CHE GUEVARA ON GUERRILLA WARFARE: Revolutionary Strategy for Liberation - HQ Full Book. - SECRETS OF POWER: Masters of Politics, Strategy & War

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ernesto che Guevara, Guerrilla Warfare, nineteen sixty one, Chapter one,
General Principles of Guerrilla Warfare One Essence of Guerrilla Warfare.
The armed victory of the Cuban people over the Batista
dictatorship was not only the triumph of heroism, as reported
by the newspapers of the world. It also forced a

(00:21):
change in the old dogmas concerning the conduct of the
popular masses of Latin America. It showed plainly the capacity
of the people to free themselves by means of guerrilla
warfare from a government that oppresses them. We consider that
the Cuban Revolution contributed three fundamental lessons to the conduct
of revolutionary movements in America. They are one, popular forces

(00:45):
can win a war against the army. Two, it is
not necessary to wait until all conditions for making revolution exist,
the insurrection can create them. Three. In underdeveloped America, the
countryside is the basic for armed fighting. Of these three propositions,
the first two contradict the defeatist attitude of revolutionaries or

(01:07):
pseudo revolutionaries who remain inactive and take refuge in the
pretext that against a professional army nothing can be done,
who sit down to wait until in some mechanical way,
all necessary objective and subjective conditions are given without working
to accelerate them. As these problems were formerly a subject
of discussion in Cuba until facts settled the question, they

(01:28):
are probably still much discussed in America. Naturally, it is
not to be thought that all conditions for revolution are
going to be created through the impulse given to them
by guerrilla activity. It must always be kept in mind
that there is a necessary minimum without which the establishment
and consolidation of the first center is not practicable. People

(01:49):
must see clearly the futility of maintaining the fight for
social goals within the framework of civil debate. When the
forces of oppression come to maintain themselves in power against
established life law, peace is considered already broken. In these conditions,
popular discontent expresses itself in more active forms. An attitude

(02:09):
of resistance finally crystallizes in an outbreak of fighting, provoked
initially by the conduct of the authorities. Where a government
has come into power through some form of popular vote,
fraudulent or not, and maintains at least an appearance of
constitutional legality, the guerrilla outbreak cannot be promoted, since the
possibilities of peaceful struggle have not yet been exhausted. The

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third proposition is a fundamental of strategy. It ought to
be noted by those who maintain dogmatically that the struggle
of the masses is centered in city movements, entirely forgetting
the immense participation of the country people in the life
of all the underdeveloped parts of America. Of course, the
struggles of the city masses of organized workers should not

(02:52):
be underrated, but their real possibilities of engaging in armed
struggle must be carefully analyzed. Where the guarantees which customarily
add dor in our constitutions are suspended or ignored. In
these conditions, the illegal workers movements face enormous dangers. They
must function secretly without arms. The situation in the open

(03:13):
country is not so difficult. There In places beyond the
reach of the repressive forces, the armed guerrillas can support
the inhabitants. We will later make a careful analysis of
these three conclusions that stand out in the Cuban revolutionary experience.
We emphasize them now at the beginning of this work
as our fundamental contribution. Guerrilla warfare the basis of the

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struggle of a people to redeem itself has diverse characteristics
different facets, even though the essential will for liberation remains
the same. It is obvious and writers on the theme
have said it many times that war responds to a
certain series of scientific laws. Whoever ignores them will go
down to defeat. Guerrilla warfare as a phase of war,

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must be ruled by all of the use, but besides,
because of its special aspects, a series of corollary laws
must also be recognized in order to carry it forward.
Though geographical and social conditions in each country determine the
mode and particular forms that guerrilla warfare will take, there
are general laws that hold for all fighting of this type.

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Our task at the moment is to find the basic
principles of this kind of fighting and the rules to
be followed by people seeking liberation, to develop theory from facts,
to generalize and give structure to our experience for the
profit of others. Let us first consider the question who
are the combatants in guerrilla warfare? On one side, we
have a group composed of the oppressor and his agents,

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the professional army, well armed and disciplined, in many cases
receiving foreign help as well as the help of the
bureaucracy in the employ of the oppressor. On the other
side are the people of the nation or region involved.
It is important to emphasize that guerrilla warfare is a
war of the master, a war of the people. The
gorilla band is an armed nucleus, the fighting vanguard of

(05:06):
the people. It draws its great force from the mass
of the people themselves. The gorilla band is not to
be considered inferior to the army against which it fights
simply because it is inferior in firepower. Gorilla warfare is
used by the side which is supported by a majority,
but which possesses a much smaller number of arms for

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use in defense against oppression, The gorilla fighter needs full
help from the people of the area. This is an
indispensable condition. This is clearly seen by considering the case
of bandit gangs that operate in a region. They have
all the characteristics of a gorilla army, homogeneity, respect for
the leader, valor, knowledge of the ground, and often even

(05:50):
good understanding of the tactics to be employed. The only
thing missing is support of the people, and inevitably these
gangs are captured and exterminated by the public force. Analyzing
the mode of operation of the gorilla band. Seeing its
form of struggle and understanding its base in the masses,
we can answer the question why does the gorilla fighter fight.

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We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the gorilla
fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms
responding to the angry protest of the people against their oppressors,
and that he fights in order to change the social
system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominin misery.
He launches himself against the conditions of the reigning institutions
at a particular moment, and dedicates himself with all the

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vigor that circumstances permit to breaking the mold of these institutions.
When we analyze more fully the tactic of guerrilla warfare,
we will see that the guerrilla fighter needs to have
a good knowledge of the surrounding countryside, the paths of
entry and escape, the possibilities of speedy maneuver, good hiding places. Naturally, also,
he must count on the support of the people. All

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this indicates that the guerrilla fighter will carry out his
action in wild places of small population, since in these
places the struggle of the people for reforms is aimed
primarily and almost exclusively at changing the social form of
land ownership. The guerrilla fighter is above all an agrarian revolutionary.
He interprets the desires of the great peasant mass to

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be owners of land, owners of their means of production,
of their animals, of all that which they have long
yearned to call their own, of that which constitutes their life,
and will also serve as their cemetery. It should be
noted that in current interpretations, there are two different types
of guerrilla warfare, one of which a struggle complementing great
regular armies, such as was the case of the Ukrainian

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fighters in the Soviet Union, does not enter into this analysis.
We are interested in the other type, the case of
an armed group engaged in struggle against the constituted power,
whether colonial or not, which establishes itself as the only base,
and which builds itself up in rural areas. In all
such cases, whatever the ideological aims that may inspire the fight,

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the economic aim is determined by the aspiration toward ownership
of land. The China of Mau begins as an outbreak
of worker groups in the south, which is defeated and
almost annihilated it succeeds in establishing itself and begins its
advance only when, after the long march from Yinan, it
takes up its base in rural territories and makes agrarian

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reform its fundamental goal. The struggle of ho Chi Min
is based in the rice growing peasants who are oppressed
by the French colonial yoke. With this force, it is
going forward to the defeat of the colonialists. In both cases,
there is a framework of patriotic war against the Japanese invader,
but the economic basis of a fight for the land

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has not disappeared. In the case of Algeria, the grand
idea of Arab nationalism has its economic counterpart in the
fact that a million French settlers utilize nearly all of
the arable land of Algeria. In some countries, such as
poor Ploto Rico, where the special conditions of the island
have not permitted a gorilla outbreak, the nationalist spirit, deeply

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wounded by the discrimination that is daily practiced, has as
its basis the aspiration of the peasants, even though many
of them are already a proletariat, to recover the land
that the Yankee invader seized from them. This same central idea,
though in different forms, inspired the small farmers, peasants and
slaves of the eastern Estates of Cuba to close ranks

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and defend together the right to possess land during the
thirty year War of Liberation. Taking account of the possibilities
of development of guerrilla warfare, which is transformed with the
increase in the operating potential of the gorilla band into
a war of positions, this type of warfare, despite its
special character, is to be considered as an embryo, a

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prelude of the other. The possibilities of growth of the
gorilla band and of changes in the mode of fight
until conventional warfare is reached, are as great as the
possibilities of defeating the enemy in each of the different battles, combats,
or skirmishes that take place. Therefore, the fundamental principle is
that no battle, combat or skirmish is to be fought

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unless it will be one. There is a malevolent definition
that says the gorilla fighter is the jesuit of warfare.
By this is indicated a quality of secretiveness, of treachery,
of surprise that is obviously an essential element of guerrilla warfare.
It is a special kind of Jesuitism, naturally prompted by circumstances,

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which necessitates acting at certain moments in ways different from
the romantic and sporting conceptions with which we are taught
to believe war is fought. War is always a struggle
in which each contender tries to annihilate the other. Besides
using force, they will have recourse to all possible tricks
and stratagems in order to achieve the goal. Military strategy

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and tactics are a representation by analysis of the objectives
of the groups and of the means of achieving these objectives.
These means contemplate taking advantage of all the weak points
of the enemy. The fighting action of each individual platoon
in a large army in a war of positions will
present the same characteristics as those of the gorilla band.

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It uses secretiveness, treachery, and surprise, and when these are
not present, it is because vigilance on the other side
prevents surprise. But since the gorilla band is a division
unto itself, and since there are large zones of territory
not controlled by the enemy, it is always possible to
carry out gorilla attacks in such a way as to

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a sure surprise, and it is the duty of the
gorilla fighter to do so. Underscore, hit and run underscore.
Some call this scornfully, and this is accurate. Hit and run, wait,
lie in, ambush again, hit and run, and thus repeatedly
without giving any rest to the enemy. There is in
all this it would appear a negative quality, an attitude

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of retreat, of avoiding frontal fights. However, this is consequent
upon the general strategy of guerrilla warfare, which is the
same in its ultimate end as is any warfare, to win,
to annihilate the enemy. Thus it is clear that guerrilla
warfare is a phase that does not afford in its
self opportunities to arrive at complete victory. It is one

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of the initial phases of warfare and will develop continuously
until the guerrilla army, in its steady growth, acquires the
characteristics of a regular army. At that moment it will
be ready to deal final blows to the enemy and
to achieve victory. Triumph will always be the product of
a regular army, even though its origins are in a
guerrilla army. Just as the general of a division in

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a modern war does not have to die in front
of his soldiers. The guerrilla fighter, who is general of
himself need not die in every battle. He is ready
to give his life. But the positive quality of this
guerrilla warfare is precisely that each one of the guerrilla
fighters is ready to die, not to defer an ideal,
but rather to convert it into reality. This is the

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basis the essence of guerrilla fighting. Miraculously, a small band
of men, the armed vanguard of the great popular force
that supports them, goes beyond the immediate tactical objective, goes
on decisively to achieve an ideal, to establish a new society,
to break the old molds of the outdated, and to
achieve finally, the social justice for which they fight. Considered, thus,

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all these disparaged qualities acquire a true nobility, the nobility
of the end at which they aim, and it becomes
clear that we are not speaking of distorted means of
reaching an end. This fighting attitude, this attitude of not
being dismayed at any time, this inflexibility when confronting the
great problems in the final objective, is also the nobility

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of the Gribar fighter. Guerrilla Warfare nineteen sixty one two
Gorilla strategy. In gorilla terminology, strategy is understood as the
annalis of the objectives to be achieved in the light
of the total military situation and the overall ways of
reaching these objectives. To have a correct strategic appreciation from

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the point of view of the gorilla band, it is
necessary to analyze fundamentally what will be the enemy's mode
of action. If the final objective is always the complete
destruction of the opposite force, the enemy is confronted, in
the case of a civil war of this kind, with
the standard task he will have to achieve the total
destruction of each one of the components of the gorilla band.

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The gorilla fighter, on the other hand, must analyze the
resources which the enemy has for trying to achieve that outcome,
the means in men, in mobility, in popular support, in armaments,
in capacity of leadership on which he can count. We
must make our own strategy adequate on the basis of
these studies, keeping in mind always the final objective of

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defeating the enemy army. There are fundamental aspects to be studied.
The armament, for example, and the manner of using this armament.
The value of a tank of an airplane in a
fight of this type must be weighed. The arms of
the enemy, his ammunition, his habits must be considered because
the principal source of provision for the gorilla force is

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precisely in enemy armaments. If there is a possibility of choice,
we should prefer the same type as that used by
the enemy, since the greatest problem of the gorilla band
is the lack of ammunition, which the opponent must provide.
After the objectives have been fixed and analyzed, it is
necessary to study the order of the steps leading to

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the achievement of the final objective. This should be planned
in advance, even though it will be modified and adjusted
as the fighting develops and unforeseen circumstances arise. At the outset,
the essential task of the gorilla fighter is to keep
himself from being destroyed. Little by little, it will be
easier for the members of the gorilla band or bands

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to adapt themselves to their form of life and to
make flight and escape from the force that are on
the offensive an easy task because it is performed daily.
When this condition is reached, the gorilla having taken up
inaccessible positions out of reach of the enemy, or having
assembled forces that deter the enemy from attacking ought to
proceed to the gradual weakening of the enemy. This will

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be carried out at first at those points nearest to
the points of active warfare against the Gorilla band, and
later will be taken deeper into enemy territory, attacking his communications,
later attacking or harassing his bases of operations in his
central bases, tormenting him on all sides. To the full
extent of the capabilities of the gorilla forces. The blows

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should be continuous. The enemy soldier in a zone of
operations ought not to be allowed to sleep. His outposts
ought to be attacked and liquidated systematically at every moment.
The impression ought to be created that he is surrounded
by a complete circle in wooded and broken areas. This
effort should be maintained both day and night, in open

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zones that are easily penetrated by enemy patrols at night only.
In order to do all this, the absolute cooperation of
the people and a perfect knowledge of the ground is necessary.
These two necessities affect every minute of the life of
the guerrilla fighter. Therefore, along with centers for study of
present and future zones of operations, intensive popular work must

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be undertaken to explain the motives of the revolution its ends,
and to spread the incontrovertible truth that victory of the
enemy against the people is finally impossible. Whoever does not
feel this undoubted truth cannot be a goerrilla fighter. This
popular work should at first be aimed at securing secrecy.
That is, each peasant, each member of the society in

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which action is taking place, will be asked not to
mention what he sees and hears. Later, help will be
sought from inhabitants whose loyalty to the revolution offers greater guarantees.
Still later, use will be made of these persons in
missions of contact, for transporting goods or arms, as guides
in the zones familiar to them. Still later, it is

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possible to arrive at organized mass action in the centers
of work, of which the final result will be the
general strike. The strike is a most important factor in
civil war, but in order to reach it, a series
of complementary conditions are necessary, which do not always exist,
and which very rarely come to exist spontaneously. It is

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necessary to create these essential conditions, basically by explaining the
purposes of the revolution and by demonstrating the forces of
the people and their possibilities. It is also possible to
have recourse to certain very homogeneous groups which must have
shown their efficacy previously in less dangerous tasks, in order
to make use of another of the terrible arms of

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the guerrilla band sabotage. It is possible to paralyze entire armies,
to suspend the industrial life of a zone, leaving the
inhabitants of a city without factories, without light, without water,
without communications of any kind, without being able to risk
travel by highway except at certain hours. If all this

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is achieved, the morale of the enemy falls, the morale
of his combatant unit's weakens, and the fruit ripens for
plucking at a precise moment. All this presupposes an increase
in the territory included within the gorilla action, but an
excessive increase of this territory is to be avoided. It
is essential always to preserve a strong base of operations

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and to continue strengthening it during the course of the war.
Within this territory, measures of indoctrination of the inhabitants of
the zone should be utilized. Measures of quarantine should be
taken against the irreconcilable enemies of the revolution. All the
purely defensive measures such as trenches, mines and communications should
be perfected. When the gorilla band has reached a respectable

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power in arms and in number of combatants, it ought
to proceed to the formation of new columns. This is
an act similar to that of the beehive, when at
a given moment it releases a new queen who goes
to another region with a part of the swarm. The
mother hive with the most notable guerrilla chief will stay
in the less dangerous places, while the new columns will

(20:12):
penetrate other enemy territories. Following the cycle already described, a
moment will arrive in which the territory occupied by the
columns is too small for them, and in the advance
toward regions solidly defended by the enemy, it will be
necessary to confront powerful forces. At that instant the columns join,
they offer a compact fighting front, and a war of

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positions is reached, a war carried on by regular armies. However,
the former gorilla army cannot cut itself off from its base,
and it should create new gorilla bands behind the enemy,
acting in the same way as the original bands operated
Earlier proceeding thus to penetrate enemy territory until it is dominated.
It is thus that guerrillas reach the stage of attack,

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of the encirclement of fortified bases, of the defeat of reinforcements,
of mass action ever more ardent in the whole national territory,
arriving finally at the objective of the war. Guerrilla Warfare,
nineteen sixty one. Free gorilla tactics. In military language, tactics
are the practical methods of achieving the grand strategic objectives.

