Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

September they rescued the candidate, though the guerrilleros managed to escape.
During the following month, the army pursued Cabañas across the mountains and
dispersed his brigade. Finally, on 2 December 1974, a squad attacked Lucio and his
men. It is not clear how it happened, but during the attack Lucio Cabañas died and the
PDLP with him. 122
The guerrillas were also in urban areas. On 23 September 1965, the Grupo
Popular Guerrillero (GPG), led by Arturo Gámiz, attacked a military barracks in the
northern city of Madera, Chihuahua. They took the barracks by surprise, but were
defeated and many were killed during the attack. 123 After this attack, the GPG almost
disappeared, becoming the Grupo Guerrillero del Pueblo-Arturo Gámiz (GGPAG),
which itself was quashed in 1968. 124 Since that frustrated attack in Madera, ‘México ha
vivido en estado de Guerra de manera casi ininterrumpida’. 125
The attack of 23 September 1965 inspired other urban movements, such as La
Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre, created in Guadalajara in 1973, which took its name
as a tribute to the attack in Madera. La Liga became the biggest urban guerrilla
movement in Mexico. 126 It was created through a merger of a number of rebel groups
from across the country. La Liga became stronger and quickly increased in number.
They robbed and killed policemen and soldiers in order to obtain weapons and money.
They also carried out what they called ‘expropiaciones’, which were armed robberies of
banks, supermarkets, and so forth. It is interesting that an issue of La Familia Burrón
presents a group of young people who want to perform the so-called expropiaciones, but
they are described as men without any social ideals and whose main interest is to make
122
Barrera Hernández, Sergio Sarmiento, ‘De la montaña roja a …’, p. 669.
123
A description of the attack in Cuartel Madera can be found in the novel Las armas del alba (2003) by
Carlos Montemayor.
124
Castellanos, México armado… p. 99.
125
Montemayor, La guerrilla recurrente, p. 24.
126
Aguayo, La charola… p. 175. A chart with the number of militants in the main guerrilla movements
can be consulted on this same page.
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