Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

PEOPLE’S REVOLUTIONARY ARMY • 529A brief history of ERP operations follows: The ERP initiated itscareer in 1969 and carried out a series of bank robberies in Rosarioduring 1970. During 1972 the ERP discovered the more lucrativeexpedient of kidnapping foreign businessmen for ransom whiletargeting members of the military government for assassination.On 10 April 1972 the ERP killed both General Juan Carlos Sánchezin Rosario and Dr. Oberdan Sallustro, president of the Argentineanbranch of Fiat, whom they had kidnapped two weeks before. On 30April 1972 the ERP assassinated Rear Admiral Hermes Quijada.In the next two years, the ERP changed its tactics from urban terrorismto carrying out open military assaults upon various garrisonsand small towns to build up its material strength and to begin creatingan ERP-controlled zone in the mountainous areas. These attacks culminatedin the 23 December 1975 attack on the barracks and armoryof Monte Chingolo, which was defeated by Argentinean military andsecurity forces. On 19 July 1976 the leader of the ERP, Roberto Santucho,was killed in Buenos Aires along with his deputy commander,after which the fortunes of the group declined. Within a year the insurgencyhad been smashed. Leadership of the ERP passed to EnriqueGorriarán Merlo, who fled the country in 1977, apparently to Nicaraguawhere he worked with the Sandinista regime’s security forces.Remnants of the ERP went into exile and formed a leftist hit teamfor hire, calling themselves Red Action. On 17 September 1980, sevenmembers of Red Action led by Gorriarán assassinated the exiled Nicaraguandictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle along with members ofhis entourage as they drove through Asunción, Paraguay. Red Actionwas foiled in a kidnapping attempt in Mexico in 1981 and several ofits members were captured. In 1987 Gorriarán took advantage of anamnesty to return to Argentina, where he became a leader of the MovimientoTodos por la Patria (MTP), or All for the Fatherland Movement.On 23 January 1989 Gorriarán led 40 MTP members, mainlyformer ERP members, in an armed attack on the La Tablada militarybarracks, supposedly to prevent a right-wing military coup. By thetime the Argentinean army retook the barracks, 39 people had beenkilled and about 60 injured. Gorriarán escaped and later was arrested inMexico in October 1995 and then was tried and convicted for chargesarising from the attack. His sentence was eventually commuted, and hewas released on 23 May 2003. See also DIRTY WAR; MONTONE-ROS; POPULAR RESISTANCE FRONT.