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In one sense, they complement strategy, and in another they
are more specific rules within it. As means, tactics are
much more variable, much more flexible than the final objectives,
and they should be adjusted continually during the struggle. There
are tactical objectives that remain constant throughout a war and
others that vary. The first thing to be considered is

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the adjusting of gorilla action to the action of the enemy.
The fundamental characteristic of a gorilla band is mobility. This
permits it, in a few minutes to move far from
a specific theater, and in a few hours far even
from the region if that becomes necessary, permits it constantly
to change front and avoid any type of encirclement as

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the circumstances of the war require. The gorilla band can
dedicate itself exclusively to fleeing from an encirclement, which is
the enemy's only way of forcing the band into a
decisive fight that could be unfavorable. It can also change
the battle into a counter encirclement. Small bands of men
are presumably surrounded by the enemy, when suddenly the enemy
is surrounded by stronger contingents or men located in a

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safe place serve as a lure, leading to the encirclement
and annihilation of the entire troops and supply of an
attacking force. Characteristic of this war of mobility is the
so called minuet, named from the analogy with the dance.
The gorilla bands encircle an enemy position an advancing column,
for example, they encircle it completely from the four points

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of the compass, with five or six men in each place,
far enough away to avoid being encircled themselves. The fight
is started at any one of the points, and the
art army moves toward it. The gorilla band then retreats,
always maintaining visual contact, and initiates its attack from another point.
The army will repeat its action and the gorilla banned

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the same. Thus successively, it is possible to keep an
enemy column immobilized, forcing it to expend large quantities of
ammunition and weakening the morale of its troops without incurring
great dangers. This same tactic can be applied at night time,
closing in more and showing greater aggressiveness, because in these
conditions counter encirclement is much more difficult. Movement by night

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is another important characteristic of the gorilla band, enabling it
to advance into position for an attack and where the
danger of betrayal exists, to mobilize in new territory. The
numerical inferiority of the gorilla makes it necessary that attacks
always be carried out by surprise. This great advantage is
what permits the gorilla fighter to inflict losses on the

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enemy without suffering losses. In a fight between a hundred
men on one side and ten on the other, losses
are not equal. Where there is one casualty on each side,
the enemy loss is always reparable. It amounts to only
one percent of his effectiveness. The loss of the gorilla
band requires more time to be repaired because it involves

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a soldier of high specialization and is ten percent of
the operating forces. A dead soldier of the guerrillas ought
never to be left with his arms and his ammunition.
The duty of every guerrilla soldier whenever a companion falls
is to recover immediately these extremely precious elements of the fight.
In fact, the care which must be taken of ammunition

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and the method of using it are further characteristics of
guerrilla warfare. In any combat between a regular force and
a gorilla band, it is always possible to know one
from the other by their different manner of fire. A
great amount of firing on the part of the regular army,
sporadic and accurate shots on the part of the gorillas.
Once one of our heroes, now dead, had to employ

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his machine guns for nearly five minutes, burst after burst,
in order to slow up the advance of enemy soldiers.
This fact caused considerable confusion in our forces, because they
assumed from the rhythm of fire that key position must
have been taken by the enemy. Since this was one
of the rare occasions where departure from the rule of
saving fire had been called for because of the importance

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of the point being defended, another fundamental characteristic of the
guerrilla soldier is his flexibility, his ability to adapt himself
to all circumstances and to convert to his service all
of the accidents of the action. Against the rigidity of
classical methods of fighting, the guerrilla fighter invents his own
tactics at every minute of the fight and constantly surprises

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the enemy. In the first place, there are only elastic positions,
specific places that the enemy cannot pass, and places of
diverting him. Frequently, the enemy, after easily overcoming difficulties in
aca gradual advance, is surprised to find himself suddenly and
solidly detained, without possibilities of moving forward. This is due

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to the fact that the gorilla defended positions, when they
have been selected on the basis of a careful study
of the ground, are invulnerable. It is not the number
of attacking soldiers that counts, but the number of defending soldiers.
Once that number has been placed there, it can nearly
always hold off a battalion with success. It is a

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major task of the chiefs to choose well the moment
and the place for defending a position without retreat. The
form of attack of a gorilla army is also different.
Starting with surprise and fury irresistible, it suddenly converts itself
into total passivity. The surviving enemy, resting believes that the
attacker has departed. He begins to relax, to return to

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the routine life of the camp or of the fortress,
when suddenly a new attack bursts forth in another place
with the same characteristics. While the main body of the
gorilla band lies in weight to intercept reinforcements, at other
times an outposts defending the camp will be suddenly attacked
by the gorilla dominated and captured. The fundamental thing is

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surprise and rapidity of attack. Acts of sabotage are very important.
It is necessary to distinguish clearly between sabotage, a revolutionary
and highly effective method of warfare, and terrorism, a measure
that is generally ineffective and indiscriminate in its results, since
it often makes victims of innocent people and destroys a

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large number of lives that would be valuable to the revolution.
Terrorism should be considered a valuable tactic when it is
used to put to death some noted leader of the
oppressing forces, well known for his cruelty, his efficiency in repression,
or other quality that makes his elimination useful. But the
killing of persons of small importance is never advisable, since

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it brings on an increase of reprisals, including deaths. There
is one point very much in controversy in opinions about terrorism.
Many consider that its use by provoking police oppression, hinders
all more or less legal or semi clandestine contact with
the masses, and makes impossible unification for actions that will
be necessary at a critical moment. This is correct, but

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it also happens that in a civil war the repression
by the governmental power in certain towns is already so
great that, in fact every type of legal action is
suppressed already, and any action of the masses that is
not supported by arms is impossible. It is therefore necessary
to be circumspect in adopting methods of this type, and
to consider the consequences that they may bring for the revolution.

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At any rate, well managed sabotage is always a very
effective arm, though it should not be employed to put
means of production out of action, leaving a sector of
the population paralyzed and thus without work. Unless this paralysis
affects the normal life of the society, it is ridiculous
to carry out sabotage against a soft drink factory, but

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it is absolutely correct and advisable to carry out sabotage
against a power plant. In the first case, a certain
number of workers are put out of a job, but
nothing is done to modify the rhythm of industrial life.
In the second case, there will again be displaced workers,
but this is entirely justified by the paralysis of the
life of the region. We will return to the technique

(29:24):
of sabotage later. One of the favorite arms of the
enemy army, supposed to be decisive in modern times, is aviation. Nevertheless,
this has no use whatsoever during the period that guerrilla
warfare is in its first stages, with small concentrations of
men in rugged places. The utility of aviation lies in

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the systematic destruction of visible and organized defenses, and for
this there must be large concentrations of men who construct
these defenses, something that does not exist in this type
of warfare. Planes are also potent against marches by column
through level places or places without cover. However, this latter
danger is easily avoided by carrying out the marches at night.

(30:08):
One of the weakest points of the enemy is transportation
by road and railroad. It is virtually impossible to maintain
a vigil yard by yard over a transport line, a road,
or a railroad. At any point, a considerable amount of
explosive charge can be planted that will make the road impassable,
or by exploding it at the moment that a vehicle passes.

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A considerable loss in lives and material to the enemy
is caused at the same time that the road is cut.
The sources of explosives are varied. They can be brought
from other zones, or use can be made of bombs
seized from the dictatorship, though these do not always work,
or they can be manufactured in secret laboratories within the

(30:50):
gorilla zone. The technique of setting them off is quite varied.
Their manufacture also depends upon the conditions of the gorilla band.
In our laboratory, we made powder which we used as
a cap, and we invented various devices for exploding the
mines at the desired moment. The ones that gave the
best results were electric. The first mind that we exploded

(31:12):
was a bomb dropped from an aircraft of the dictatorship.
We adapted it by inserting various caps and adding a
gun with the trigger pulled by a cord. At the
moment that an enemy truck passed, the weapon was fired
to set off the explosion. These techniques can be developed
to a high degree. We have information that in Algeria,

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for example, tele explosive mines, that is, mines exploded by
radio at great distances from the point where they are located,
are being used today against the French colonial power. The
technique of lying in ambush along roads in order to
explode mines and annihilate survivors is one of the most
remunerative in point of ammunition and arms. The surprised enemy

(31:56):
does not use his ammunition and has no time to flee.
With a small expenditure of ammunition, large results are achieved
as blows are dealt the enemy. He also changes his
tactics and in place of isolated trucks, veritable motorized columns move. However,
by choosing the ground well, the same result can be

(32:16):
produced by breaking the column and concentrating forces on one vehicle.
In these cases, the essential elements of guerrilla tactics must
always be kept in mind. These are perfect knowledge of
the ground, surveillance and foresight as to the lines of escape,
vigilance over all the secondary roads that can bring support
to the point of attack, Intimacy with people in the

(32:38):
zone so as to have sure help from them in
respect to supplies, transport, and temporary or permanent hiding places
if it becomes necessary to leave wounded companions behind. Numerical
superiority at a chosen point of action, total mobility, and
the possibility of counting on reserves. If all these tactical
requisites are fulfilled, surprise attack along the lines of communication

(33:01):
of the enemy yields notable dividends. A fundamental part of
gorilla tactics is the treatment accorded the people of the zone.
Even the treatment accorded the enemy is important. The norm
to be followed should be an absolute inflexibility at the
time of attack, an absolute inflexibility toward all the despicable
elements that resort to informing an assassination and clemency as

(33:24):
absolute as possible toward the enemy soldiers who go into
the fight performing or believing that they perform a military duty.
It is a good policy so long as there are
no considerable basis of operations and in vulnerable places to
take no prisoners survivors ought to be set free. The
wounded should be cared for with all possible resources at

(33:45):
the time of the action. Conduct toward the civil population
ought to be regulated by a large respect for all
the rules and traditions of the people of the zone,
in order to demonstrate effectively with deeds the moral superiority
of the gorilla fire over the oppressing soldier. Except in
special situations, there ought to be no execution of justice

(34:06):
without giving the criminal an opportunity to clear ourself. Guerrilla
warfare nineteen sixty one for warfare on favorable ground. As
we have already said, gorilla fighting will not always take
place in country most favorable to the employment of its tactics,
but when it does, that is when the gorilla band
is located in zones difficult to reach, either because of

(34:29):
dense forests, steep mountains, impassable deserts, or marshes. The general tactics,
based on the fundamental postulates of guerrilla warfare, must always
be the same. An important point to consider is the
moment for making contact with the enemy. If the zone
is so thick so difficult that an organized army can

(34:50):
never reach it, the gorilla band should advance to the
regions where the army can arrive and where there will
be a possibility of combat. As soon as the survival
of the gorilla band has been assured, it should fight.
It must constantly go out from its refuge to fight.
Its mobility does not have to be as great as
in those cases where the ground is unfavorable. It must

(35:11):
adjust itself to the capabilities of the enemy. But it
is not necessary to be able to move as quickly
as in places where the enemy can concentrate a large
number of men in a few minutes. Neither is the
nocturnal character of this warfare so important. It will be
possible in many cases to carry out daytime operations, especially
mobilizations by day, though subjected to enemy observation by land

(35:33):
and air. It is also possible to persist in a
military action for a much longer time. Above all, in
the mountains, it is possible to undertake battles of long
duration with very few men, and it is very probable
that the arrival of enemy reinforcements at the scene of
the fight can be prevented. A close watch over the
points of access is, however, an axiom never to be

(35:55):
forgotten by the guerrilla fighter his aggressiveness on account of
the difficulties that the enemy faces in bringing up reinforcements,
can he greater. He can approach the enemy more closely,
fight much more directly, more frontally, and for a longer time.
Though these rules may be qualified by various circumstances, such
for example, as the amount of ammunition. Fighting on favorable

(36:19):
ground and particularly in the mountains presents many advantages, but
also the inconvenience that it is difficult to capture in
a single operation a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition,
owing to the precautions that the enemy takes in these regions.
The gorilla soldier must never forget the fact that it
is the enemy that must serve as his source of
supply of ammunition and arms, but much more rapidly than

(36:43):
in unfavorable ground. The gorilla band will here be able
to dig in, that is, to form a base capable
of engaging in a war of positions, where small industries
may be installed as they are needed, as well as hospitals,
centers for education and training, storage facilities or organs of propaganda,
et cetera. Adequately protected from aviation or from long range artillery.

(37:06):
The gorilla band in these conditions can number many more personnel.
There will be noncombatants and perhaps even a system of
training in the use of the arms that eventually are
to fall into the power of the gorilla army. The
number of men that a gorilla band can have is
a matter of extremely flexible calculation, adapted to the territory,
to the means available of acquiring supplies, to the mass

(37:28):
flights of oppressed people from other zones, to the arms available,
to the necessities of organization. But in any case it
is much more practicable to establish a base and expand
with the support of new combatant elements. The radius of
action of a gorilla band of this type can be
as wide as conditions or the operations of other bands

(37:49):
in adjacent territory permit. The range will be limited by
the time that it takes to arrive at a zone
of security from the zone of operation, assuming that marches
must be made at night. If it will not be
possible to operate more than five or six hours away
from a point of maximum security, small gorilla bands that
work constantly at weakening a territory can go farther away

(38:11):
from the zone of security. The arms preferable for this
type of warfare are long range weapons requiring small expenditure
of bullets, supported by a group of automatic or semi
automatic arms. Of the rifles and machine guns that exist
in the markets of the United States, one of the
best is the M one rifle called the Garrand. However,

(38:32):
only people with some experience should use this, since it
has the disadvantage of expending too much ammunition. Medium heavy
arms such as tripod machine guns can be used on
favorable ground, affording a greater margin of security for the
weapon and its personnel, but they ought always to be
a means of repelling an enemy, and not for attack.

(38:52):
An ideal composition for a gorilla band of twenty five
men would be ten to fifteen single shot rifles and
about ten automatic arms, between garrens and hand machine guns,
including light and easily portable automatic arms such as the
Browning or the more modern Belgian fal and M fourteen
automatic rifles. Among the hand machine guns, the best are

(39:14):
those of nine millimeters, which permit a larger transport of ammunition.
The simpler its construction the better, because this increases the
case of switching parts. All this must be adjusted to
the armament that the enemy uses. Since the ammunition that
he employs is what we are going to use when
his arms fall into our hands, it is practically impossible

(39:36):
for heavy arms to be used. Aircraft cannot see anything
and cease to operate. Tanks and cannons cannot do much
owing to the difficulties of advancing in these zones. A
very important consideration is supply. In general, the zones of
difficult access for this very reason, present special problems. Since

(39:56):
there are few peasants and therefore animal and food supplies
are scarce. It is necessary to maintain stable lines of
communication in order to be able always to count on
a minimum of food stockpiled in the event of any
disagreeable development. In this kind of zone of operations, the
possibilities of sabotage on a large scale are generally not present.

(40:17):
With the inaccessibility goes a lack of constructions telephone lines, aqueducts,
et cetera that could be damaged by direct action. For
supply purposes, it is important to have animals, among which
the mule is the best. In rough country, adequate pasturage
permitting good nutrition is essential. The mule can pass through

(40:38):
extremely hilly country impossible for other animals. In the most
difficult situations, it is necessary to resort to transport by men.
Each individual can carry twenty five kilograms for many hours
daily and for many days. The lines of communication with
the exterior should include a series of intermediate points manned

(40:58):
by people of complete life liability, where products can be
stored and where contacts can go to hide themselves. At
critical times. Internal lines of communication can also be created.
Their extension will be determined by the stage of development
reached by the gorilla band. In some zones of operations
in the recent Cuban War, telephone lines of many kilometers

(41:21):
of length were established, roads were built, and a messenger
service maintained sufficient to cover all zones in a minimum
of time. There are also other possible means of communication,
not used in the Cuban War, but perfectly applicable, such
as smoke signals, signals with sunshine reflected by mirrors, and
carrier pigeons. The vital necessities of the gorillas are to

(41:43):
maintain their arms in good condition, to capture ammunition, and,
above everything else, to have adequate shoes. The first manufacturing
efforts should therefore be directed toward these objectives. Shoe factories
can initially be cobbler installations that were place half saws
on old shoes, expanding afterwards into a series of organized

(42:04):
factories with a good average daily production of shoes. The
manufacture of powder is fairly simple, and much can be
accomplished by having a small laboratory and bringing in the
necessary materials from outside. Mind areas constitute a grave danger
for the enemy. Large areas can be mined for simultaneous
explosion destroying up to Hunt of Baran Guerrilla warfare nineteen

(42:27):
sixty one five warfare on unfavorable ground. In order to
carry on warfare in country that is not very hilly,
lacks forests, and has many roads, all the fundamental requisites
of guerrilla warfare must be observed. Only the forms will
be altered. The quantity, not the quality of guerrilla warfare

(42:48):
will change. For example, following the same order as before,
the mobility of this type of gorilla should be extraordinary.
Strikes should be made preferably at night. They should be
extremely rapid, But the gorilla should move to places different
from the starting point, the farthest possible from the scene
of action, assuming that there is no place secure from
the repressive forces that the gorilla can use as its garrison.

(43:12):
A man can walk between thirty and fifty kilometers during
the night hours. It is possible also to march during
the first hours of daylight, unless the zones of operation
are closely watched, or there is danger that people in
the vicinity seeing the passing troops will notify the pursuing
army of the location of the gorilla band and its route.
It is always preferable in these cases to operate at night,

(43:35):
with the greatest possible silence. Both before and after the action.
The first hours of night are best here, too, There
are exceptions to the general rule, since at times the
dawn hours will be preferable. It is never wise to
habituate the enemy to a certain form of warfare. It
is necessary to vary constantly the places, the hours, and

(43:56):
the forms of operation. We have already said that the
action cannot endure for long, but must be rapid. It
must be of a high degree of effectiveness, last a
few minutes, and be followed by an immediate withdrawal. The
arms employed here will not be the same as in
the case of actions on favorable ground. A large quantity
of automatic weapons is to be preferred in night attax

(44:19):
Marksmanship is not the determining factor, but rather concentration of fire.
The more automatic arms firing at short distance, the more
possibilities there are of annihilating the enemy. Also, the use
of mines in roads and the destruction of bridges are
tactics of great importance. Attacks by the guerrilla will be
less aggressive so far as the persistence and continuation are concerned,

(44:43):
but they can be very violent, and they can utilize
different arms such as mines and the shotgun against open
vehicles heavily loaded with men, which is the usual method
of transporting troops, and even against closed vehicles that do
not have special defenses against buses for exams sample. The
shotgun is a tremendous weapon. A shotgun loaded with large

(45:04):
shot is the most effective. This is not a secret
of guerrilla fighters. It is used also in big wars.
The Americans used shotgun platoons armed with high quality weapons
and bayonets for assaulting machine gun nests. There is an
important problem to explain that of ammunition. This will almost
always be taken from the enemy. It is therefore necessary

(45:27):
to strike blows where there will be the absolute assurance
of restoring the ammunition expended unless there are large reserves
in secure places. In other words, an annihilating attack against
a group of men is not to be undertaken at
the risk of expending all ammunition without being able to
replace it. Always, in gorilla tactics it is necessary to

(45:48):
keep in mind the grave problem of procuring the war
material necessary for continuing the fight. For this reason, gorilla
arms ought to be the same as those used by
the enemy, except for weapons such as revolt and shotguns,
for which the ammunition can be obtained in the zone
itself or in the cities. The number of men that
a gorilla band of this type should include does not

(46:09):
exceed ten to fifteen. In forming a single combat unit,
it is of great importance always to consider the limitations
on numbers ten, twelve, fifteen men can hide anywhere, and
at the same time can help each other in putting
up a powerful resistance to the enemy. Four or five
would perhaps be too small a number, but when the
number exceeds ten, the possibility that the enemy will discover

(46:32):
them in their camp or on the march is much greater.
Remember that the velocity of the gorilla band on the
march is equal to the velocity of its slowest man.
It is more difficult to find uniformity of marching speed
with twenty thirty or forty men than with ten, and
the gorilla fighter on the plane must be fundamentally a runner.

(46:54):
Here the practice of hitting and running acquires its maximum use.
The gorilla bands on the plains side for the enormous
inconvenience of being subject to a rapid encirclement and of
not having sure places where they can set up a
firm resistance. Therefore, they must live in conditions of absolute
secrecy for a long time, since it would be dangerous
to trust any neighbor whose fidelity is not perfectly established.

