The People's Liberation Movement (Spanish: Movimiento Popular de Liberación) also known as the Cinchoneros, was a paramilitary socialist organization active in the 1980s in

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

. The MPL was one of the primary militant organizations in Honduras at the time, along with the Lorenzo Zelaya Popular Revolutionary Forces.

History

The group was born in september of 1979 Inspired by the Sandinista victory in Nicaragua by former members of the

Communist Party of Honduras Communist Party of Honduras () was a communist party in Honduras. PCH was refounded on October 10, 1954, by Ramos Dionisio Bejarano and Rigoberto Padilla Rush. It had its roots in the Honduran Revolutionary Democratic Party. From the beginning, ...

(PCH) which was going through a division between those who were more oriented to support the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and those towards the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The group took its name from 19th century Honduran peasant leader Serapio Romero (nicknamed ''Cinchonero''), who was executed by decapitation in 1868 for leading a rebellion. The MPL was believed to be linked to other leftist movements in

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, and

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

. Although the group acted against multinational corporations in Honduras and in favor of less favored groups in the country, it also became involved in the hijacking of airplanes, kidnappings and hostage-taking.

Activities

The group was suspected of assassinating General

Gustavo Álvarez Martínez Gustavo Adolfo Álvarez Martínez (12 December 1937 – 25 January 1989) was a Honduran military officer. He was head of the armed forces of Honduras from January 1982 until his ouster on 31 March 1984 by fellow officers when he sought to expand ...

leader of the death squad battalion 3-16 in 1989. Despite the efforts of the organization to create a popular uprising in Honduras together with other groups of a revolutionary nature such as the Lorenzo Zelaya Popular Revolutionary Forces, a revolution was never created as it happened in neighboring countries due to the military reformism of the administration of the military meetings of the 60s and 70s. After the

collapse of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

the group began to lose strength to the extent that it began to resolve itself.

References

Sources

Terrorist Group Profiles. DIANE Publishing, 1989
Communism in Honduras Defunct political parties in Honduras Guerrilla movements in Latin America Paramilitary organizations based in Honduras {{honduras-stub

History

Activities

See also

References

Sources