Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

POPULAR RESISTANCE FRONT • 545POPULAR MOVEMENT OF UNITED ACTION-LAUTARO. SeeLAUTARO YOUTH MOVEMENT.POPULAR RESISTANCE FRONT. The Frente de la Resistencia Popularwas an Argentinean leftist group responsible for the 23 January1989 attack upon the Third Mechanized Infantry Regiment base at LaTrablada on the southwestern outskirts of Buenos Aires. The group wascomposed of remnants of the People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP),led by Enrique Haroldo Gorriarán Merlo (1942– ), the second-incommandof the ERP. Gorriarán was among the ERP remnants formingthe Red Action assassination squad that murdered former Nicaraguandictator Anastasio Somoza in Paraguay on 17 September 1980.The group, numbering some 69 men and women, crashed thegates of the base, seized several recruits as hostages, took over sixbuildings, and fought a group of officers for three hours until police,along with army tank and artillery units, attacked the base, retaking itafter 24 hours of fighting. In all, 28 attackers, nine soldiers, and twopolicemen were killed. About 14 people surrendered, four of whomwere soldiers who had been held hostage. During the fighting Gorriaránescaped. This incident greatly shocked the Argentinean public,who believed that the leftist groups had been wiped out during thedirty war of the military junta of General Jorge Videla.On 1 February 1989 the Popular Resistance Front published acommuniqué in an Uruguayan leftist paper claiming responsibilityand stating that its motive was to deter a military plot to launch acoup d’état against the government of President Raul Alfonsín. Thecommuniqué identified the group as being composed of members ofthe All for the Fatherland Movement, founded in 1988, composed ofremnants of the ERP under Gorriarán’s leadership.On 28 October 1995 Gorriarán was arrested in Mexico City andextradited to Argentina, where he arrived at El Palomar militarybase on 29 October 1995. Although a general amnesty had been issuedby Argentinean President Carlos Menem in 1989, this appliedonly to crimes committed by either the leftist insurgents or the armyduring the course of the dirty war, which ended in 1983 and wouldnot apply to Gorriarán’s assault on the Third Infantry regiment basein La Trablada on 23 January 1989. Gorriarán’s sentence was latercommuted and he was released in 2003. See also PEOPLE’S REVO-LUTIONARY ARMY.