(47:17):
The reprisals of the enemy are so violent, usually so brutal,
inflicted not only on the head of the family, but
frequently on the women and children as well, that pressure
on individuals lacking firmness may result at any moment in
their giving way and revealing information as to where the
gorilla band is located and how it is operating. This
would immediately produce an encirclement, with consequences always disagreeable, although

(47:41):
not necessarily fatal. When conditions the quantity of arms and
the state of insurrection of the people call for an
increase in the number of men. The gorilla band should
be divided. If it is necessary. All can rejoin at
a given moment to deal a blow, but in such
a way that immediately afterwards they can disperse towards separate
zones a gain divided into small groups of ten, twelve

(48:05):
or fifteen men, it is entirely feasible to organize whole
armies under a single command and to assure respect and
obedience to this command without the necessity of being in
a single group. Therefore, the election of the gorilla chiefs
and a certainty that they coordinate ideologically and personally with
the overall chief of the zone are very important. The

(48:27):
bazuka is a heavy weapon that can be used by
the gorilla band because of its easy portability and operation. Today,
the rifle fired anti tank grenade can replace it. Naturally,
it will be a weapon taken from the enemy. The
bazuka is ideal for firing on armored vehicles and even
on unarmored vehicles that are loaded with troops, and for

(48:49):
taking small military bases of few men in a short time.
But it is important to point out that not more
than three shells per man can be carried, and this
only with considerable exertion. As for the utilization of heavy
arms taken from the enemy, nothing is to be scorned.
But there are weapons such as the tripod machine gun,
the heavy fifty millimeter machine gun, free, et cetera, that,

(49:12):
when captured, can be utilized with a willingness to lose
them again. In other words, in the unfavorable conditions that
we are now analyzing a battle to defend, the heavy
machine gun or other weapon of this type cannot be allowed.
They are simply to be used until the tactical moment
when they must be abandoned. In our Cuban War of liberation,

(49:32):
to abandon a weapon constituted a grave offense, and there
was never any case where the necessity arose. Nevertheless, we
mention this case in order to explain clearly the only
situation in which abandonment would not constitute an occasion for
reproaches on unfavorable ground. The guerrilla weapon is the personal
weapon of rapid fire. Easy access to the zone usually

(49:56):
means that it will be habitable and that there will
be a peasant population In these places. This facilitates supply
enormously having trustworthy people and making contact with establishments that
provide supplies to the population. It is possible to maintain
a guerrilla band perfectly well without having to devote time
or money to long and dangerous lines of communication. Also,

(50:18):
it is well to reiterate that the smaller the number
of men, the easier it will be to procure food
for them. Essential supplies such as bedding, waterproof material, mosquito netting, shoes, medicines,
and food will be found directly in the zone since
they are things of daily use by its inhabitants. Communications
will be much easier in the sense of being able

(50:39):
to count on a larger number of men more roads,
but they will be more difficult as a problem of
security for messages between distant points, since it will be
necessary to rely on a series of contacts that have
to be trusted. There will be the danger of an
eventual capture of one of the messengers who are constantly
crossing enemy zones. If the message are of small importance,

(51:01):
they should be oral. If of great importance, code writing
should be used. Experience shows that transmission by word of
mouth greatly distorts any communication. For these same reasons, manufacture
will have much less importance at the same time that
it would be much more difficult to carry it out.
It will not be possible to have factories making shoes

(51:23):
or arms. Practically speaking, manufacture will have to be limited
to small shops carefully hidden, where shotgun shells can be
recharged in mines, simple grenades, and other minimum necessities of
the moment manufactured. On the other hand, it is possible
to make use of all the friendly shops of the
zone for such work as is necessary. This brings us

(51:45):
to two consequences that flow logically from what has been said.
One of them is that the favorable conditions for establishing
a permanent camp in guerrilla warfare are inverse to the
degree of productive development of a place. All favorable cant conditions,
all facilities of life, normally induce men to settle, but
for the gorilla band, the opposite is the case. The

(52:07):
more facilities there are for social life, the more nomadic,
the more uncertain the life of the gorilla fighter. These
really are the results of one and the same principle.
The title of this section is war on unfavorable ground,
because everything that is favorable to human life, communications bourbon
and semi urban concentrations of large numbers of people land

(52:30):
easily worked by machine. All these placed the gorilla fighter
in a disadvantageous situation. The second conclusion is that if
goerrilla fighting must include me extremely important faction of work
on the masses. This work is even more important in
the unfavorable zones, where a single enemy attack can produce
a catastrophe. Indoctrination should be continuous, and so should be

(52:52):
the struggle for unity of the workers, of the peasants
and of other social classes that live in the zone,
in order to achieve or the gorilla fighters a maximum
homogeneity of attitude. This task with the masses. This constant
work at the huge problem of relations of the gorilla
band with the inhabitants of the zone must also govern
the attitude to be taken toward the case of an

(53:14):
individual recalcitrant enemy soldier, he should be eliminated without hesitation
when he is dangerous. In this respect, the gorilla band
must be drastic. Enemies cannot be permitted to exist within
the zone of operations in places that offer no guerrilla
warfare nineteen sixty one six suburban warfare. If during the

(53:37):
war the gorilla bands close in on cities and penetrate
the surrounding country in such a way as to be
able to establish themselves in conditions of some security. It
will be necessary to give these suburban bands a special education,
or rather a special organization. It is fundamental to recognize
that a suburban guerrilla band can never spring up of

(53:57):
its own accord. It will be born only after certain
conditions necessary for its survival have been created. Therefore, the
suburban gorilla will always be under the direct orders of
chiefs located in another zone. The function of this gorilla
band will not be to carry out independent actions, but
to coordinate its activities with overall strategic plans in such

(54:19):
a way as to support the action of larger groups
situated in another area, contributing specifically to the success of
a fixed tactical objective. Without the operational freedom of gorilla
bands of the other types, for example, a suburban band
will not be able to choose among the operations of
destroying telephone lines, moving to make attacks in another locality,

(54:40):
and surprising a patrol of soldiers on a distant road.
It will do exactly what it is told. If its
function is to cut down telephone poles or electric wires
to destroy sewers, railroads or water mainz. It will limit
itself to carrying out these tasks efficiently. It ought not
to number more than four or five men. The limitation

(55:02):
on numbers is important because the suburban gorilla must be
considered as situated in exceptionally unfavorable ground, where the vigilance
of the enemy will be much greater, and the possibilities
of reprisals as well as of betrayal are increased enormously.
Another aggravating circumstance is that the suburban gorilla band cannot
depart far from the places where it is going to

(55:23):
operate to speed of action and withdrawal. There must be
added a limitation on the distance of withdrawal from the
scene of action and the need to remain totally hidden
during the daytime. This is a nocturnal gorilla band in
the extreme, without possibilities of changing its manner of operating
until the insurrection is so far advanced that it can
take part as an active combatant in the siege of

(55:45):
the city. The essential qualities of the gorilla fighter in
this situation are disciplined, perhaps in the highest degree of
all and discretion. He cannot count on more than two
or three friendly houses that will provide food. It is
almost certain that an encirclement in these conditions will be
equivalent to death. Weapons furthermore, will not be of the

(56:07):
same kind as those of the other groups. They will
be for personal defense, of the type that do not
hinder a rapid flight or betray a secure hiding place.
As their armament, the band ought to have not more
than one carbine or one sawed off shotgun, or perhaps
two with pistols for the other members. They will concentrate

(56:27):
their action on prescribed sabotage and never carry out armed attacks,
except by surprising one or two members or agents of
the enemy troops. For sabotage, they need a full set
of instruments. The guerrilla fighter must have good saws, large
quantities of dynamite, picks and shovels, apparatus for lifting rails,

(56:47):
and in general adequate mechanical equipment for the work to
be carried out. This should be hidden in places that
are secure but easily accessible to the hands that will
need to use it. If there is more than one
gorilla band, they will all be under a single chief
who will give orders as to the necessary tasks through
contacts of proven trustworthiness who live openly as ordinary citizens.

(57:11):
In certain cases, the guerrilla fighter will be able to
maintain his peace time work, but this is very difficult
practically speaking. The suburban guerrilla band is a group of
men who are already outside the law in a condition
of war, situated as unfavorably. As we have described, the
importance of a suburban struggle has usually been underestimated. It

(57:32):
is really very great. A good operation of this type,
extended over a wide area paralyzes almost completely the commercial
and industrial life of the sector, and places the entire
population in a situation of unrest, of anguish, almost of
impatience for the development of violent events that will relieve
the period of suspense. If from the first moment of

(57:53):
the war thought is taken for the future possibility of
this type of fight and an organization of specialists started,
a much more rapid action will be assured, and with
it a saving of lives and of the priceless time
of honition. Guerrilla Warfare nineteen sixty one, Chapter two. The
gorilla Band one the goerrilla fighter Social Reformer. We have

(58:15):
already described the gorilla fighter as one who shares the
longing of the people for liberation, and who, once peaceful
means are exhausted, initiates the fight and converts himself into
an armed vanguard of the fighting people. From the very
beginning of the struggle, he has the intention of destroying
an unjust order, and therefore an intention more or less hidden,
to replace the old with something new. We have also

(58:39):
already said that in the conditions that prevail, at least
in America and in almost all countries with deficient economic development,
it is the countryside that offers ideal conditions for the fight. Therefore,
the foundation of the social structure that the guerrilla fighter
will build begins with changes in the ownership of agrarian property.
The banner of the fight throughout this period will be

(59:00):
agrarian reform. At first, this goal may or may not
be completely delineated in its extent and limits. It may
simply refer to the age old hunger of the peasant
for the land on which he works or wishes to work.
The conditions in which the agrarian reform will be realized
depend upon the conditions which existed before the struggle began,

(59:21):
and on the social depth of the struggle. But the
guerrilla fighter, as a person conscious of a role in
the vanguard of the people, must have a moral conduct
that shows him to be a true priest of the
reform to which he aspires. To the stoicism imposed by
the difficult conditions of warfare should be added an austerity
born of rigid self control that will prevent a single excess,

(59:42):
a single slip. Whatever the circumstances, the gorilla soldier should
be an ascetic. As for social relations, these will vary
with the development of the war. At the beginning, it
will not be possible to attempt any changes in the
social order. Merchandised that cannot be paid for in cash
will be paid for with bonds, and these should be

(01:00:04):
redeemed at the first opportunity. The peasant must always be
helped technically, economically, morally and culturally. The guerrilla fighter will
be a sort of guiding angel who has fallen into
the zone, helping the poor always and bothering the rich
as little as possible in the first phases of the war,
But this war will continue on its course, contradictions will

(01:00:26):
continuously become sharper. The moment will arrive when many of
those who regarded the revolution with a certain sympathy at
the outset will place themselves in a position diametrically opposed,
and they will take the first step into battle against
the popular forces. At that moment, the guerrilla fighter should
act to make himself into the standard bearer of the
cause of the people, punishing every betrayal with justice. Private

(01:00:50):
property should acquire in the war zones its social function.
For example, excess land and livestock, not essential for the
maintenance of a wealthy family, should into the hands of
the people and be distributed equitably and justly. The right
of the owners to receive payment for possessions used for
the social good ought always to be respected. But this

(01:01:10):
payment will be made in bonds, bonds of hope, as
they were called by our teacher, General Baale three, referring
to the common interest that is thereby established between debtor
and creditor. The land and property of notorious and active
enemies of the revolution should pass immediately into the hands
of the revolutionary forces. Furthermore, taking advantage of the heat

(01:01:31):
of the war, those moments in which human fraternity reaches
its highest intensity, all kinds of cooperative work, as much
as the mentality of the inhabitants will permit ought to
be stimulated. The guerrilla fighter, as a social reformer, should
not only provide an example in his own life, but
he ought also constantly to give orientation in ideological problems,

(01:01:51):
explaining what he knows and what he wishes to do
at the right time. He will also make use of
what he learns as the months or years of the
war strengthen him as revolutionary convictions, making him more radical,
as the potency of arms is demonstrated, as the outlook
of the inhabitants becomes a part of his spirit and
of his own life, and as he understands the justice

(01:02:11):
and the vital necessity of a series of changes of
which the theoretical importance appeared to him be for but
devoid of practical urgency. This development occurs very often because
the initiators of guerrilla warfare, or rather the directors of
guerrilla warfare, are not men who have bent their backs
day after day over the furrow. They are men who

(01:02:33):
understand the necessity for changes in the social treatment accorded peasants,
without having suffered, in the usual case, this bitter treatment
in their own persons. It happens, then I am drawing
on the Cuban experience and enlarging it, that a genuine
interaction is produced between these leaders, who, with their acts
teach the people the fundamental importance of the armed fight,

(01:02:54):
and the people themselves, who rise in rebellion and teach
the leaders these practical necessities of which we speak. Thus,
as a product of this interaction between the guerrilla fighter
and his people, a progressive radicalization appears, which further accentuates
the revolutionary characteristics of the movement and gives it. In
Nashvarsco Guerrilla Warfare nineteen sixty one two, the guerrilla fighter

(01:03:17):
as combatant. The life and activities of the guerrilla fighter
sketched thus in their general lines, call for a series
of physical, mental, and moral qualities needed for adapting oneself
to prevailing conditions and for fulfilling completely any mission assigned.
To the question as to what the gorilla soldier should
be like, the first answer is that he should preferably

(01:03:39):
be an inhabitant of the zone. If this is the case,
he will have friends who will help him. If he
belongs to the zone itself, he will know it, and
this knowledge of the ground is one of the most
important factors in guerrilla warfare, and since he will be
habituated to local peculiarities, he will be able to do
better work. Not to mention that he will add to
all this the enthusiasm that arises from defending his own

(01:04:01):
people and fighting to change a social regime that hurts
his own world. The gorilla combatant is a night combatant.
To say this is to say at the same time
that he must have all the special qualities that such
fighting requires. He must be cunning, able to march to
the place of attack across plains or mountains without anybody
noticing him, and then to fall upon the enemy, taking

(01:04:23):
advantage of the factor of surprise, which deserves to be
emphasized again as important in this type of fight. After
causing panic by this surprise, he should launch himself into
the fight implacably, without permitting a single weakness in his companions,
and taking advantage of every sign of weakness on the
part of the enemy, striking like a tornado, destroying all,

(01:04:44):
giving no quarter unless the tactical circumstances call for it,
judging those who must be judged, sowing panic among the
enemy combatants. He nevertheless treats defenseless prisoners benevolently and shows
respect for the dead. A wounded enemy should be treated
with care and respect, unless his former life has made
him liable to a death penalty, in which case he

(01:05:05):
will be treated in accordance with his deserts. What can
never be done is to keep prisoners unless a secure
base of operations invulnerable to the enemy has been established.
Otherwise the prisoner will become a dangerous menace to the
security of the inhabitants of the region or to the
gorilla band itself because of the information that he can
give upon rejoining the enemy army. If he has not

(01:05:29):
been a notorious criminal, he should be set free after
receiving a lecture. The gorilla combatant ought to risk his
life whenever necessary, and be ready to die without the
least sign of doubt. But at the same time he
ought to be cautious and never expose himself unnecessarily. All
possible precautions ought to be taken to avoid a defeat

(01:05:50):
or an annihilation. For this reason, it is extremely important
in every fight to maintain vigilance over all the points
from which enemy reinforcements may arrive, and to take precaution
against an encirclement. The consequences of which are usually not
physically disastrous, but which damages morale by causing a loss
of faith in the prospects of the struggle. However, he

(01:06:11):
ought to be audacious and, after carefully analyzing the dangers
and possibilities in an action, always ready to take an
optimistic attitude towards circumstances and to see reasons for a
favorable decision, even in moments when the analysis of the
adverse and favorable conditions does not show an appreciable positive balance.
To be able to survive in the midst of these

(01:06:32):
conditions of life and enemy action, the guerrilla fighter must
have a degree of adaptability that will permit him to
identify himself with the environment in which he lives, to
become a part of it, and to take advantage of
it as his ally to the maximum possible extent. He
also needs a faculty of rapid comprehension and an instantaneous
inventiveness that will permit him to change his tactics according

(01:06:54):
to the dominant course of the action. These faculties of
adaptability and inventiveness in popasular armies are what ruined the
statistics of the war lords and cause them to waver.
The gorilla fighter must never for any reason leave a
wounded companion at the mercy of the enemy troops, because
this would be leaving him to an almost certain death.

(01:07:14):
At whatever cost, he must be removed from the zone
of combat to a secure place. The greatest exertions and
the greatest risks must be taken in this task. The
gorilla soldier must be an extraordinary companion. At the same time,
he ought to be close mouthed. Everything that is said
and done before him should be kept strictly in his

(01:07:35):
own mind. He ought never to permit himself a single
useless word, even with his own comrades in arms, since
the enemy will always try to introduce spies into the
ranks of the gorilla band in order to discover its plans, location,
and means of life. Besides the moral qualities that we
have mentioned, the guerrilla fighter should possess a series of

(01:07:56):
very important physical qualities. He must be indefatigable. He must
be able to produce another effort At the moment when
weariness seems intolerable. Profound conviction expressed in every line of
his face forces him to take another step, and this
not the last one, since it will be followed by another,
in another, in another, until he arrives at the place

(01:08:18):
designated by his chiefs. He ought to be able to
endure extremities, to withstand not only the privations of food, water, clothing,
and shelter to which he is subjected frequently, but also
the sickness and wounds that often must be cured by
nature without much help from the surgeon. This is all
the more necessary because usually the enemy will assassinate the

(01:08:40):
individual who leaves the guerrilla zone to recover from sickness
or wounds. To meet these conditions, he needs an iron
constitution that will enable him to resist all these adversities
without falling ill, and to make of his hunted animal's
life one more factor of strength. With the help of
his natural adaptability, he becomes a part of the land
itself where he fights. All these considerations bring us to

(01:09:03):
ask what is the ideal age for the gorilla fighter.
These limits are always very difficult to state precisely, because
individual and social peculiarities changed the figure. A peasant, for example,
will be much more resistant than a man from the city.
A city dweller who is accustomed to physical exercise and
a healthy life will be much more efficient than a

(01:09:26):
man who has lived all his life behind a desk.
But generally, the maximum age of combatants in the completely
nomadic stage of the Gorilla struggle ought not to exceed
forty years, although there will be exceptional cases, above all
among the peasants. One of the heroes of our struggle,
Commandant Crescenzo Perez, entered the Sierra at sixty five years

(01:09:47):
of age and was immediately one of the most useful
men in the troupe. We might also ask if the
members of the gorilla band should be drawn from a
certain social class. It has already been said that this
social composition ought to be adjusted to that of the
zone chosen for the center of operations, which is to
say that the combatant nucleus of the gorilla army ought

(01:10:07):
to be made up of peasants. The peasant is evidently
the best soldier, but the other strata of the population
are not by any means to be excluded or deprived
of the opportunity to fight for a just cause. Individual
exceptions are also very important in this respect. We have
not yet fixed the lower limit of age. We believe

(01:10:28):
that miners less than sixteen years of age ought not
to be accepted for the fight, except in very special circumstances.
In general, these young boys only children, do not have
sufficient development to bear tip under the work, the weather,
and the suffering to which they will be subjected. The
best age for a gorilla fighter varies between twenty five

(01:10:49):
and thirty five years, a stage in which the life
of most sons has assumed definite shape. Whoever sets out
at that age abandoning his home, his children, and his
entire world must have thought well of his responsibility and
reached a firm decision not to retreat a step. There
are extraordinary cases of children who, as combatants, have reached

(01:11:10):
the highest ranks of our rebel army. But this is
not the usual case. For every one of them who
displayed great fighting qualities, there were tens who ought to
have been returned to their homes, and who frequently constituted
a dangerous burden for the gorilla band. The gorilla fighter,
as we have said, is a soldier who carries his
house on his back like the snail. Therefore, he must

(01:11:32):
arrange his knapsack in such a way that the smallest
quantity of utensils will render the greatest possible service. He
will carry only the indispensable, but he will take care
of it at all times as something fundamental and not
to be lost, except in extremely adverse situations. His armament
will also be only that which he can carry on
his own. Reprovisioning is very difficult, above all with bullets.

