushed them to form this movement and the way in which they lived their “rapid extermination”.
He is also interested in the subsequent integration of several of them into the movement of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and the disenchantment experienced by some, in what he called “a disagreement with the modernity”.
Buckley, who is a professor at the European University of Madrid and has lived in Ecuador for several years, admitted in an interview with EFE that “Ecuadorian society is not very interested in talking about stroke, because what it creates, they are disagreements, discomfort and resentment”.
“Part of society thinks we want to reopen wounds. It’s very similar to what happens when we talk about ETA in Spain,” added the historian, whose doctoral thesis focuses on the conflict. Basque, with testimonies of the terrorist organization.
RELENTLESS REPRESSION
For the author, the most interesting thing about this guerrilla warfare that bears the name of former Ecuadorian President Eloy Alfaro (1895-1901 and 1906-1911), “is the rapid extermination suffered by its leaders”.
“It would be difficult for me to find a guerrilla in Latin America that was founded in 1983 and 3 years later most of the leaders were exterminated,” said Buckley, who recalls that at that time there was no There was no dictatorship in Ecuador like those of Videla in Argentina or Pinochet in Chile, but rather a formally democratic government, that of former President León Febres-Cordero (1984-1988).
The emergence of this guerrilla in Ecuador occurred when its neighbors in Colombia and Peru were already facing insurgent movements.
“At the time the AVC was born, in the state and in the government, there was already an imaginary in which, if a guerrilla was established in Ecuador, it must be ended in any way”, a- he continued.
THE M-19, YOUR REFERENCE
While Alfaro Vive Carajo was founded in the heat of the success of the 1979 Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, its “big brother” is the Colombian M-19.
“This Colombian guerrilla is made up mainly of university students, with a political discourse quite far from orthodox Marxism and the use of violence is discussed. AVC is inspired a bit by this experience and this makes them cautious in the use of violence,” Buckley said.
The members of AVC also have a similar origin, coming from wealthy sectors, which for the writer makes them more interesting to know “why a person of upper class, or high bourgeoisie, leaves his studies and hides, knowing that it is very possible that he will end up tortured or killed”.
“In the book, we also see how, especially on the coast, there are people of peasant origin”, but these hierarchies were not present in the AVC structure, underlines the author.
“There were peasants who could command and there were people from the wealthy urban classes who had to obey what those peasants said. It was a very cross-class experience,” he added.
MODERNITY AND “DISENGAGEMENT”
The writer considered that the irruption of Alfaro Vive is closely linked to the way in which modernity was introduced in Ecuador, starting in the 1970s, with the first oil “boom”, “when the money really started to enter Ecuador and have these oligarchies”.
“The outskirts of Guayaquil and Quito were excluded from this modernity, until Rafael Correa came to power. I believe that the Citizens’ Revolution is the first serious attempt by an Ecuadorian government to include the popular classes in the profit distribution,” Buckley said. .
At that time, the militants of the AVC see in Correa political premises very similar to theirs: sovereignty, anti-imperialism, redistribution of wealth, social justice… but some end up “disenchanting”.
“They are not disappointed with Rafael Correa, but with a process of modernization where the state is also a political actor that carries out very strong processes of domination, with bureaucratic structures and clientelism, which are happening in Latin America and also in Europe,” the author explained.
“I think this book can contribute a lot to the historiography of Ecuador, because it is interesting to note that just when the AVC gave up its weapons in the 90s, the indigenous movement gained strength Talking about stroke today is talking about the Ecuadorian left, their open wounds and the need for dialogue,” he concluded.