Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

110 • CLARA ELIZABETH RAMÍREZ FRONTSula, killing one guard and injuring two businessmen in the takeover.When their demands for the release of imprisoned comrades were notmet, they traded the hostages for safe passage to Cuba. From August1983 to March 1985, the group bombed U.S., Honduran, and CostaRican business and airline offices in retaliation for these countries’military cooperation against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. On17 July 1988 the group claimed credit for an attack in San Pedro Sulain which some U.S. service members were wounded. On 25 January1989 the group killed the former head of the Honduran army, GeneralGustavo Álvarez Martínez.From late 1984 onward, the group appeared to withdraw into aperiod of reorganization. Little is known about its leadership, whileits membership has been estimated to consist of, at most, about 200combatants. Following the cutoff of Sandinista aid to the group, theleadership signed a peace agreement with Honduran governmentofficials in March 1991. On 23 December 2004, when members ofthe Mara Salvatruchas (MS-13) gang attacked a bus in ChamaleconCity, killing 28 passengers and injuring 12, they left a note in thename of the Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement, threateningPresident Ticardo Maduro and the speaker of the Honduran NationalCongress, Lobo Sosa, along with other politicians who were advocatinga crackdown on MS-13 and other gangs.CLARA ELIZABETH RAMÍREZ FRONT (CERF). The Frente ClaraElizabeth Ramírez was a splinter group that broke away in 1983 fromthe Popular Liberation Forces, one of the five major groups united intothe Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). As such,it had essentially the same revolutionary objectives that the FMLNheld at the time the group separated, that is, to overthrow the Salvadorangovernment and create a revolutionary state in El Salvador afterthe Nicaraguan model. Due to its defection from the FMLN, however,it cut itself off from Cuban or Sandinista backing.CERF consisted of 10 to 20 well-trained urban guerrillas, whosucceeded in preventing infiltration by security forces. CERF concentratedon assassinations and targeted in particular U.S. militarypersonnel and advisers as well as Salvadoran military and police officials.Its record was short but deadly: On 23 May 1983 CERF shotLieutenant Commander Albert Schaufelberger (U.S. Navy), deputycommander of the U.S. military advisory mission in El Salvador.