(01:11:57):
To keep them dry, always, to keep them clean, to
count them one by one so that none is lost.
These are the watchwords, and the gun ought always to
be kept clean, well greased, and with the barrel shining.
It is advisable for the chief of each group to
impose some penalty or punishment on those who do not
maintain their armaments in these conditions. People with such notable

(01:12:20):
devotion firmness must have an ideal that sustains them in
the adverse conditions that we have described. This ideal is simple,
without great pretensions, and in general does not go very far.
But it is so firm, so clear, that one will
give his life for it without the least hesitation. With
almost all peasants, this ideal is the right to have

(01:12:40):
and work a piece of land of their own, and
to enjoy just social treatment. Among workers, it is to
have work to receive an adequate wage, as well as
just social treatment among students and professional people. More abstract
ideas such as liberty are found to be motives for
the fight. This brings us to the question what is
the life of the gorilla fighter like his normal life

(01:13:04):
is the long hike. Let us take as an example
a mountain gorilla fighter located in wooded regions under constant
harassment by the enemy. In these conditions, the gorilla band
moves during daylight hours without eating in order to change
its position when night arrives. Camp is set up in
a clearing near water supply according to a routine, each

(01:13:25):
group assembling in order to eat in common. At dusk,
the fires are lighted with whatever is at hand. The
gorilla fighter eats when he can and everything he can. Sometimes,
fabulous feasts disappear in the gullet of the combatant. At
other times he fasts for two or three days without
suffering any diminution in his capacity for work. His house

(01:13:46):
will be the open sky. Between it and his hammock,
he places a sheet of waterproof nylon, and beneath the
cloth and hammock he places his knapsack, gun and ammunition,
which are the treasures of the gorilla fighter. At times
it is it is not wise for shoes to be
removed because of the possibility of a surprise attack by
the enemy. Shoes are another of his precious treasures. Whoever

(01:14:10):
has a pair of them has the security of a
happy existence within the limits of the prevailing circumstances. Thus,
the guerrilla fighter will live for days without approaching any
inhabited place, avoiding all contact that has not been previously arranged,
staying in the wildest zones, knowing hunger at times, thirst,
cold heat, sweating during the continuous marches, letting the sweat

(01:14:32):
dry on his body and adding to it new sweat,
without any possibility of regular cleanliness, although this also depends
somewhat upon the individual disposition, as does everything else. During
the recent war, upon entering the village of El Yuvro,
following a march of sixteen kilometers and a fight of
two hours and forty five minutes in a hot sun,

(01:14:52):
all added to several days passed in very adverse conditions
along the sea with intense heat from a boiling sun,
our bodies gave gave off a peculiar and offensive odour
that repelled anyone who came near our noses were completely
habituated to this type of life. The hammocks of gorilla
fighters are known for their characteristic individual odor. In such conditions,

(01:15:14):
breaking camp ought to be done rapidly, leaving no traces behind.
Vigilance must be extreme. For every ten men sleeping, there
ought to be one or two on watch, with the
sentinels being changed continually and a sharp vigil being maintained
over all entrances to the camp. Campaign life teaches several
tricks for preparing meals, some to help speed their preparation,

(01:15:36):
others to add seasoning with little things found in the forest,
still others for inventing new dishes that give a more
varied character to the gorilla menu, which is composed mainly
of roots, grains, salt, a little oil or lard, and
very sporadically pieces of the meat of some animal that
has been slain. This refers to the life of a
group operating in tropical sectors within when the framework of

(01:16:00):
the combatant life. The most interesting event, the one that
carries all to a convulsion of joy and puts new
vigor in everybody's steps, is the battle. The battle climax
of the gorilla life is sought at an opportune moment,
either when an enemy encampment sufficiently weak to be annihilated
has been located and investigated, or when an enemy column

(01:16:21):
is advancing directly toward the territory occupied by the liberating force.
The two cases are different. Against an encampment, the action
will be a thin encirclement and fundamentally will become a
hunt for the members of the columns that come to
break the encirclement. An entrenched enemy is never the favorite
prey of the gorilla fighter. He prefers his enemy to

(01:16:42):
be on the move, nervous, not knowing the ground, fearful
of everything, and without natural protections for defense. Whoever is
behind a parapet with powerful arms for repelling and offensive
will never be in the plight, however bad his situation
of a long column that is attacked suddenly into two
or three places in cut. If the attackers are not

(01:17:03):
able to encircle the column and destroy it totally, they
will retire prior to any counteraction. If there is no
possibility of defeating those entrenched in a camp by means
of hunger or thirst, or by a direct assault, the
gorilla ought to retire after the encirclement has yielded its
fruits of destruction in the relieving columns. In cases where
the gorilla column is too weak and the invading column

(01:17:26):
too strong, the action should be concentrated upon the vanguard.
There should be a special preference for this tactic, whatever
the hope for result, Since after the leading ranks have
been struck several times, thus diffusing among the soldiers the
news that death is constantly occurring to those in the van,
the reluctance to occupy those places will provoke nothing less

(01:17:46):
than mutiny. Therefore, attacks ought to be made on that point,
even if they are also made at other points of
the column. The facility with which the gorilla fighter can
perform his function and adapt himself to the environment will
depend upon his equipment. Even though joined with others in
small groups, he has individual characteristics. He should have in

(01:18:08):
his knapsack, besides his regular shelter, everything necessary to survival
in case he finds himself alone for some time. In
giving the list of equipment, we will refer essentially to
that which should be carried by an individual located in
rough country at the beginning of a war with frequent rainfall,
some cold weather, and harassment by the enemy. In other words,

(01:18:29):
we place ourselves in a situation that existed at the
beginning of the Cuban War of Liberation. The equipment of
the guerrilla fighter is divided into the essential and the accessory.
Among the first is a hammock. This provides adequate rest.
It is easy to find two trees from which it
can be strung see picture two to one, and in

(01:18:50):
cases where one sleeps on the ground, it can serve
as a mattress. Whenever it is raining or the ground
is wet, a frequent occurrence in tropical mounts zones, the
hammock is indispensable for sleeping. A piece of waterproof nylon
cloth is its complement. The nylon should be large enough
to cover the hammock when tied from its four corners,

(01:19:12):
and with a line strung through the center to the
same trees from which the hammock hangs. This last line
serves to make the nylon into a kind of tent
by raising a center ridge and causing it to shed water.
A blanket is indispensable because it is cold in the
mountains at night. It is also necessary to carry a
garment such as a jacket or coat, which will enable

(01:19:34):
one to bear the extreme changes of temperature. Clothing should
consist of rough work trousers and shirt, which may or
may not be of a uniform cloth. Shoes should be
of the best possible construction. Also, since without good shoes,
marches are very difficult, they should be one of the
first articles laid up in reserve. Since the gorilla fighter

(01:19:54):
carries his house in his knapsack, the latter is very important.
The more primitive types may be made from any kind
of sac carried by two ropes, but those of canvas
found in the market or made by a harness maker
are preferable. The gorilla fighter ought always to carry some
personal food besides that which the troop carries or consumes
in its camps. Indispensable articles are lard or oil, which

(01:20:19):
is necessary for fat consumption. Canned goods, which should not
be consumed except in circumstances where food for cooking cannot
be found, or when there are too many cans and
their weight impedes the march. Preserved fish, which has great
nutritional value. Condensed milk, which is also nourishing, particularly on
account of the large quantity of sugar that it contains.

(01:20:40):
Some sweet for its good taste. Powdered milk can also
be carried. Sugar is another essential part of the supplies,
as is salt, without which life becomes sheer martyrdom, and
something that serves to season the meals such as onion, garlic,
et cetera. According to the characteristics of the country. This
completes the category of the essentials. The gorilla fighter should

(01:21:05):
carry a plate, knife, and fork camping style, which will
serve all the various necessary functions. The plate can be
camping or military type, or a pan that is usable
for cooking anything from a piece of meat to a potato,
or for brewing tea or coffee. To care for the rifle,
special greases are necessary, and these must be carefully administered.

(01:21:27):
Sewing machine oil is very good if there is no
special oil available. Also needed are cloths that will serve
for cleaning the arms frequently, and a rod for cleaning
the gun inside, something that ought to be done often.
The ammunition belt can be of commercial type or home
made according to the circumstances, but it ought to be
so made that not a single bullet will be lost.

(01:21:50):
Ammunition is the basis of the fight, without which everything
else would be in vain, it must be cared for
like gold. A canteen or a bottle for water is essential,
since it will frequently be necessary to drink in a
situation where water is not available. Among medicines, those of
general use should be carried, for example, penicillin for some

(01:22:11):
other type of antibiotic, preferably the types taken orally carefully closed,
medicines for lowering fever, such as aspirin, and others adapted
to treating the endemic diseases of the area. These may
be tablets against malaria, sulfus for diarrhea, medicines against parasites
of all types. In other words, fit the medicine to

(01:22:32):
the characteristics of the region. It is advisable in places
where there are poisonous animals to carry appropriate injections. Surgical
instruments will complete the medical equipment. Small personal items for
taking care of less important injuries should also be included.
A customary and extremely important comfort in the life of

(01:22:52):
the guerrilla fighter is a smoke, whether cigars, cigarettes, or
pipe tobacco. As smoke in moments of rest, is a
great friend to the solitary soldier. Pipes are useful because
they permit using to the extreme all tobacco that remains
in the butts of cigars and cigarettes at time of scarcity.
Matches are extremely important, not only for lighting a smoke,

(01:23:15):
but also for starting fires. This is one of the
great problems in the forest in rainy periods. It is
preferable to carry both matches and a lighter, so that
if the lighter runs out of fuel, matches remain as
a substitute. Soap should be carried not only for personal cleanliness,
but for washing eating utensils, because intestinal infections or irritations

(01:23:37):
are frequent and can be caused by spoiled food left
on dirty cooking wear. With this set of equipment, the
guerrilla fighter can be assured that he will be able
to live in the forest under adverse conditions, no matter
how bad, for as long as is necessary to dominate
the situation. There are accessories that at times are useful
in others that constitute a bother but are very useful.

(01:24:01):
The compass is one of these. At the outset, this
will be used a great deal in gaining orientation, but
little by little knowledge of the country will make it unnecessary.
In mountainous regions, a compass is not of much use
since the rooted indicates will usually be cut off by
impassable obstacles. Another useful article is an extra nylon cloth

(01:24:22):
for covering all equipment when it rains. Remember that rain
and tropical countries is continuous during certain months, and that
water is the enemy of all the things that the
gorilla fighter must carry food, ammunition, medicine, paper, and clothing.
A change of clothing can be carried, but this is
usually a mark of inexperience. The usual custom is to

(01:24:44):
carry no more than an extra pair of pants, eliminating
extra underwear and other articles such as towels. The Life
of the gorilla fighter teaches him to conserve his energy
in carrying his knapsack from one place to another, and
he will, little by little get rid of everything that
does not have essential value. In addition to a piece
of soap useful for washing utensils as well as for

(01:25:07):
personal cleanliness, a tooth brush and paste should be carried.
It is worth while also to carry a book, which
will be exchanged with other members of the band. These
books can be good biographies of past heroes, histories or
economic geographies preferably of the country, and works of general
character that will serve to raise the cultural level of

(01:25:28):
the soldiers and discourage the tendency toward gambling or other
undesirable forms of passing the time. There are periods of
boredom in the life of the guerrilla fighter. Whenever there
is extra space in a knapsack one it ought to
be used for food, except in those zones where the
food supply is easy and sure, sweets or food of

(01:25:48):
lesser importance complementing the basic items can be carried. Crackers
can be one of these, although they occupy a large
space and break up into crumbs in thick forests. An
as shetty is useful in very wet places. A small
bottle of gasoline or light resinous wood such as pine
for kindling will make fire building easier when the wood

(01:26:09):
is wet. A small notebook and pen or pencil for
taking notes and for letters to the outside or communication
with other gorilla bands ought always to be a part
of the gorilla fighters equipment. Pieces of string or rope
should be kept available. These have many uses. Also needles,
thread and buttons for clothing. The gorilla fighter who carries

(01:26:32):
this equipment will have a solid house on his back.
Rather heavy but furnished to assure a comfortable life during
the hardships of Kivara Guerrilla Warfare nineteen sixty one. Free
organization of a gorilla band. No rigid scheme can be offered.
For the organization of a gorilla band. There will be
innumerable differences according to the environment in which it is

(01:26:54):
to operate. For convenience of exposition, we will suppose that
our experience has a universe application. But it should be
kept in mind that it is only one way that
there will possibly be new forms that may work better
with the particular characteristics of another given armed group. The
size of the component units of the guerrilla force is
one of the most difficult problems to deal with. There

(01:27:16):
will be different numbers of men in different compositions of
the troop. As we have already explained. Let us suppose
a force situated in favorable ground mountainous, with conditions not
so bad as to necessitate perpetual flight, but not so
good as to afford a base of operations. The combat
units of an armed force thus situated ought to number

(01:27:36):
not more than one hundred and fifty men, and even
this number is rather high. Ideal would be a unit
of about one hundred men. This constitutes a column, and
in the Cuban organization, is commanded by a commandant. It
should be remembered that in our war the grades of
corporal and sergeant were omitted because they were considered reminiscent
of the tyranny. On this premise, the common dant commands this,

(01:28:00):
this whole force of one hundred to one hundred fifty men,
and there will be as many captains as there are
groups of thirty to forty men. The captain has the
function of directing, unifying his platoon, making it fight almost
always as a unit, and looking after the distribution of
men in the general organization. In guerrilla warfare, the squad
is the functional unit. Each squad, made up of approximately

(01:28:24):
eight to twelve men, is commanded by a lieutenant, who
performs for his group functions analogous to those of the captain,
to whom he must always be in constant subordination. The
operational tendency of the guerrilla band to function in small
groups makes the squad the true unit. Eight to ten
men are the maximum that can act as a unit

(01:28:44):
in a fight in these conditions. Therefore, the squad, which
will frequently be separated from the captain, even though they
fight on the same front, will operate under the orders
of its lieutenant. There are exceptions, of course, a squad
should not be broken up nor kept this same burst.
At times when there is no fighting. Each squad and
platoons should know who the immediate successor is in case

(01:29:06):
the chief falls, and these persons should be sufficiently trained
to be able to take over their new responsibilities immediately.
One of the fundamental problems of the troop is food supply.
In this everyone from the last man to the chief
must be treated alike. This acquires a high importance, not
only because of the chronic shortage of supplies, but also

(01:29:27):
because meals are the only events that take place daily.
The troops, who have a keen sense of justice, measure
the rations with a sharp eye. The least favoritism for
anyone ought never to be permitted. If in certain circumstances
the meal is served to the whole column, a regular
order should be established and observed strictly, and at the
same time, the quantity and quality of food given to

(01:29:50):
each one ought to be carefully checked. In the distribution
of clothing, the problem is different, these being articles of
individual use. Here too, consider prevail first the demand for
necessities of those who need them, which will almost always
be greater than the supply, and second the length of
service and merits of each one of the applicants. The

(01:30:12):
length of service and merits, something very difficult to fix exactly,
should be noted in special booklets by one assigned this
responsibility under the direct supervision of the chief of the column.
The same should be said about other articles that become
available and are of individual rather than collective utility. Tobacco
and cigarettes ought to be distributed according to the general

(01:30:34):
rule of equal treatment for everybody. This task of distribution
should be a specifically assigned responsibility. It is preferable that
the persons designated be attached directly to the command. The
command performs therefore administrative tasks of liaison, which are very important,
as well as all the other special tasks that are necessary.

(01:30:56):
Officers of the greatest intelligence ought to be in Soldiers
attached to the command ought to be alert and of
maximum dedication, since their burdens will usually be greater than
those borne by the rest of the troop. Nevertheless, they
can have no special treatment. At meal time. Each gorilla
fighter carries his complete equipment. There is also a series

(01:31:18):
of implements of use to the group that should be
equitably distributed within the column. For this, two rules can
be established depending upon the number of unarmed persons in
the troop. One system is to distribute all extra material
such as medicines, medical or dental or surgical instruments, extra food, clothing,

(01:31:38):
general supplies, and heavy weapons equally among all platoons, which
will then be responsible for their custody. Each captain will
distribute these supplies among the squads, and each chief of
squad will distribute them among his men. Another solution, which
can be used when a part of the troop is
not armed, is to create special squads or platoons the

(01:32:00):
assigned to transport. This works out well since it leaves
the soldier, who already has the weight and responsibility of
his rifle, free of extra cargo. In this way, danger
of losing material is reduced since it is concentrated, and
at the same time there is an incentive for the
porter to carry more and to carry better, and to
demonstrate more enthusiasm, since in this way he will win

(01:32:21):
his right to a weapon. In the future. These platoons
will march in the rear positions and will have the
same duties and the same treatment as the rest of
the troop. The tasks to be carried out by a
column will vary according to its activities. If it is encamped,
there will be special teams for keeping watch. These should
be experienced, specially trained, and they should receive some special

(01:32:44):
reward for this duty. This can consist of increased independence,
or if there is an excess of suites or tobacco,
after proportional distribution to each column, something extra for the
members of those units that carry out special tasks. For example,
if there are one hundred men and one hundred and
fifteen packages of cigarettes, the fifteen extra packs of cigarettes

(01:33:06):
can be distributed among the members of the units referred
to the vanguard and the rearguard. Units separated from the
rest will have special duties of vigilance. But besides, each
platoon ought to have such a watch of its own.
The farther from the encampment the watch is maintained, the
greater is the security of the group, especially when it
is in open country. The places chosen should be high,

(01:33:30):
dominating a wide area by day and difficult to approach
by night. If the plan is to stay several days,
it is worth while to construct defenses that will permit
a sustained fire in case of an attack. These defenses
can be obliterated when the guerrilla band moves, or they
can be left if circumstances no longer make it necessary
to hide the path of the column. In places where

(01:33:53):
permanent encampments are established, the defenses ought to be improved constantly.
Remember that in amount of fines is zwn on ground
carefully chosen. The only heavy arm that is effective is
the mortar. Using roofs reinforced with materials from the region
such as wood, rocks, et cetera, it is possible to
make good refuges which are difficult for the enemy forces

(01:34:15):
to approach and which will afford protection from mortar shells.
For the gorilla forces, it is very important to maintain
discipline in the camp, and this should have an educational function.
The gorilla fighters should be required to go to bed
and get up at fixed hours. Games that have no
social function and that hurt the morale of the troops
and the consumption of alcoholic drinks should both be prohibited.

