MEXICO CITY – The wars in Iran and Ukraine have put the spotlight back on guerrilla warfare. Conflicts in which smaller groups, forces or countries resist or defeat much stronger adversaries using unconventional tactics, weapons and strategies date back to the Scythian resistance to Persian Emperor Darius I. But this type of fighting is more commonly linked to the Spanish insurgency following Napoleon’s 1808 invasion (guerrilla means “small war” in Spanish).
While guerrilla warfare can be a defensive response to an attack or incursion, as in 19th-century Spain, it has also been employed by revolutionary groups seeking to overthrow a regime or a colonizer, like in Algeria, Cuba and Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s. Soon after the successful Cuban Revolution, Che Guevara — the Argentine adventurer who led the revolt alongside Fidel Castro — wrote “Guerrilla Warfare.” This short how-to manual, which contained simple practical advice and dubious theoretical assertions, served as a north star for Latin American armed groups in the 1960s. Guevara also tried to implement these teachings (unsuccessfully) in the Congo and Bolivia.
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