Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

ARMED ISLAMIC GROUP • 43ency offer drew criticism from Republican members of Congress aswell as from members of law enforcement units whose members hadbeen killed or maimed by FALN attacks.Earlier, on 6 December 1994, Claude Daniel Marks and Donna JeanWilmott, two FALN members wanted for engineering the 1985 escapeof FALN leaders from Leavenworth prison, surrendered themselves tofederal authorities in Pittsburgh. Given the low vote for independencein the Puerto Rican referendum and the desperation evident amongthose FALN members at large who were surrendering themselves toauthorities, the Clinton decision to grant clemency to the long-imprisonedFALN members may have been calculated to move the remainingFALN members at large to renounce the use of terrorism.2. Venezuelan FALN: Younger members of the Venezuelan CommunistParty, more attracted to the Cuban model of revolution,joined forces with the Venezuelan Revolutionary Movement of theLeft (Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionario, MIR), a left-wingfaction of the ruling Democratic Action party, to form this Marxistguerrilla group active in the 1960s and 1970s. With Cuban backing,the FALN carried out an urban terrorist campaign and also sabotagedforeign businesses and oil production facilities. The FALN usedkidnapping and hijacking as means to embarrass the Venezuelangovernment and to create publicity, at one point kidnapping the U.S.Army attaché, Colonel James Chenault, on 27 November 1963 andreleasing him after the government freed several imprisoned leftists.In 1969, after Cuba abandoned support for leftist guerrillas inVenezuela, the MIR broke its association with the FALN to return tolegality. The FALN became inactive and its leader, Douglas Bravo(1933– ), eventually accepted a presidential pardon in 1979.ARMED FORCES OF NATIONAL RESISTANCE / FUERZASARMADAS DE LA RESISTENCIA NACIONAL. See FAR-ABUNDO MARTÍ NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT.ARMED ISLAMIC GROUP (GIA). The Groupe Islamique Armé isa nonstate Islamic fundamentalist group that sought to create an Islamicstate in Algeria and took the leading role in the insurgency andcivil war in Algeria (1992–2000), in the course of which well over140,000 people were killed. Following the 11 January 1992 Algerianarmy coup against President Ben Jedid, who had become resigned toan imminent victory by the Islamic fundamentalist Islamic Salvation