(01:34:39):
All these tasks are performed by a Commission of Internal Order,
elected from those combatants of greatest revolutionary merit. Another mission
of these persons is to prevent the lighting of fires
in places visible from a distance, or that raise columns
of smoke before nightfall. Also to see that the camp
is kept clean, and that it is left in such
a condition when the column leaves as to show no

(01:35:01):
signs of passage. If this is necessary, great care must
be taken with fires which leave traces for a long time.
They must be covered with earth. Papers, cans and scraps
of food should also be burned. During the march. Complete
silence must prevail in the column. Orders are passed by

(01:35:22):
gestures or by whispers that go from mouth to mouth
until they reach the last man. If the gorilla band
is marching through unknown places, breaking a road, or being
led by a guide, the vanguard will be approximately one
hundred or two hundred meters or even more in front,
according to the characteristics of the ground. In places where
confusion may arise as to the route, a man will

(01:35:44):
be left at each turning to await those who follow,
and this will be repeated until the last man in
the rear guard has passed. The rear guard will also
be somewhat separated from the rest of the column, keeping
a watch on the roads in the rear and trying
to erase tracks of the troops as much as possible.
If there is a road coming from the side that
offers danger, it is necessary always to have a group

(01:36:06):
keeping a watch on it until the last man has passed.
It is more practical that each platoon utilize its own
men for this special duty, with each having the obligation
to pass the guard to members of the following platoon
and then to rejoin his own unit. This process will
be continued until the whole troop has passed. The march
should be uniform and in an established order, always the same.

(01:36:30):
Thus it will always be known that Platoon number one
is the vanguard, followed by Platoon number two, and then
Platoon number three, which may be the command, then number four,
followed by the rear guard or Platoon number five or
other platoons that make up the column, always in the
same order. In night, march's silence should be even stricter,
and the distance between each combatant shorter, so that no

(01:36:52):
one will get lost and make it necessary to shout
and turn on lights. Light is the enemy of the
guerrilla fighter at night time. If all this marching has
attack as its objective, then upon arriving at a given point,
the point to which all will return after the objective
has been accomplished, extra weight will be set down, such
things as knapsacks and cooking utensils, for example, and each

(01:37:15):
platoon will proceed with nothing more than its arms and
fighting equipment. The point of attack should have been already
studied by trustworthy people who have reconnoitered the ground and
have observed the location of the enemy guards. The leaders,
knowing the orientation of the base, the number of men
that defend it, et cetera, will make the final plan
for the attack and send combatants to their places, always

(01:37:38):
keeping in mind that a good part of the troops
should be assigned to intercept reinforcements in cases where the
attack upon the base is to be merely a diversion.
In order to provoke the sending of reinforcements along roads
that can be easily ambushed, a man should communicate the
result rapidly to the command as soon as the attack
has been carried out, in order to break the encirclement,

(01:37:59):
if necessary, to prevent being attacked from the rear. In
any case, there must always be a watch on the
roads that lead to the place of combat while the
encirclement or direct attack is being carried out by night.
A direct attack is always preferable. It is possible to
capture an encampment if there is enough drive and necessary
presence of mind, and if the risks are not excessive.

(01:38:22):
An encirclement requires waiting and taking cover, closing in steadily
on the enemy, trying to harass him in every way,
and above all, trying to force him by fire to
come out when the circle has been closed. To short range,
the Molotov cocktail is a weapon of extraordinary effectiveness. Before
arriving at a range for the cocktail, shotguns with a

(01:38:44):
special charge can be employed. These arms, christened in our
war with the name of M sixteen, consist of a
sixteen caliber sawed off shotgun with a pair of legs
added in such a way that with the butt of
the gun they form a tripod. The weapon will thus
thus be mounted at an angle of about forty five degrees.
This can be varied by moving the legs back and forth.

(01:39:06):
It is loaded with an open shell from which all
the shot has been removed A cylindrical stick extending from
the muzzle of the gun is used as the projectle.
A bottle of gasoline resting on a rubber base is
placed on the end of the stick. This apparatus will
fire the burning bottles one hundred meters or more with
a fairly high degree of accuracy. This is an ideal

(01:39:29):
weapon for enrichments when the enemy has many wooden or
inflammable material constructions, also for firing against tanks in hilly country.
Once the encirclement ends with a victory or having completed
its objectives, is withdrawn, all platoons retire in order to
the place where the knapsacks have been left, and normal
life is resumed. The nomadic life of the guerrilla fighter

(01:39:52):
in this stage produces not only a deep sense of
fraternity among the men, but at times also dangerous rivalries
between groups or platoons. If these are not channeled to
produce beneficial emulation, there is a risk that the unity
of the column will be damaged. The education of the
guerrilla fighter is important from the very beginning of the struggle.

(01:40:14):
This should explain to them the social purpose of the
fight and their duties, clarify their understanding, and give them
lessons in morale that serve to forge their characters. Each
experience should be a new source of strength for victory,
and not simply one more episode in the fight for survival.
One of the great educational techniques is example. Therefore, the

(01:40:35):
chiefs must constantly offer the example of a pure and
devoted life. Promotion of the soldier should be based on valor,
capacity and a spirit of sacrifice. Whoever does not have
these qualities in a high degree ought not to have
responsible assignments, since he will cause unfortunate accidents at any moment.
The conduct of the guerrilla fighter will be subject to judgment.

(01:40:57):
Whenever he approaches a house to ask for something, the
inhabitants will draw favorable or unfavorable conclusions about the gorilla
band according to the manner in which any service, or
food or other necessity is solicited and the methods used
to get what is wanted. The explanation by the chief
should be detailed about these problems, emphasizing their importance. He

(01:41:18):
should also teach by example. If a town is entered,
all drinking of alcohol should be prohibited, and the troops
should be exhorted before hand to give the best possible
example of discipline. The entrances and exits to the town
should be constantly watched. The organization, combat capacity, heroism and

(01:41:38):
spirit of the gorilla band will undergo a test of
fire during an encirclement by the enemy, which is the
most dangerous situation of the war. In the jargon of
our gorilla fighters in the recent war, the phrase encirclement
face was given to the face of fear worn by
someone who was frightened. The hierarchy of the deposed regime
pompously spoke of its campaigns of encirclement and annihilation. However,

(01:42:03):
for a gorilla band that knows the country and that
is united ideologically and emotionally with its chief, this is
not a particularly serious problem. It need only take cover,
try to slow up the advance of the enemy, impede
his action with heavy equipment, and await nightfall, the natural
ally of the gorilla fighter. Then, with the greatest possible stealth,

(01:42:25):
after exploring and choosing the best road, the band will depart,
utilizing the most adequate means of escape and maintaining absolute silence.
It is extremely difficult in these conditions at night to
prevent a group of men from escaping the in ser
Guerilla Warfare nineteen sixty one. For the combat combat is

(01:42:46):
the most important drama in the gorilla life, it occupies
only a short time. Nevertheless, these brilliant moments acquire an
extraordinary importance, since each small encounter is a battle of
a fundamental kind for the combatant. We have already pointed
out that an attack should be carried out in such
a way as to give a guarantee of victory. In

(01:43:07):
addition to general observations concerning the tactical function of attack
in guerrilla warfare, the different characteristics that each action can
precent ought to be noted. We will refer initially for
purposes of description to the type of fight carried out
on favorable ground, because this is the original model of
guerrilla warfare, and it is in this connection that certain

(01:43:28):
principles must be examined before dealing with other problems through
a study of practical experience. Warfare on the plane is
always the result of an advance by the gorilla bands
consequent on their being strengthened and on changes in conditions.
This implies an increase of experience on the part of
the gorilla and with it the possibility of using that
experience to advantage. In the first stage of guerrilla warfare,

(01:43:52):
enemy columns will penetrate insurgent territory deeply. Depending on the
strength of these columns, two different types of gorilla attacks
will be made. One of these, first in chronological order,
is for a fixed number of months to cause systematic
losses in the enemy's offensive capacity. This tactic is carried
out on the vanguards. Unfavorable ground impedes flank defenses by

(01:44:16):
the advancing columns. Therefore, there must always be one point
of the vanguard that, as it penetrates and exposes the
lives of its components, serves to give security to the
rest of the column. When men and reserves are insufficient
and the enemy is strong, the gorilla should always aim
for the destruction of this vanguard point. The system is simple,

(01:44:37):
only a certain coordination is necessary. At the moment when
the vanguard appears at the selected place, the steepest possible,
a deadly fire is let loose on them. After a
convenient number of men have been allowed to penetrate, a
small group must hold the rest of the column for
some moments while arms, munitions, and equipment are being collected.

(01:44:58):
The gorilla soldier ought all is to have in mind
that his source of supply of arms is the enemy,
and that, except in special circumstances, he ought not to
engage in a battle that will not lead to the
capture of such equipment. When the strength of the gorilla
ban permits, a complete encirclement of the column will be
carried out, or at least this impression will be given.

(01:45:19):
In this case, the gorilla front line must be strong
enough and well enough covered to resist the frontal assaults
of the enemy, considering naturally both offensive power and combat morale.
At the moment in which the enemy is detained in
some chosen place, the reguard goerrilla forces make an attack
on the enemy's rear. Such a chosen place will have

(01:45:40):
characteristics making a flank maneuver difficult. Snipers outnumbered, perhaps by
eight or ten times, will have the whole enemy column
within the circle of fire. Whenever there are sufficient forces.
In these cases, all roads should be protected with ambushes
in order to detain reinforcements. The encirclement will be closed gradually.

(01:46:01):
Above all, at night, the gorilla fighter knows the places
where he fights. The invading column does not. The gorilla
fighter grows at night and the enemy feels his fear
growing in the darkness. In this way, without too much difficulty,
a column can be totally destroyed, or at least such
losses can be inflicted upon it as to prevent its

(01:46:22):
returning to battle and to force it to take a
long time for regrouping. When the force of the gorilla
band is small and it is desired above all to
detain and slow down the advance of the invading column,
groups of snipers fluctuating between two and ten should be
distributed all around the column at each of the four
cardinal points. In this situation, combat can be begun, for example,

(01:46:44):
on the right flank, when the enemy centers his action
on that flank and fires on it. Shooting will begin
at that moment from the left flank, at another moment
from the regard, or from the vanguard, and so forth.
With a very small expenditure of ammunition, it is possible
to hold the enemy in check indefinitely. The technique of
attacking an enemy convoy or position must be adapted to

(01:47:07):
the conditions of the place chosen for the combat. In general,
the first attack on an encircled place should be made
during night hours against an advance post with surprise assured.
A surprise attack carried out by skillful commandos can easily
liquidate a position thanks to the advantage of surprise. For
a regular encirclement, the paths of escape can be controlled

(01:47:29):
with a few men in the roads of access defended
with ambushes. These should be distributed in such a way
that if one is unsuccessful, it falls back or simply withdraws,
while a second remains, and so on successively. In cases
where the surprise factor is not present, victory in an
attempt to take an encampment will depend on the capacity
of the encircling force to detain the attempts of the

(01:47:52):
rescue columns. In these cases there will usually be support
on the enemy's side by artillery, mortars, airplanes, and tanks.
In favorable ground, the tank is an arm of small danger.
It must travel by roads that are narrow and is
an easy victim of mines. The offensive capacity of these
vehicles and information is here generally absent or reduced, since

(01:48:16):
they must proceed in indian file or at most too abreast.
The best and surest weapon against the tank is the mine,
but in a close fight, which may easily take place
in steep places that molotov cocktail is an arm of
extraordinary value. We will not talk yet of the bazukah,
which for the guerrilla force is a decisive weapon, but

(01:48:36):
difficult to acquire, at least in the first stages. Against
the mortar, there is the recourse of a trench with
a roof. The mortar is an arm of formidable potency
when used against an encircled place, but on the other hand,
against mobile attackers, it loses its effectiveness unless it is
used in large batteries. Artillery does not have great importance

(01:48:57):
in this type of fight, since it has to be
placed in locations of convenient access and it does not
see the targets which are constantly shifting. Aviation constitutes the
principal arm of the oppressor forces, but its power of
attack also is much reduced by the fact that its
only targets are small trenches. Generally hidden. Planes will be

(01:49:18):
able to drop high explosive or napalm bombs, both of
which constitute inconveniences rather than true dangers. Besides, as the
guerrilla draws as close as possible to the defensive lines
of the enemy, it becomes very difficult for planes to
attack these points of the vanguard effectively when encampments with
wood or inflammable constructions are attacked. A Molotov cocktail is

(01:49:41):
a very important arm at a short distance. At longer distances,
bottles with inflammable material with the fuse lighted can be
launched from a sixteen caliber shotgun, as described earlier. Of
all the possible types of mines, the most effective, although
requiring the most technical capacity, is a remotely exploded mine,

(01:50:01):
but contact FEUs and above all electric mines with their
lengths of cord are also extremely useful in constitute on
mountainous roads defenses for the popular forces that are virtually invulnerable.
A good defense against armored cars along roads is to
dig sloping ditches in such a way that the tank
enters them easily and afterwards cannot get out. As picture

(01:50:23):
two to three shows, these can easily be hidden from
the enemy, especially at night time or when he has
no infantry in advance of the tanks because of resistance
by the gorilla forces. Another common form of advance by
the enemy in zones that are not too steep is
in trucks that are more or less open. The columns
are headed by armoured vehicles and the infantry follows behind

(01:50:46):
in trucks. Depending upon the force of the gorilla band,
it may be possible to encircle the entire column following
the general rules, or it can be split by attacking
some of the trucks in simultaneously exploding mines. It is
necessary to act rapidly in this case, seizing the arms
of the fallen enemy in retiring. For an attack on

(01:51:06):
open trucks. An arm of great importance which should be
used with all its potential is the shotgun. A sixteen
caliber shotgun with large shot can sweep ten meters nearly
the whole area of the truck, killing some of the occupants,
wounding others, and provoking an enormous confusion. Grenades, if they
are available, are also excellent weapons for these cases. For

(01:51:29):
all these attack surprise is fundamental because at least at
the moment of firing the first shot. It is one
of the basic requirements of guerrilla warfare. Surprise is not
possible if the peasants of the zone know of the
presence of the insurgent army. For this reason, all movements
of attack should be made at night. Only men of
proven discretion and loyalty can know of these movements and

(01:51:53):
establish the contacts. The march should be made with knapsacks
full of food in order to be able to live two,
three or four days. In the places of ambush. The
discretion of the peasants should never be trusted too much,
first because there is a natural tendency to talk and
to comment on events with other members of the family
or with friends, and also because of the inevitable cruelty

(01:52:16):
with which the enemy soldiers treat the population. After a defeat,
terror can be sown, and this terror leads to someone's
talking too much, revealing important information in the effort to
save his life. In general, the place chosen for an
ambush should be located at least one day's march from
the habitual camp of the gorilla band, since the enemy

(01:52:37):
will almost always know its location more or less accurately.
We said before that the form of fire in a
battle indicates the location of the opposing forces. On one side,
violent and rapid firing by the soldier of the line
who has the customary abundance of ammunition. On the other side,
the methodical, sporadic fire of the guerrilla fighter who knows

(01:52:57):
the value of every bullet and who endeavors to expend,
and that with a high degree of economy, never firing
one shot more than necessary. It is not reasonable to
allow an enemy to escape or to fail to use
an ambush to the full in order to save ammunition.
But the amount that is to be expended in determined
circumstances should be calculated in advance, and the action carried

(01:53:18):
out according to these calculations. Ammunition is the great problem
of the gorilla fighter. Arms can always be obtained. Furthermore,
those which are obtained are not expended in guerrilla warfare,
while ammunition is expended. Also, generally it is arms with
their ammunition that are captured, and never or rarely ammunition only.

(01:53:40):
Each weapon that is taken will have its loads, but
it cannot contribute to the others because there are no extras.
The tactical principle of saving fire is fundamental in this
type of warfare. A gorilla chief who takes pride in
his role will never be careless about withdrawal. This should
be timely, rapid, and carried out so as to save

(01:54:01):
all the wounded and the equipment of the guerrilla its knapsacks, ammunition,
et cetera. The rebels ought never to be surprised while withdrawing,
nor can they permit themselves the negligence of becoming surrounded. Therefore,
guards must be posted along the chosen road at all
places where the enemy army will eventually bring its troops
forward in an attempt to close a circle, and there

(01:54:23):
must be a system of communication that will permit rapid reports.
When a force tries to surround the rebels in the combat,
there must always be some unarmed men. They will recover
the guns of companions who are wounded or dead, guns
seized in battle or belonging to prisoners. They will take
charge of the prisoners, of removing the wounded, and of
transmission of messages. Besides, there ought to be a good

(01:54:47):
corps of messengers with iron legs and a proven sense
of responsibility, who will give the necessary reports in the
least possible time. The number of men needed besides the
armed combatants varies, but a general the rule is two
or three for each ten, including those who will be
present at the scene of the battle and those who
will carry out necessary tasks in the regard keeping watch

(01:55:08):
on the root of withdrawal and performing the messenger services
mentioned above. When a defensive type of war is being fought.
That is to say, when the gorilla band is endeavoring
to prohibit the passage of an invasion column. Beyond a
certain point, the action becomes a war of positions, but
always at the outset it should have the factor of surprise.

