Security and Defense Studies Review - Offnews.info

of the EPP so far, is the relative lack of bloodshed. It seems that less than a dozen people, includingpolice officers and Cecilia Cubas, have been wounded or killed during the course of the last six yearsof the group’s actions. Cubas was probably only killed on the orders of a Colombian adviser, acommon practice in that country, but not in Paraguay. The dearth of killing seems deliberate to avoidalienating the EPP’s mass base, and it is the existence of this mass base that makes the EPP dangerousto the Paraguayan state. So far the state has responded by sending contingents of policemen andsoldiers to cordon off and search rural areas in San Pedro and Concepcion. These operations appearto have produced little result. Probably more effective results could be obtained by addressing boththe short-term and long-term grievances of the EPP’s mass base. If the state can undermine thismass base and effectively isolate the guerrillas from the people, they will stand a much better chanceof defeating the EPP. However, if they fail to do this, the EPP will continue to grow and become amuch greater challenge to the state. Since the EPP appear to be fairly small, the opportunity is now.However, this is not an easy task, as the EPP has a twenty-year head start and a degree of legitimacyamong this population.114Security and Defense Studies Review 2009/Edición 2009/ Edicão 2009/ Volume 9, Issues 1 & 2