Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

GUATEMALAN NATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY UNION • 221bassador on 29 May 1977 and the foreign minister of Guatemalaon 31 December 1977. In October 1979 the EGP kidnapped thepresident’s nephew, who was released only after the governmentplaced EGP political manifestos in paid advertisements in leadingWestern newspapers.César Montes initiated contacts with the FAR and ORPA, andother antigovernment guerrillas, to promote forming a common front,which was the prelude to formation of the URNG. The EGP wasresponsible for at least one massacre of civilians in June 1982 whenit reportedly killed 120 people in Chacalte in retaliation for their collaborationwith the civilian self-defense patrols, which themselveslater turned into death squads.3. Organización Revolucionaria del Pueblo en Armas (ORPA).The Revolutionary Organization of the People in Arms was a Guatemalanleftist guerrilla group that enjoyed Cuban sponsorship andcollaborated with two other major Guatemalan rebel groups withinthe framework of the URNG to overthrow the Guatemalan government.ORPA was formed in September 1979 in Solola Departmentand, although smaller than the Rebel Armed Forces or the RevolutionaryArmy of the Poor, it gained the reputation of being themost effective of the Guatemalan groups. In 1984 ORPA forceskilled more than 120 Guatemalan army soldiers during a 10-dayperiod. Most of ORPA’s area of operations has been in the southwesternregion of Guatemala, west of Guatemala City. The leaderof the ORPA group was Rodrigo Asturias Amado, also known asGaspar Ilom.While ORPA was particularly effective in rural guerrilla warfare,and while most terrorist actions committed by URNG forces wereusually carried out by FAR forces, one terrorist incident was clearlythe work of ORPA. In November 1988, about 22 villagers weremassacred by ORPA in the small town of El Aguacate. Until 1984ORPA had largely been successful in its own propaganda work andco-optation of the Indian peasants.Previous Guatemalan counterinsurgency efforts had played intothe URNG’s hands due to the heavy-handed use of death squads andindiscriminate state terror directed at civilians in areas of rural insurgency.Following the 23 March 1982 coup raising Ríos Montt topower, the Guatemalan army undertook a more effective campaign