(01:55:29):
In this case, since trenches as well as other defensive
systems that will be easily observable by the peasants are
going to be used, it is necessary that these latter
remain in the friendly zone. In this type of warfare,
the government generally establishes a blockade of the region, and
the peasants who have not fled must go to buy
their basic foods at establishments located outside the zones of

(01:55:50):
gorilla action. Should these persons leave the region at critical
moments such as those we are now describing, this would
constitute a serious danger on accout of the information that
they could eventually supply to the enemy army. The policy
of complete isolation must serve as the strategic principle of
the guerrilla army. In these cases, the defenses and the

(01:56:12):
whole defensive apparatus should be arranged in such a manner
that the enemy vanguard will always fall into an ambush.
It is very important as a psychological factor that the
man in the vanguard will die without escape in every battle,
because this produces within the enemy army a growing consciousness
of this danger until the moment arrives when nobody wants

(01:56:32):
to be in the vanguard, and it is obvious that
a column with no vanguard cannot move since somebody has
to assume their responsibility. Also, encirclements can be carried out
if these are expedient or diversionary maneuvers such as flank attacks,
or the enemy can simply be detained frontally. In every case,
places which are susceptible of being utilized by the enemy

(01:56:55):
for flank attacks should be fortified. We are now assuming
that more men and arms are available than in the
combats described hitherto. It is evident that the blockade of
all possible roads converging into a zone which may be
very numerous, requires a large personnel. The various kinds of
traps and attacks against armoured vehicles will be increased here

(01:57:17):
in order to give the greatest security p. Zero five
cyble to the systems of fixed trenches which can be
located by the enemy. In general, in this type of fight,
The order is to defend the positions unto death if necessary,
and it is essential to assure the maximum possibilities of
survival to every defender. The more a trench is hidden

(01:57:37):
from distant view, the better. Above all, it is important
to give it a cover so that mortar fire will
be ineffective. Mortars of sixty point one or eighty five
millimeters the usual campaign calibers cannot penetrate a good roof
made with simple materials from the region. This may be
made from a base of wood, earth and rocks covered

(01:57:58):
with some camouflage material. An exit for escape in an
extremity must always be constructed so that the defender may
get away with less danger. The sketch above sea Picture
two to four edition shows the form in which these
defenses were constructed in the Sierra Maestra. They were sufficient
to protect us from mortar fire. This outline clearly indicates

(01:58:22):
that fixed lines of fire do not exist. The lines
of fire are something more or less theoretical. They are
established at certain critical moments, but they are extremely elastic
and permeable on both sides. What does exist is a
wide no man's land, but the characteristics of no man's
land in guerrilla warfare are that it is inhabited by

(01:58:43):
a civil population, and that this civil population collaborates in
a certain measure with either of the two sides, even
though in an overwhelming majority with the insurrectionary band. These
people cannot be removed en mass from the zone on
account of their numbers and because this would create problems
of supply for either one of the contenders who try
to provide food for so many people. This no man's

(01:59:06):
land is penetrated by periodic incursions, generally during the daytime
by the repressive forces and at night by the guerrilla forces.
The guerrilla forces find their a maintenance base of great
importance for their troops. This should be cared for in
a political way, always establishing the best possible relations with
the peasants and merchants. In this type of warfare, the

(01:59:28):
tasks of those who do not carry arms, of those
who are not direct combat ants are extremely important. We
have already indicated some of the characteristics of liaison in
places of combat, but liaison is an institution throughout the
whole gorilla organization. Liaison out to the most distant command
or out to the most distant group of guerrilla fighters

(01:59:49):
ought to be linked in such a way that messages
will travel from one place to another via the most
rapid system available in the region. This holds for regions
of easy defense, that is to say, in favorable ground,
as well as in unfavorable ground. A guerrilla band operating
in unfavorable ground will not be able to use modern
systems of communication such as telegraph, roads, et cetera, except

(02:00:14):
some radios located in military garrisons capable of being defended.
If these fall into the hands of the enemy force,
it is necessary to change codes and frequencies, a task
that is rather troublesome. In all these matters we are
speaking from memory of things that occurred in our war
of liberation. The daily and accurate report on all activities

(02:00:35):
of the enemy is complemented with liaison. The system of
espionage should be carefully studied, well worked out, and personnel
chosen with maximum care. The harm that a counter spy
can do is enormous. But even without such an extreme case,
the harm that can result from exaggerated information which misjudges
the danger is very great. It is not probable that

(02:00:58):
danger will be underrated. The tendency of people in the
country is to overrate and exaggerate it. The same magic
mentality that makes phanfasms and various supernatural beings appear also
creates monstrous armies. Where there is hardly a platoon or
an enemy patrol. The spy ought to seem as neutral
as possible, not known by the enemy to have any

(02:01:20):
connection with the forces of liberation. This is not as
difficult a task as it appears. Many such persons are
found in the course of the war. Business Men, professional men,
and even clergymen can lend their help in this type
of task and give timely information. One of the most
important characteristics of guerrilla warfare is the notable difference between

(02:01:40):
the information that reaches the rebel forces and the information
possessed by the enemy. While the latter must operate in
regions that are absolutely hostile, finding sullen silence on the
part of the peasants, the rebels have in nearly every
house a friend or even a relative, and news is
passed about constantly through the liaison system until it reaches
the central command of the gorilla force or of the

(02:02:02):
gorilla group that is in the zone. When an enemy
penetration occurs in territory that has become openly pro gorilla.
Where all the peasants respond to the cause of the people,
a serious problem is created. The majority of peasants try
to escape with the popular army, abandoning their children and
their work. Others even carry the whole family some weight

(02:02:23):
upon events. The most serious problem that an enemy penetration
into guerrilla territory can provoke is that of a group
of families finding themselves in a tight, at times desperate situation.
Maximum help should be given to them, but they must
be warned of the troubles that can follow upon a
flight into an hospitable zone so far from their habitual
places of livelihood, exposed to the hardships that usually befall

(02:02:47):
in such cases, it is not possible to describe any
pattern of repression on the part of the enemies of
the people. L though the general methods of repression are
always the same, the enemies of the people at in
a more or less intensely criminal fashion, according to the
specific social, historic and economic circumstances of each place. There

(02:03:08):
are places where the flight of a man into the
gorilla zone, leaving his family and his house, does not
provoke any great reaction. There are others where this is
enough to provoke the burning or seizure of his belongings,
and still others where the flight will bring death to
all members of his family. Adequate distribution and organization of
the peasants who are going to be affected by an

(02:03:29):
enemy advance must of course be arranged according to the
habits that prevail in the war zone or country concerned. Obviously,
preparations must be made to expel the enemy from such
territory by moving against his supplies, completely cutting his lines
of communication, destroying by means of small gorilla bands, his
attempts to supply himself, and in general forcing him to

(02:03:51):
devote large quantities of men to his supply problem. In
all these combat situations, a very important factor is the
correct utilization of reriis deserves wherever battle begins. The gorilla army,
because of its characteristics, can rarely count on reserves, since
it always strikes in such a way that the efforts
of every individual are regulated and employed at something. Nevertheless,

(02:04:15):
despite these characteristics, it should have at some place men
ready to respond to an unforeseen development, to detain a
counter offensive, or to take care of a situation at
any moment. Within the organization of the gorilla band. Assuming
that the conditions and possibilities of the moment permit, a
utility platoon can be held in readiness, a platoon that

(02:04:35):
should always go to the places of greatest danger. It
can be christened that suicide platoon or something similar. This title,
in reality indicates its functions. This suicide platoon should be
in every place where a battle is decided, in the
surprise attacks upon the vanguard, in the defense of the
most vulnerable and dangerous places, in a word, wherever the

(02:04:58):
enemy threatens to break the stability of line of fire.
It ought to be made up strictly of volunteers. Entrance
into this platoon should be regarded almost as a prize
for merit. In time, it becomes the favorite group of
any gorilla column, and the gorilla fighter who wears its
insignia enjoys the admiration and respect of all guerrilla warfare

(02:05:19):
nineteen sixty one five Beginning, Development and end of a
gorilla war. We have now abundantly defined the nature of
goerrilla warfare. Let us next describe the ideal development of
such a war from its beginning as a rising by
a single nucleus on favorable ground. In other words, we

(02:05:40):
are going to theorize once more on the basis of
the Cuban experience. At the outset, there is a more
or less homogeneous group with some arms, that devotes itself
almost exclusively to hiding in the wildest and most inaccessible places,
making little contact with the peasants. It strikes a fortunate
blow and its fame grows. A few peasants dispossessed of

(02:06:02):
their land or engaged in a struggle to conserve it,
and young idealists of other classes join the nucleus. It
acquires greater audacity and starts to operate in inhabited places,
making more contact with the people of the zone. It
repeats attacks, always fleeing after making them. Suddenly it engages
in combat with some column or other and destroys its vanguard.

(02:06:24):
Men continue to join it. It has increased in number,
but its organization remains exactly the same. Its caution diminishes,
and it ventures into more populous zones. Later, it sets
up temporary camps for several days. It abandons these upon
receiving news of the approach of the enemy army, or
upon suffering bombardments, or simply upon becoming suspicious that such

(02:06:45):
risks have arisen. The numbers in the guerrilla band increase
as work among the masses operates to make of each
peasant and enthusiast for the war of liberation. Finally, an
inaccessible place is chosen, a settled life is initiated, and
the first small industries begin to be established. A shoe factory,
a cigar and cigarette factory, a clothing factory, an arms factory,

(02:07:08):
a bakery, hospitals, possibly a radio transmitter, a printing press,
et cetera. The gorilla Band now has an organization, a
new structure. It is the head of a large movement
with all the characteristics of a small government. A court
is established for the administration of justice. Possibly laws are promulgated,

(02:07:30):
and the work of indoctrination of the peasant masses continues,
extended also to workers, if there are any near to
draw them to the cause. An enemy action is launched
and defeated. The number of rifles increases. With these the
number of men fighting with the gorilla Band increases. A
moment arrives when its radius of action will not have

(02:07:50):
increased in the same proportion as its personnel. At that moment,
a force of appropriate size is separated a column or
a platoon perhaps, and this goes to another place of combat.
The work of this second group will begin with somewhat
different characteristics because of the experience that it brings and
because of the influence of the troops of liberation on
the war zone. The original nucleus also continues to grow.

(02:08:14):
It has now received substantial support in food, sometimes in
guns from various places. Men continue to arrive. The administration
of government with the promulgation of laws continues. Schools are established,
permitting the indoctrination and training of recruits. The leaders learn
steadily as the war develops and their capacity of command

(02:08:35):
grows under the added responsibilities of the qualitative and quantitative
increases in their forces. If there are distant territories, a
group departs for them at a certain moment in order
to confirm the advances that have been made and to
continue the cycle. But there will also exist an enemy
territory unfavorable for guerrilla warfare. Their small groups begin to penetrate,

(02:08:59):
assaulting the rodads, destroying bridges, planting mines, sowing disquiet. With
the ups and downs characteristic of warfare, The movement continues
to grow. By this time The extensive work among the
masses makes easy movement of the forces possible in unfavorable territory,
and so opens the final stage, which is suburban guerrilla warfare.

(02:09:20):
Sabotage increases considerably in the whole zone. Life is paralyzed.
The zone is conquered. The gorillas then go into other
zones where they fight with the enemy army along defined fronts.
By now heavy arms have been captured, perhaps even some tanks.
The fight is more equal. The enemy falls when the

(02:09:41):
process of partial victories becomes transformed into final victories, that
is to say, when the enemy is brought to accept
battle in conditions imposed by the gorilla band, where he
is annihilated and his surrender compelled. This is a sketch
that describes what occurred in the different stages of the
Cuban War of Liberation, but it has a content approximating

(02:10:01):
the universal. Nevertheless, it will not always be possible to
count on the degree of intimacy with the people, the
conditions and the leadership that existed in our war. It
is unnecessary to say that Fidel Castro possesses the high
qualities of a fighter and statesman. Our path, our struggle,
and our triumph. We owed to his vision. We cannot

(02:10:23):
say that without him the victory of the people would
not have been achieved, but that victory would certainly have
cost must more and would have been less. Guerrilla Warfare,
nineteen sixty one, Chapter three, Organization of the Gorilla Front. One. Supply.
A good supply system is of basic importance to the
gorilla hand. A group of men in contact with the

(02:10:46):
soil must live from the products of this soil, and
at the same time must see that the livelihood continues
of those who provide the supplies the peasants. Since in
the hard gorilla struggle, it is not possible, above all,
at the beginning for the group to dedicate it its
own energies to producing supplies, not to mention that these
supplies would be easily discovered and destroyed by enemy forces

(02:11:07):
in a territory likely to be completely penetrated by the
action of repressive columns. Supply in the first stages is
always internal. As the gorilla struggle develops, it will be
necessary to arrange supply from outside the limits or territory
of the combat. At the beginning, the band lives solely

(02:11:27):
on what the peasants have. It may be possible to
reach a store occasionally to buy something, but never possible
to have lines of supply, since there is no territory
in which to establish them. The line of supply and
the store of food are conditioned by the development of
the gorilla struggle. The first task is to gain the
absolute confidence of the inhabitants of the zone, and this

(02:11:48):
confidence is won by a positive attitude toward their problems,
by help and a constant program of orientation, by the
defense of their interests, and the punishment of all who
attempt to take advantage of the chaotic moment in which
they live in order to use pressure, dispossess the peasants,
seize their harvests, et cetera. The line should be soft
and hard at the same time, soft and with a

(02:12:10):
spontaneous co operation for all those who honestly sympathize with
the revolutionary movement, hard upon those who are attacking it outright,
fomenting dissensions or simply communicating important information to the enemy army.
Little by little, the territory will be cleared, and there
will then be a greater ease of action. The fundamental
principle that ought to prevail is that of paying always

(02:12:32):
for all merchandise taken from a friend. This merchandise can
consist of crops or of articles from commercial establishments. Many
times they will be donated, but at other times the
economic conditions of the peasantry prevent such donations. There are
cases in which the necessities of warfare force the band
to take needed food from stores without paying for it,

(02:12:54):
simply because there is no money. In such cases, the
merchant ought always to be given a bond, a promissory note,
something that certifies to the debt the bonds of hope
already described. Ft is better to use this method only
with people who are outside the limits of the liberated territory,
and in such cases to pay as soon as possible all,

(02:13:15):
or at least a part of the debt. When conditions
have improved sufficiently to maintain a territory permanently free from
the dominion of the opposing army, it is possible to
set up collective plantings, where the peasants work the land
for the benefit of the gorilla army. In this way,
an adequate food supply of a permanent character is guaranteed.

(02:13:36):
If the number of volunteers for the gorilla army is
much greater than the number of arms, and political circumstances
prevent these men from entering zones dominated by the enemy.
The rebel army can put them to work directly on
the land, harvesting crops. This guarantee supply and adds something
to their record of service looking toward future promotion to
the status of combatants. However, it is more advisable that

(02:13:59):
the peasant themselves so their own crops. This results in
work performed more effectively, with more enthusiasm and skill. When
conditions have ripened even more, it is possible, depending on
the crops involved, to arrange purchases of entire harvests in
such a way that they can remain in the field
or in warehouses for the use of the army. When

(02:14:20):
agencies also charged with the duty of supplying the peasant
population have been established, all food supplies will be concentrated
in these agencies in order to facilitate a system of
barter among the peasants, with the Gorilla Army serving as intermediary.
If conditions continue to improve, taxes can be established. These
should be as light as possible. Above all, for the

(02:14:42):
small producer, it is important to pay attention to every
detail of relations between the peasant class and the gorilla army,
which is an emanation of that class. Taxes may be
collected in money in some cases, or in the form
of a part of the harvest, which will serve to
increase the food supply. Meat is one of the articles

(02:15:02):
of primary necessity. Its production and conservation must be assured.
Farms should be established under peasants having no apparent connection
with the army. If the zone is not secure, they
will devote themselves to the production of chickens, eggs, goats
and pigs, starting with stock that has been bought or
confiscated from the large landowners. In the zones of big

(02:15:25):
estates there are usually large quantities of cattle. These can
be killed and salted, and the meat maintained in condition
for consumption for a long period of time. This will
also produce hides. A leather industry, more or less primitive,
can be developed to provide leather for shoes, one of
the fundamental accessories in the struggle. In general, necessary foods

(02:15:48):
are the following. Depending on the zone, meat, salt, vegetables,
starches or grains. The basic food is always produced by
the peasants. It may be to Malanga, as in the
mountainous regions of Orient Province in Cuba. It may be
corn as in the mountainous regions of Mexico, Central America
and Peru, potatoes also in Peru. In other zones such

(02:16:12):
as Argentina, cattle, wheat in others. But always it is
necessary to assure a supply of the fundamental food for
the troop, as well as some kinds of fat which
permit better food preparation. These may be animal or vegetable fats.
Salt is one of the essential supplies. When the force
is near the sea and in contact with it, small

(02:16:32):
dryers should be established immediately. These will assure some production
in order always to have a reserved stock and the
ability to supply the troops. Remember that in wild places
such as these, where only some of the foods are produced,
it is easy for the enemy to establish an encirclement
that can greatly hurt the flow of supplies to the zone.
It is well to provide against such eventualities through peasant

(02:16:55):
organization and civil organizations. In general, the inhabitants of the
zone should have on hand a minimum food supply that
will permit them at least to survive even though poorly.
During the hardest phases of the struggle, an attempt should
be made to collect rapidly a good provision of foods
that do not decompose. Such grains, for example, as corn, wheat, rice,

(02:17:17):
et cetera, which will last quite a long time. Also flour, salt, sugar,
and canned goods of all types. Further, the necessary seeds
should be sown. A moment will arrive when all the
food problems of the troops in the zone are solved,
but large quantities of other products will be needed. Leather
for shoes if it has not been possible to create

(02:17:38):
an industry for supplying the zone, cloth and all the
accessory items necessary for clothing, paper, a press or miniograph
machine for newspapers, ink, and various other implements. In other words,
the need for articles from the outside world will increase
in the measure that the gorilla bands become organized and
the organization becomes more complex. In order for this need

(02:18:01):
to be met adequately, it is necessary that the organized
lines of supply function perfectly. These organizations are composed basically
of friendly peasants. They should have two poles, one in
the gorilla zone and one in a city departing and
radiating from the gorilla zones. Lines of supply will penetrate
the whole territory, permitting the passage of materials little by

(02:18:25):
little the peasants accustomed themselves to the danger. In small groups,
they can work marvels and come to place the material
that is needed in the indicated spot without running extreme risks.
These movements can be carried out at night with mules
or other similar transport animals or with trucks, depending on
the zone. Thus a very good supply may be achieved.

(02:18:47):
This type of line of supply is for areas near
places of operation. It is also necessary to organize a
line of supply from distant areas. These organizations should produce
the money in the need needed for making purchases and
also the implements that cannot be produced in small towns
or provincial cities. The organization will be nourished with direct

(02:19:09):
donations from sector sympathetic to the struggle, exchanged for secret bonds,
which should be delivered. A strict control over the personnel
charged with the management of this operation should always be maintained.
Serious consequences should follow any neglect of the indispensable moral requisites.
Involved in this responsibility. Purchases can be made with cash

(02:19:31):
and also with bonds of hope when the Gorilla Army,
having departed from its base of operations, menaces a new zone.
In these cases, there is no way to avoid taking
the merchandise from any merchant. He must rely on the
good faith and capabilities of the Gorilla armies to make
good on his account. For all lines of supply that
pass through the country, it is necessary to have a

(02:19:53):
series of houses, terminals or waste stations where supplies may
be hidden during the day while waiting to be moved
by night. Only those directly in charge of the food
supplies should know these houses. The least possible number of
inhabitants should know about this transport operation, and these should
be persons in whom the organization has the greatest confidence.

(02:20:16):
The mule is one of the most useful animals for
these tasks, With an incredible resistance to fatigue and a
capacity to walk in the hilliest zones. The mule can
carry more than one hundred kilograms on its back for
many days. The simplicity of its food needs also makes
it an ideal means of transport. The mule train should

(02:20:36):
be well supplied with shoes. The muleteers should understand their
animals and take the best possible care of them. In
this way, it is possible to have regular four footed
armies with an unbelievable utility. But frequently, despite the strength
of the animal and its capacity to bear up through
the hardest days, difficulty of passage will make it necessary

(02:20:56):
to leave the cargo in fixed sights. In order order
to avoid this necessity, there should be a team charged
with making trails for this class of animals. If all
these conditions are met, if an adequate organization is created,
and if the rebel army maintains excellent relations as needed
with the peasants, an effective and lasting supply for the

(02:21:17):
whole driar is Garry Guerrilla Warfare, nineteen sixty one two.
Civil organization. The civil organization of the insurrectional movement is
very important on both fronts, the external and the internal. Naturally,
these two have characteristics that are as different as their functions,
though they both perform tasks that fall under the same name.

