The Group of Popular Combatants (, GCP) is a

far-left Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...

Marxist–Leninist insurgent movement active in the

Republic of Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contai ...

. It is the armed wing of the

Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador The Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador () is an anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist communist party in Ecuador, founded August 1, 1964, following a split from the Communist Party of Ecuador. PCMLE publishes ''En Marcha'', and is ...

(, PCMLE), a party formed in 1964 as a split from the

Communist Party of Ecuador The Communist Party of Ecuador ( Spanish: ''Partido Comunista del Ecuador'') is a communist party in Ecuador that split from the Socialist Party in 1930, after having been a part of the PSE since the party's inception in 1926. The party still m ...

and internationally affiliated with the

International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle) The International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (; abbreviations: ICMLPO or CIPOML) is an international organization of Anti-revisionism (Marxism–Leninism), anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninis ...

. The party belongs to an anti-revisionist tradition of

Marxism–Leninism Marxism–Leninism () is a communist ideology that became the largest faction of the History of communism, communist movement in the world in the years following the October Revolution. It was the predominant ideology of most communist gov ...

, one originally aligned with

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

and frequently referred to as

Hoxhaism Hoxhaism ( , ) is a variant of Marxism–Leninism developed in the late 1970s as a result of a schism in the anti-revisionist movement, namely between the Chinese Communist Party and the Party of Labour of Albania. The ideological dispute be ...

History

The Group of Popular Combatants is the militant and armed sector of the

. The goal of the Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador is to create a revolution in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

that will lead to

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

. The Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador gets its political inspiration from other countries' communist parties. These communist parties share similar Marxist–Leninist ideologies, so they meet to share each country's political successes.

Militia

The armed wing was originally formed in 1994, during the presidency of

Sixto Durán Ballén Sixto Alfonso Durán-Ballén Cordovez (14 July 1921 – 15 November 2016) was an Ecuadorian political figure and architect who served as the 37th president of Ecuador from 1992 to 1996. He previously served as Mayor of Quito between 1970 and 197 ...

. It became far more active in 2000, and has since engaged in a number of attacks on foreign diplomats, as well as several bombings. These bombings have utilized so-called

airborne leaflet propaganda Airborne leaflet dropping is a type of propaganda where leaflets ( flyers) are scattered in the air, normally by filling cluster bombs that open in midair with thousands of leaflets. Military forces have used aircraft to drop leaflets to attem ...

, a tactic relatively popular among

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

n revolutionaries. For example, in 2001 the GCP was blamed by authorities for a pamphlet bomb and later the same year the group claimed responsibility for detonating a pamphlet bomb in downtown

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

that let out hundreds of pamphlets protesting against

Plan Colombia Plan Colombia was a United States foreign aid, military aid, and diplomatic initiative aimed at combating Colombian drug cartels and left-wing insurgent groups. The plan was originally conceived in 1999 by the administrations of Colombian Presid ...

. In 2002 it was reported that the Group of Popular Combatants was attempting to establish a rural base in a remote jungle region bordering

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, and that they may have been receiving training from some of the

guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...

groups involved in the ongoing

Colombian conflict The Colombian conflict () began on May 27, 1964, and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups, crime syndicates and far-left guerrilla groups fighting each other to increase their i ...

Claimed attacks

The Group of Popular Combatants have three attacks where they claimed responsibility in Ecuador. The Group of Popular Combatants committed their first attack on September 28, 1997 in

, Pichincha,

. No one was injured or killed in the attack. Their second attack occurred on February 16, 2000 in

Guayaquil Guayaquil (), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital (political), capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is ...

city, Guayas,

. A television network received a video tape which contained a concealed bomb. Rafael Cuesta, the news editor at the station, and the only casualty in the attack, was wounded when the bomb went off inside the station. Prior to the attack, the news station had warnings about a possible attack from a different group, This initially led authorities to blame a different organization, although, the Group of Popular Combatants did eventually take responsibility. Rafael Cuesta was the only person injured and no one was killed. On February 21, 2000 the Group of Popular Combatants committed their third terrorist attack. It took place in Guayaquil, Guayas, Ecuador. Their target was indigenous rights leader, Marcos Murillo. In this attack too, a videocassette sent to the location of Marcos contained a concealed bomb. The police were called and the bomb was defused. There was no one killed or injured in this attack. On November 22, 2010, the Group of Popular Combatants claimed responsibility for a bomb placed in the head office of the

University of Guayaquil The University of Guayaquil ( Spanish: ''Universidad de Guayaquil''), known colloquially as the ''Estatal'' (i.e., "the State niversity), is a public university in Guayaquil, Guayas Province, Ecuador. Estatal was founded in 1883. It is the ol ...

. The group had not been active for almost a decade when this occurred. The Group of Popular Combatants claimed they used the bomb to attempt to influence student elections held at the University.

Weaponry

Two of the incident reports from the

Global Terrorism Database The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is a database of terrorist incidents from 1970 onward. As of May 2021, the list extended through 2019 recording over 200,000 incidents, although data from 1993 is excluded. The database is maintained by the Na ...

show that the Group of Popular Combatants placed bombs inside video cassettes and sent them to specific designated places to target people or make a political statement. The fourth attack is not included on the

because there is some speculation about whether they actually did it. However, this attack did use a bomb as well, which is consistent to the weaponry used in their previous attacks.

References

{{reflist Communist guerrilla organizations Communist parties in Ecuador Guerrilla movements in Latin America Hoxhaist organizations Far-left politics in Ecuador Military wings of communist parties Paramilitary organisations based in Ecuador Communism in Ecuador 1994 establishments in Ecuador Military units and formations established in 1994 Plurinational Unity of the Lefts Terrorism in Ecuador

History

Militia

Claimed attacks

Weaponry

See also

References