The People's Guerrilla Group (, the GPG) was a left-wing militant group in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It operated between 1963 and 1965, until a disastrous attack caused the death of most prominent members.

History

Founded in 1963 in the north-western Mexican state of Chihuahua, the People's Guerrilla Group formed in the context of the period preceding the

Dirty War The Dirty War () is the name used by the military junta or National Reorganization Process, civic-military dictatorship of Argentina () for its period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983. During this campaign, military and secu ...

. Left-wing and peasant unrest was near-constant in many parts of the country during this time, in opposition to the

Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party (, , PRI) is a List of political parties in Mexico, political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 as the National Revolutionary Party (, PNR), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (, PRM) and fin ...

government. The group's primary leader was Arturo Gámiz García, with Pablo Gómez Ramírez as a prominent theoretician and Salomón Gaytán as a military commander. The founding members were rural teachers, students and peasants, some of them members of the Popular Socialist Party. The primary ideology was

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 ...

. Some researchers have additionally claimed a strong influence from the group's more well-known Latin American contemporary

Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...

and his 1961 book '' La Guerra de Guerrillas'', while others attribute the

works Works may refer to: People * Caddy Works (1896–1982), American college sports coach * John D. Works (1847–1928), California senator and judge * Samuel Works (c. 1781–1868), New York politician Albums * ''Works'' (Pink Floyd album), a Pi ...

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

as an at least secondary influence. In the morning of 23 September 1965, the group launched an attack on some military barracks – the regional headquarters of the

Mexican Army The Mexican Army () is the combined Army, land and Air Force, air branch and is the largest part of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army. The Army is under the authority of the Secretariat of National Defense o ...

– in Ciudad Madera, the ''asalto al cuartel de Madera''. The plan was to lead an assault consisting of three separate groups, with a total of about forty militants. However, only one of them went into action, as the second had chosen to withdraw as it was unable to find its way, and the third – carrying the heavier weapons – was delayed by impassable roads and swollen rivers caused by torrential rain the previous night. The single group, consisting of only thirteen fighters, decided to commence the assault regardless of their low numbers. This was due to the mistaken belief that only two platoons guarded the barracks. In fact, there were a full 125 officers in the area. The attack took place at dawn, and was quickly repelled. It has been said that their quick defeat was due to a driver turning on his locomotive's lights by accident, lighting up the entrenched guerrillas and making them easy targets. As a result of the brief combat, six military defenders were killed: Lieutenant Marcelino Rigoberto Aguilar, Sergeants Nicolás Estrada Gómez and Moisés Bustillo Orozco, Corporal Felipe Reyna López, and the soldiers Jorge Velázquez and Virgilio Yáñez Gómez. Among the guerrillas, eight of thirteen were killed: the teacher and GPG leader himself, Arturo Gámiz García, the physician and ''Escuela Normal Rural "

Ricardo Flores Magón Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón (; known as Ricardo Flores Magón; September 16, 1874 – November 21, 1922) was a Mexican anarchist and social reform activist. His brothers Enrique Flores Magón, Enrique and Jesús Flores Magón, Jesús were ...

" de Saucillo Chih'' professor Pablo Gómez Ramírez, the student (and Arturo's brother) Emilio Gámiz García, the peasants Antonio Scobell and Salomón Gaytán, the student Oscar Sandoval Salinas, and the teachers Miguel Quiñones Pedroz and Rafael Martínez Valdivia.

Legacy

While small and brief, People's Guerrilla Group and their actions had a significant impact on the rapid development of

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...

in rural and urban Mexico during the following years. Numerous militant groups took their names from the GPG and the assault on the Madera barracks, including the ''Grupo Guerrillero del Pueblo Arturo Gámiz'', the ''Grupo 23 de Septiembre'', the ''Movimiento 23 de Septiembre'', and the prominent ''

Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre The ''Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre'' (), or LC23S, was a Marxist-Leninist and later council communist urban guerrilla movement that emerged in Mexico in the early 1970s. The result of the merging of various armed revolutionary organizations ...

''.

References

{{reflist 1963 establishments in Mexico 1965 disestablishments in Mexico Communism in Mexico Defunct communist militant groups Defunct organizations based in Mexico Guerrilla movements in Latin America Left-wing militant groups in Mexico National liberation armies Rebel groups in Mexico