(02:21:40):
The collections that can be carried out on the external front,
for example, are not the same as those which can
take place on the internal front. Neither are the propaganda
and the supply. Let us describe first the tasks on
the internal front. Here we are dealing with a place dominated,
relatively speaking, by the forces of liberation. Also, it is

(02:22:01):
to be supposed that the zone is adapted to guerrilla warfare,
because when these conditions do not exist, when the gorilla
fighting is taking place in poorly adapted terrain, the gorilla
organization increases in extension, but not in depth. It embraces
new places, but it cannot arrive at an internal organization
since the whole zone is penetrated by the enemy. On

(02:22:23):
the internal front, we can have a series of organizations
which perform specific functions for more efficiency in administration. In general,
propaganda belongs directly to the army, but it also can
be separated from the army if kept under its control.
This point is so important that we will treat it separately.
Collections are a function of the civil organization, as are

(02:22:46):
the general tasks of organizing the peasants and workers. If
these are present, one council should govern both of these classes.
Raising supplies, as we explained in a previous chapter, can
be carried out in various ways, through direct or indirect taxes,
through direct or indirect donations, and through confiscations. All this

(02:23:07):
goes to make up the large chapter on supplies for
the Gorilla Army. Keep in mind that the zone ought
by no means to be impoverished by the direct action
of the rebel army, even though the latter will be
responsible indirectly for the impoverishment that results from enemy encirclement,
a fact that the adversary's propaganda will repeatedly point out.
Precisely for this reason, conflicts ought not to be created

(02:23:30):
by direct causes. There ought not, be, for example, any
regulations that prevent the farmers of a zone in liberated
territory from selling their products outside that territory, save in
extreme and transitory circumstances, and with a full explanation of
these interruptions to the peasantry. Every act of the Gorilla
Army ought always to be accompanied by the propaganda necessary

(02:23:53):
to explain the reasons for it. These reasons will generally
be well understood by a peasantry that has sons, fathers, brothers,
or relations within this army, which is therefore something of
their own. In view of the importance of relations with
the peasants, it is necessary to create organizations that make
regulations for them, organizations that exist not only within the

(02:24:16):
liberated area, but also have connections in the adjacent areas.
Precisely through these connections it is possible to penetrate a
zone for a future enlargement of the guerrilla front. The
peasants will sow the seed with oral and written propaganda,
with accounts of life in the other zone, of the
laws that have already been issued for the protection of
the small peasant, of the spirit of sacrifice of the

(02:24:38):
rebel army. In a word, they are creating the necessary
atmosphere for helping the rebel troops. The peasant organizations should
also have connections of some type that will permit the
channeling and sale of crops by the rebel army agencies
in enemy territory through intermediaries more or less benevolent, more
or less friendly to the peasant class. Joined with the

(02:25:00):
devotion to the cause which brings the merchant to defy dangers,
in such cases, there also exists the devotion to money
that leads him to take advantage of the opportunity to
gain profits. We have already spoken in connection with supply
problems of the importance of the department of road construction.
When the guerrilla band has achieved a certain level of development,

(02:25:21):
it no longer wanders about through diverse regions without an encampment.
It has centers that are more or less fixed. Routes
should be established, varying from small paths permitting the passage
of a mule to good roads for trucks. In all this,
the capacity of the organization of the rebel army must
be kept in mind, as well as the offensive capacity

(02:25:41):
of the enemy, who may destroy these constructions and even
make use of roads built by his opponent to reach
the encampments more easily. The fundamental rules should be that
roads are for assisting supply in places where any other
solution would be impossible. They should not be constructed except
in circumstances where there is virtual certainty that the position
can be maintained against an attack by the adversary. Another

(02:26:06):
exception would be roads built without great risk to facilitate
communication between points that are not of vital importance. Furthermore,
other means of communication may be established. One of these
that is extremely important is the telephone. This can be
strung in the forest with the convenience that arises from
using trees for posts, there is the advantage that they

(02:26:29):
are not visible to the enemy from above. The telephone
also presupposes a zone that the enemy cannot penetrate. The
Council or central Department of Justice revolutionary laws and administration
is one of the vital features of a guerrilla army
fully constituted and with territory of its own. The council
should be under the charge of an individual who knows

(02:26:51):
the laws of the country. If he understands the necessities
of the zone from a juridical point of view, this
is better. Yet, he can proceed to prepare a series
of decay crees and regulations that help the peasant to
normalize and institutionalize his life within the rebel zone. For example,
during our experience in the Cuban War, we issued a
penal code, a civil code, rules for supplying the peasantry

(02:27:13):
in Rules of the Agrarian Reform. Subsequently, the laws fixing
qualifications of candidates in the elections that were to be
held later throughout the country were established. Also the Agrarian
Reform Law of the Sierra Maestra. The Council is likewise
in charge of accounting operations for the guerrilla column or columns.
It is responsible for handling money problems and at times

(02:27:36):
intervenes directly in supply. All these recommendations are flexible. They
are based upon an experience in a certain place and
are conditioned by its geography and history. They will be
modified in different geographical, historical and social situations. In addition
to the council, it is necessary to keep the general
health of the zone in mind. This can be done

(02:27:59):
by means of central military hospitals that should give the
most complete assistance possible to the whole peasantry. Whether adequate
medical treatment can be given will depend upon the stage
reached by the revolution. Civil hospitals and civil health administration
are united directly with the Gorilla army, and their functions
are performed by officers and men of the army who

(02:28:20):
have the dual function of caring for the people and
orienting them toward better health. The big health problems among
people in these conditions are rooted in their total ignorance
of elementary principles of hygiene. This aggravates their already precarious situation.
The collection of taxes, as I have already said, is
also a function of the general council. Warehouses are very

(02:28:44):
important as soon as a place is taken that is
to serve as a base for the gorilla band. Warehouses
should be established in the most orderly fashion possible. These
will serve to assure a minimum care of merchandise and
most important, will provide the control needs for equalizing distribution
and keeping it equitable at later times. Functions are different

(02:29:05):
on the external front, both in quantity and in quality.
For example, propaganda should be of a national orienting type,
explaining the victories obtained by the guerrilla band, calling workers
and peasants to effective mass fights, and giving news if
there is any of victories obtained on this front itself.
Solicitation of funds is completely secret. It ought to be

(02:29:28):
carried out with the greatest care possible, isolating small collectors
in a chain completely from the treasurer of the organization.
This organization should be distributed in zones that complement each
other in order to form a totality. Zones that may
be provinces, states, cities, and villages depending on the magnitude
of the movement in each of them. There must be

(02:29:50):
a finance commission that takes charge of the disposal of
funds collected. It is possible to collect money by selling
bonds or through direct donations. When the development of the
struggle is more advanced, taxes may be collected. When industries
come to recognize the great force that the insurrectional army possesses,
they will consent to pay supply. Procurement should be fitted

(02:30:13):
to the necessities of the guerrilla bands. It will be
organized in the form of a chain of merchandise in
such a way that the more common articles are procured
in nearby places, and the things that are really scarce
or impossible to procure locally in larger centers. The effort
always is to keep the chain as limited as possible,
known to the smallest number of men. It can thus

(02:30:34):
perform its mission for a longer time. Sabotage should be
directed by the civil organization in the external sector, in
coordination with the central command. In special circumstances, after careful analysis,
assaults on persons will be used. In general, we consider
that this is not desirable except for the purpose of

(02:30:54):
eliminating some figure who is notorious for his villainies against
the people and the virulence of his repression. Our experience
in the Cuban struggle shows that it would have been
possible to save the lives of numerous fine comrades who
were sacrificed in the performance of missions of small value.
Several times these ended with enemy bullets of reprisal on
combatants whose loss could not be compared with the results obtained.

(02:31:18):
Assaults and terrorism in indiscriminate form should not be employed.
More preferable is effort directed at large concentrations of people
in whom the revolutionary idea can be planted and nurtured,
so that at a critical moment, they can be mobilized and,
with the help of the armed forces, contribute to a
favorable balance on the side of the revolution. For this,

(02:31:39):
it is necessary also to make use of popular organizations
of workers, professional people, and peasants who work at sowing
the seed of the revolution among their respective masses, explaining,
providing revolutionary publications for reading, teaching the truth. One of
the characteristics of revolutionary propaganda must be truth, little by little.

(02:32:00):
In this way, the masses will be won over. Those
among them who do the best work may be chosen
for incorporation into the rebel army or assignment to other
tasks of great responsibility. This is the outline of civil
organization within an outside guerrilla territory at a time of
popular struggle. There are possibilities of perfecting all these features

(02:32:22):
to a high degree. I repeat once more, it is
our Cuban experience which speaks through me. New experiences can
vary and improve these concepts. We offer an outlabar, not
a guerrilla warfare nineteen sixty one Free. The role of
the woman, The part that the woman can play in
the development of a revolutionary process is of extraordinary importance.

(02:32:46):
It is well to emphasize this since in all our countries,
with their colonial mentality, there is a certain underestimation of
the woman, which becomes a real discrimination against her. The
woman is capable of performing the most difficult tasks of
fighting beside the men, and despite current belief, she does
not create conflicts of a sexual type in the troops.

(02:33:08):
In the rigorous combatant life, the woman is a companion
who brings the qualities appropriate to her sex. But she
can work the same as a man, and she can fight.
She is weaker, but no less resistant than he. She
can perform every class of combat task that a man
can at a given moment, and on certain occasions in
the Cuban struggle, she performed a relief role. Naturally, the

(02:33:30):
combatant women are a minority. When the internal front is
being consolidated, and it is desirable to remove as many
combatants as possible who do not possess indispensable physical characteristics.
The women can be assigned a considerable number of specific occupations,
of which one of the most important, perhaps the most important,
is communication between different combatant forces, above all between those

(02:33:54):
that are in enemy territory. The transport of objects, messages,
or money of sar small size and great importance should
be confided to women, in whom the Gorilla army has
absolute confidence, women can transport them using a thousand tricks.
It is a fact that, however brutal the repression, however
thorough the searching, the woman receives a less harsh treatment

(02:34:15):
than the man, and can carry her message or other
object of an important or confidential character to its destination.
As a simple messenger, either by word of mouth or
of writing. The woman can always perform her task with
more freedom than the man, attracting less attention and at
the same time inspiring less fear of danger in the
enemy soldier. He who commits brutalities, acts frequently under the

(02:34:38):
impulse of fear or apprehension that he himself will be attacked,
since this is one form of action in guerrilla warfare,
contacts between separated forces, messages to the exterior of the lines,
even to the exterior of the country. Also, objects of
considerable size, such as bullets, are transported by women in
special belts worn beneath their skirts. But also in this

(02:35:01):
stage a woman can perform her habitual tasks of peace time.
It is very pleasing to a soldier, subjected to the
extremely hard conditions of this life, to be able to
look forward to a seasoned meal which tastes like something.
One of the great tortures of the war was eating
a cold, sticky, tasteless mess The woman as cook can
greatly improve the diet, and furthermore, it is easier to

(02:35:24):
keep her in these domestic tasks. One of the problems
in guerrilla bands is that all works of a civilian
character are scorned by those who perform them. They are
constantly trying to get out of these tasks in order
to enter into forces that are actively in combat. A
task of great importance for women is to teach beginning
reading including revolutionary theory, primarily to the peasants of the zone,

(02:35:47):
but also to the revolutionary soldiers. The organization of schools,
which is a part of the civil organization, should be
done principally through women, who arouse more enthusiasm among children
and enjoy more affection for the school community. Likewise, when
the fronts have been consolidated and a rear exists, the
functions of the social worker also fall to women, who

(02:36:09):
investigate the various economic and social evils of the zone,
with a view to changing them as far as possible.
The woman plays an important part in medical matters as
nurse and even as doctor, with a gentleness infinitely superior
to that of her rude companion in arms, a gentleness
that is so much appreciated at moments when a man
is helpless without comforts, perhaps suffering severe pain, and exposed

(02:36:32):
to the many dangers of all classes that are a
part of this type of war. Once the stage of
creating small war industries has begun, the woman can also
contribute here, especially in the manufacture of uniforms, a traditional
employment of women in Latin American countries. With a simple
sewing machine and a few patterns, she can perform marvels.

(02:36:54):
Women can take part in all lines of civil organization.
They can replace men perfectly well, and ought to do
so even where persons are needed for carrying weapons, though
this is a rare accident. In gorilla life. It is
important to give adequate indoctrination to men and women in
order to avoid all kinds of misbehavior that can operate

(02:37:14):
to hurt the morale of the troops. But persons who
are otherwise free and who love each other should be
permitted to marry in the sierra and live as man
and wife after complying with the simple requirements of the
gorilla guerrilla warfare nineteen sixty one four Medical problems. One
of the grave problems that confronts the gorilla fighter is
exposure to the accidents of his life, especially to wounds

(02:37:37):
and sicknesses, which are very frequent in guerrilla warfare. The
doctor performs a function of extraordinary importance in the gorilla band,
not only in saving lives, in which many times his
scientific intervention does not count because of the limited resources
available to him, but also in the task of reinforcing
the patient morally and making him feel that there is

(02:37:58):
a person near him who is dead with all his
force to minimizing his pains. He gives the wounded or
sick the security of knowing that a person will remain
at his side until he is cured or has past danger.
The organization of hospitals depends largely upon the stage of
development of the gorilla band. Three fundamental types of hospital organization,

(02:38:19):
corresponding to various stages, can be mentioned. In this development,
we have a first nomadic phase. In it the doctor,
if there is one, travels constantly with his companions, is
just another man. He will probably have to perform all
the other functions of the gorilla fighter, including that of fighting,
and will suffer at times the depressing and desperate task

(02:38:41):
of treating cases in which the means of saving life
are not available. This is the stage in which the
doctor has the most influence over the troops the greatest
importance for their morale. During this period in the development
of the gorilla band, the doctor achieves to the full
his character of a true priest who seems to carry
an a scantily equipped knapsack needed consolation for the men.

(02:39:04):
The value of a simple aspirin to one who is
suffering is beyond calculation. When it is given by the
friendly hand of one who sympathetically makes the suffering his own. Therefore,
the doctor in the first stage should be a man
who is totally identified with the ideals of the revolution,
because his words will affect the troops much more deeply
than those spoken by any other member. In the normal

(02:39:26):
course of events. In guerrilla warfare, another stage is reached
that could be called semi nomadic. In it, there are
encampments more or less frequented by the guerrilla troops, friendly
houses of complete confidence, where it is possible to store
objects and even leave the wounded, and a growing tendency
for the troop to become settled. At this stage, the

(02:39:46):
task of the doctor is less trying. He may have
emergency surgical equipment in his knapsack and another more complete
outfit for less urgent operations. In a friendly house, it
is possible to leave the sick and wounded in a
care of peasants who will give them help with great devotion.
He can also count on a larger number of medicines
kept in convenient places. These should be completely cataloged as

(02:40:08):
well as possible, considering the circumstances in which he lives.
In this same semi nomadic state. If the band operates
in places that are absolutely inaccessible, hospitals can be established
to which the sick and wounded will go for recovery.
In the third stage, when there are zones invulnerable to
the enemy, a true hospital organization is constructed. In its

(02:40:31):
most developed form, it can consist of three centers of
different types. In the combat category, there ought to be
a doctor the combatant, the most loved by the troop,
the man of battle, whose knowledge does not have to
be too deep. I say this because his task is
principally one of giving relief and of preparing the sick
or wounded, while the real medical work is performed in

(02:40:53):
hospitals more securely situated. A surgeon of quality ought not
to be sacrificed in the line of fire. When a
man falls in the front line, stretcher bearers, if these
are available, given the organization of the gorilla band, will
carry him to the first post. If they are not available,
his companions themselves will perform this duty. Transport of the

(02:41:14):
wounded and rough zones is one of the most delicate
of all tasks and one of the most painful experiences.
In a soldier's life. Perhaps the transport of a wounded
man is harder on all concerned because of his sufferings
and of the spirit of sacrifice in the troop, than
the fact itself of being wounded. However grave it may be.
The transport can be carried out in different ways according

(02:41:37):
to the characteristics of the ground. In rough and wooded places,
which are typical in guerrilla warfare, it is necessary to
walk single file. Here, the best system is to use
a long pole with the patient carried in a hammock
that hangs from it. The men take turns carrying the weight,
one before and one behind. They should yield place to

(02:41:59):
two other companies onions frequently, since the shoulders suffer severely
in the individual gradually wears himself out carrying this delicate
and heavy burden. When the wounded soldier has passed through
this first hospital, he then goes with the information as
to what has been done for him, to a second center,
where there are surgeons and specialists, depending upon the possibilities
of the troop. Here, the more serious operations needed for

(02:42:22):
saving life or relieving individuals from danger are performed afterwards
at a third level hospitals, with the greatest comforts possible
are established for direct investigation in the zones effected of
the causes and effects of illnesses that afflict the inhabitants
of the area. These hospitals of the third group, which
correspond to a sedentary life, are not only centers of

(02:42:45):
convalescence and of operations of less urgency, but also establishments
serving the civil population where the hygianists perform their orienting function.
Dispensaries that will permit an adequate individual surveillance should also
be established. The hospitals of this third group can have,
if the supply capability of the civil organization permits, a

(02:43:06):
series of facilities that provide diagnosis, even with laboratory in
X ray facilities. Other useful individuals are the assistants to
the doctor. They are generally youths with something of a
vocation in some knowledge, with fairly strong physiques. They do
not bear arms, sometimes because their vocation is medicine, but
usually because there are insufficient arms for all who want them.

(02:43:30):
These assistants will be in charge of carrying most of
the medicines an extra stretcher or hammock. If circumstances make
this possible, they must take charge of the wounded. In
any battle that is fought, the necessary medicines should be
obtained through contacts with health organizations that exist in territory
of the enemy. Sometimes they can be obtained from such

(02:43:51):
organizations as the International Red Cross, but this possibility should
not be counted upon, especially in the first moments of
the struggle. It is necessary to organize an apparatus that
will permit rapid transport of needed medicines in case of danger,
and that will gradually supply all the hospitals with the
supplies needed for their work, military as well as civil. Also,

(02:44:14):
contacts should be made in the surrounding areas with doctors
who will be capable of helping the wounded whose cases
are beyond the capacities or the facilities of the gorilla band.
Doctors needed for this type of warfare are of different characteristics.
The combatant doctor the companion of men, is the type
for the first stage. His functions develop as the action

(02:44:35):
of the gorilla band becomes more complicated and a series
of connected organisms are constructed. General surgeons are the best
acquisition for an army of this type. If an anesthetist
is available, so much the better. Though almost all operations
are performed not with gas anesthesia, but using largactil and
sodium pentethol, which are much easier to administer and easier

(02:44:58):
to procure and conserve. Besides general surgeons, bone specialists are
very useful because fractures occur frequently from accidents in the zone.
Bullets producing this type of wound in limbs also frequently
cause them. The clinic serves the peasant mass, mainly since
in general sicknesses in the guerrilla armies are so easy

(02:45:18):
of diagnosis as to be within the reach of anybody.
The most difficult task is the cure of those produced
by nutritional deficiencies. In a more advanced stage. There may
even be laboratory technicians if there are good hospitals. In
order to have a complete outfit, calls should be made
to all sectors of the profession whose services are needed.

(02:45:39):
It is quite likely that many will respond to this
call and come to lend their help. Professionals of all
classes are needed. Surgeons are very useful dentists as well.
Dentists should be advised to come with a simple campaign
apparatus and a campaign type drill. Working with this, they
can do practically everything ness guerrilla Warfare nineteen sixty one

(02:46:01):
five sabotage. Sabotage is one of the invaluable arms of
a people that fights in gorilla form. Its organization falls
under the civil or clandestine branch, since sabotage should be
carried out, of course, only outside the territories dominated by
the revolutionary army. But this organization should be directly commanded

(02:46:22):
and oriented by the general staff of the guerrillas, which
will be responsible for deciding the industries, communications, or other
objectives that are to be attacked. Sabotage has nothing to
do with terrorism. Terrorism and personal assaults are entirely different tactics.
We sincerely believe that terrorism is of negative value, that

(02:46:43):
it by no means produces the desired effects, that it
can turn a people against a revolutionary movement, and that
it can bring a loss of lives to its agents
out of proportion to what it produces. On the other hand,
attempts to take the lives of particular persons are to
be made, though only in very very special circumstances. This
tactic should be used where it will eliminate a leader

(02:47:04):
of the oppression. What ought never to be done is
to employ specially trained heroic self sacrificing human beings in
eliminating a little assassin whose death can provoke the destruction
in reprisal of all the revolutionaries employed in even more.
Sabotage should be of two types, sabotage on a national
scale against determined objectives and local sabotage against lines of combat.

(02:47:29):
Sabotage on a national scale should be aimed principally at
destroying communications. Each type of communication can be destroyed in
a different way. All of them are vulnerable. For example,
telegraph and telephone poles are easily destroyed by sawing them
almost all the way through, so that at night they
appear to be in normal condition. A sudden kick causes

(02:47:51):
one pole to fall, and this drags along with it
all those that are weak, producing a blackout of considerable extent.
Bridges can be attacked with dynam If there is no dynamite,
those made of steel can be made to fall very
easily with an oxyacettle and blowtorch. A steel truss bridge
should be cut in its main beam and in the
upper beam from which the bridge hangs. When these two

(02:48:14):
beams have been cut at one end with the torch,
they are then cut at the opposite end, the bridge
will fall completely on one side and will be twisted
and destroyed. This is the most effective way to knock
out a steel bridge without dynamite. Railroads should also be destroyed,
as should roads and culverts. At times, trains should be

(02:48:35):
blown up if the power of the gorilla band makes
this possible. Utilizing the necessary equipment will also destroy the
vital industries of each region at certain moments. In these cases,
it is necessary to have an overall view of the
problem and to be sure that a center of work
is not destroyed unless the moment is decisive. Since this

(02:48:55):
brings with it, as a consequence, massive unemployment of workers
in hunger, the enterprises belonging to the potentates of the
regime should be eliminated, and attempts made to convince the
workers of the need for doing so, unless this will
bring very grave social consequences. We reiterate the importance of
sabotage against communications. The great strength of the enemy army

(02:49:17):
against the rebels in the flatter zones is rapid communication.
We must then constantly undermine that strength by knocking out
railroad bridges, culverts, electric lights, telephones. Also aqueducts, and in general,
everything that is necessary for a normal and modern life
around the combat line. Sabotage should be performed in the

(02:49:37):
same way, but with much more audacity, with much more
dedication and frequency. Here it is possible to count on
the invaluable aid of the flying patrols of the guerrilla army,
which can descend into these zones and help the members
of the civil organization perform a given task. Again, sabotage
ought to be aimed principally at communications, but with much

(02:49:58):
more persistence. All factories, all centers of production that are
capable of giving the enemy something needed to maintain his
offensive against the popular forces ought also to be liquidated.
Emphasis should be placed on seizing merchandise, cutting supplies as
much as possible, if necessary, frightening the large landowners who
want to sell their farm products, burning vehicles that travel

(02:50:21):
along the roads, and using them to blockade the roads.
It is expedient in every action of sabotage that frequent
contact be made with the enemy army at points not
far away, always following the system of hit and run.
It is not necessary to put up a serious resistance,
but simply to show the adversary that in the area
where the sabotage has been carried out there are guerrilla

(02:50:43):
forces disposed to fight. This forces him to take a
large number of troops to go with care or not
to go at all. Thus, little by little, all the
cities in the zone surrounding guerrilla operations will be periled.
Guerrilla warfare nineteen sixty one six. War industry. Industries of

(02:51:04):
war within the sector of the gorilla army must be
the product of a rather long evolution. They also depend
upon control of territory in a geographic situation favorable for
the gorilla. At a time when there are liberated zones
and when the enemy establishes strict blockades, over all supplies,
different departments will be organized as necessary in the manner

(02:51:25):
already described. There are two fundamental industries, of which one
is the manufacture of shoes and leather goods. It is
not possible for a troop to walk without shoes in
wooded zones hilly with many rocks and thorns. It is
very difficult to march without shoes in such conditions. Only
the natives, and not all of them, can do it.

(02:51:48):
The rest must have shoes. The industry is divided into
two parts, one for putting on half saws and repairing
damaged shoes. The other will be devoted to the manufacture
of rough shoes. There should be a small but complete
apparatus for making shoes. Since this is a simple industry
practiced by many people in such regions, it is very

(02:52:08):
easy to procure. Connected with the shoe repair works, there
ought always to be a shop making all classes of
canvas and leather goods for use by the troop, such
as cartridge belts and knapsacks. Although these articles are not vital,
they contribute to comfort and give a feeling of autonomy,
of adequate supply, and of self reliance to the troop.

(02:52:29):
An armory is the other fundamental industry for the small
internal organization of the guerrilla band. This also has different functions,
that of simple repair of damaged weapons of rifles and
other available arms, the function of manufacturing certain types of
combat arms that the inventiveness of the people will create,
and the preparation of minds with various mechanisms. When conditions permit,

(02:52:54):
equipment for the manufacture of powder may be added. If
it is possible to manufacture the explosive as well as
the percussion mechanisms in free territory. Brilliant achievements can be
scored in this category, which is a very important one
because communications by road can be completely paralyzed by the
adequate employment of mines. Another group of industries that has

(02:53:15):
its importance will make iron and tin. Products. In the
iron works will be centered all labor connected with the
equipping of the mules, such as making their shoes. In
the tin works, the fabrication of plates and especially of
canteens is important. A foundry can be joined with the
tin works. By melting soft metals. It is possible to

(02:53:37):
make grenades, which, with a special type of charge, will
contribute in an important way to the armament of the troop.
There ought to be a technical team for general repair
and construction work of varied types, the service battery, as
it is called in regular armies. With the guerrillas, it
would operate as such, taking care of all necessities, but
without any vestige of the bureaucratic spirit. Some one must

(02:54:01):
be in charge of communications. He will have as his
responsibility not only propaganda communications such as radio directed toward
the outside, but also telephones and roads of all types.
We will use the civil organization as necessary in order
to perform his duties effectively. Remember that we are in
a period of war, subject to attack by the military,

(02:54:23):
and that often many lives depend upon timely communication. For
accommodating the troop, it is well to have cigarette and
cigar factories. The leaf can be bought in selected places
and carried to free territory, where the articles for consumption
by the soldiers can be manufactured. An industry for preparing
leather from hides is also of great importance. All these

(02:54:46):
are simple enterprises that can operate quite well anywhere and
are easy to establish in the guerrilla situation. The industry
for making leather requires some small construction with cement. Also,
it uses large amounts of salt, but it will be
an enormous advantage to the shoe industry to have its
own supply of raw material. Salt should be made in

(02:55:06):
revolutionary territory and accumulated in large quantities. It is made
by evaporating water of a high saline concentration. The sea
is the best source, though there may be others. It
is not necessary to purify it of other ingredients for
purposes of consumption, though these give it a flavor that
is disagreeable at first. Meat should be conserved in the

(02:55:30):
form of jerked beef, which is easy to prepare. This
can save many lives among the troops in extreme situations.
It can be conserved with salt in large barrels for
a fairly long time, and it can then be eaten
in any circumstance. Guerrilla Warfare nineteen sixty one seven. Propaganda

(02:55:50):
the revolutionary idea should be diffused by means of appropriate
media to the greatest depth possible. This requires complete equipment
and an organization. This organization should be of two types,
which complement each other in covering the whole national area
for propaganda originating outside free territory that is from the

(02:56:10):
national civil organization, and propaganda originating within that is, from
the base of the Gorilla army. In order to co
ordinate these two propagandas the functions of which are strictly related,
there should be a single director for the whole effort.
Propaganda of the national type from civil organizations outside free
territory should be distributed in newspapers, bulletins and proclamations. The

(02:56:35):
most important newspapers will be devoted to general matters in
the country and will inform the public exactly of the
state of the gorilla forces, observing always the fundamental principle
that truth, in the long run is the best policy.
Besides these publications of general interests, there must be others,
more specialized for different sectors of the population. A publication

(02:56:57):
for the countryside should bring to the peasant class a
message from their companions in all the free zones, who
have already felt the beneficial effects of the revolution. This
strengthens the aspirations of the peasantry. A worker's newspaper will
have similar characteristics, with the sole difference that it cannot
always offer a message from the combatant part of that class.
Since it is likely that workers organizations will not operate

(02:57:20):
within the framework of guerrilla warfare until the last stages,
the great watchwords of the revolutionary movement, the watchword of
a general strike at an opportune moment, of help to
the rebel forces of unity, et cetera, should be explained.
Other periodicals can be published, for example, one explaining the
tasks of those elements in the whole island which are

(02:57:42):
not combatants, but which nevertheless carry out diverse acts of sabotage,
of attempts, et cetera. Within the organization there can be
periodicals aimed at the enemy's soldiers. These will explain facts
of which they are otherwise kept ignorant. News bulletins and
proclamations about the movement are very useful. The most effective

(02:58:03):
propaganda is that which is prepared within the gorilla zone.
Priority will be given to the diffusion of ideas among
natives of the zone, offering explanations of the theoretical significance
of the insurrection already known to them as a fact.
In this zone there will also be peasant periodicals the
general organ of all the gorilla forces, and bulletins and proclamations.

(02:58:26):
There will also be the radio. All problems should be
discussed by radio, for example, the way to defend oneself
from air attacks and location of the enemy forces, citing
familiar names among them. Propaganda for the whole nation will
use newspapers of the same type as those prepared outside
Free territory, but it can produce fresher in more exact

(02:58:47):
news reporting facts and battles that are extremely interesting to
the reader. Information on international affairs will be confined almost
exclusively to commentary on facts that are directly related to
the struggle of liberation. The propaganda that will be the
most effective, in spite of everything, that which will spread
most freely over the whole national area to reach the

(02:59:08):
reason and the sentiments of the people, is words over
the radio. The radio is a factor of extraordinary importance
at moments when war fever is more or less palpitating
in every one in a region or a country. The
inspiring burning word increases this fever and communicates it to
every one of the future combatants. It explains, teaches fires,

(02:59:31):
and fixes the future positions of both friends and enemies. However,
the radio should be ruled by the fundamental principle of
popular propaganda, which is truth. It is preferable to tell
the truth small in its dimensions than a large light
artfully embellished on the radio. News should be given, especially
of battles, of encounters of all types, and assassinations committed

(02:59:54):
by the repression, Also doctrinal orientations and practical lessons to
the civil population, and from time to time speeches by
the chiefs of the revolution. We consider it useful that
the principal newspaper of the movement bear a name that
recalls something great and unifying, perhaps a national hero or
something similar. Also, it should explain in articles of depth

(03:00:17):
where the armed movement is going. It ought to create
a consciousness of the great national problems, besides offering sections
of more lively interest for the rilla warfare nineteen sixty
one eight intelligence Know yourself and your adversary, and you
will be able to fight a hundred battles without a
single disaster. This Chinese aphorism is as valuable for guerrilla

(03:00:40):
warfare as a biblical psalm. Nothing gives more help to
combatant forces than correct information. This arrives spontaneously from the
local inhabitants, who will come to tell its friendly army,
its allies what is happening in various places. But in
addition it should be completely systematized. As we saw, there

(03:01:00):
should be a postal organization with necessary contacts both within
and outside gorilla zones for carrying messages and merchandise. An
intelligence service also should be in direct contact with enemy fronts.
Men and women, especially women, should infiltrate. They should be
in permanent contact with soldiers and gradually discover what there

(03:01:21):
is to be discovered. The system must be coordinated in
such a way that crossing the enemy lines into the
gorilla camp can be carried out without mishap. If this
is well done with competent agents, the insurgent camp will
be able to sleep more quietly. This intelligence will be
concerned principally, as I have already said, with the front

(03:01:41):
line of fire or the forward enemy encampments that are
in contact with no man's land. But it ought also
to develop in the same measure as the gorilla band develops,
increasing its depth of operation and its potential to foresee
larger troop movements in the enemy rear. Though all inhabitants
are intelligence agents for the gorilla Band, and in the
places where it is dominant or makes incursions, it is

(03:02:03):
wise to have persons especially assigned to this duty. The peasants,
not accustomed to precise battle language, have a strong tendency
to exaggerate, so their reports must be checked. As the
spontaneous forms of popular collaboration are molded and organized, it
is possible to use the intelligence apparatus not only as
an extremely important auxiliary, but also as a weapon of attack.

(03:02:26):
By using its personnel, for example, as sours of fear,
pretending to be on the side of the enemy soldiers,
they sow fear an instability by spreading discouraging information. By
knowing exactly the places where the enemy troop is going
to attack, it is easy to avoid him, or, when
the time is ripe, to attack him at places where

(03:02:47):
it is least expected mobility. The basic tactic can be
developed to the mac Guerrilla Warfare nineteen sixty one nine.
Training and indoctrination. The fundamental training of the soldier of
liberation is the life itself with the gorilla band, and
no one can be a chief who has not learned
his difficult office in daily armed exercises. Life with some

(03:03:11):
companions will teach something about the handling of arms, about
principles of orientation, about the manner of treating the civil population,
about fighting, et cetera. But the precious time of the
gorilla band is not to be consumed in methodical teaching.
This begins only when there is a large liberated area
and a large number of persons are needed for carrying

(03:03:32):
out a combat function. Schools for recruits will then be established.
These schools then perform a very important function. They are
to form new soldiers from persons who have not passed
through that excellent sieve of formidable privations, gorilla combatant life,
other privations must be suffered at the outset to convert

(03:03:52):
them into the truly chosen. After having passed through very
difficult tests, they will arrive at incorporating themselves into the
kingdom of an army that lives from day to day
and leaves no traces of its path anywhere. They ought
to perform physical exercises mainly of two types, an agile
gymnastic with training for war of a commando type which

(03:04:13):
demands agility in attack and withdrawal, and hikes that are
hard and exhausting that will serve to toughen the recruit
for this kind of existence. Above all, they should live
in the open air. They should suffer all the inclemencies
of the weather, in close contact with nature, as the
gorilla band does. The school for recruits must have workers

(03:04:33):
who will take care of its supply needs. For this,
there should be cattle sheds, grain sheds, gardens, dairy everything
necessary so that the school will not constitute a charge
on the general budget of the Gorilla Army. The students
can serve in rotation in the work of supply, either
as punishment for bad conduct or simply as volunteers. This

(03:04:56):
will depend upon characteristics proper to the zone where the
school is being held. We believe that a good principle
is to assign volunteers and to cover the remaining work
quotas with those who have the poorest conduct and show
the poorest disposition for learning warfare. The school should have
its small medical organization with a doctor or nurse according

(03:05:16):
to the p zero five stabilities. This will provide the
recruits with the best possible attention. Shooting is the basic
apprenticeship see picture three to one. The guerrilla fighter should
be carefully trained in this respect so that he will
try to expend the least possible amount of ammunition. He
begins by practicing what is called dry shooting. It consists

(03:05:39):
of seating the rifle firmly on any kind of wooden
apparatus as shown in the picture, without moving or firing
the rifle. The recruits direct the movement of a target
until they think they have a hole at the center
exactly in the line of sight. A mark is made
on a backboard that remains stationary. If the mark for
three tries gives a single point, this is excellent when

(03:06:02):
circumstances permit practice with twenty two caliber rifles will begin.
This is very useful. If there is an excess of
ammunition or a great need for preparing soldiers, opportunity will
be given to fire with bullets. One of the most
important courses in the school for recruits, one which we
hold to be basic and which can be given in

(03:06:22):
any place in the world, is in meeting attack from
the ere. Our school had been positively identified from the
air and received attacks once or twice daily. The form
in which the students resisted the impact of these continuous
bombardments on their regular places of instruction virtually showed which
of the young men had possibilities for becoming useful soldiers
in battle. The important thing that which must never be

(03:06:46):
neglected in a school for recruits is indoctrination. This is
important because the men arrive without a clear conception as
to why they come, with nothing more than very diffuse
concepts about liberty, freedom of the press, et cetera, without
any foundation whatever. Therefore, the indoctrination should be carried out
with maximum dedication and for the maximum amount of time possible.

(03:07:09):
These courses should offer elementary notions about the history of
the country, explained with a clear sense of the economic
facts that motivate each of the historic acts, accounts of
the national heroes and their manner of reacting when confronted
with certain injustices, and afterwards an analysis of the national
situation or of the situation in the zone. A short

(03:07:30):
primer should be well studied by all members of the
rebel army, so that it can serve as a skeleton
of that which will come later. There should also be
a school for training teachers, where agreement can be reached
on the choice of texts to be used, taking as
a basis the contribution that each book can make to
the educational process. Reading should be encouraged at all times,

(03:07:51):
with an effort to promote books that are worth while
and that enlarge the recruit's facility to encounter the world
of letters and great national problems. Further reading will follow
as a vocation. The surrounding circumstances will awaken new desires
for understanding in the soldiers. This result will be produced when,
little by little the recruits observed in their routine tasks

(03:08:13):
the enormous advantages of men who have passed through the
school over the remainder of the troop, their capacity for
analyzing problems their superior discipline, which is another of the
fundamental things that the school should teach. This discipline should
be internal, not mechanical, but justified by reasons and designed
to produce formidable benefits. Enharments of Corilla Warfare nineteen sixty

(03:08:34):
one ten. The organizational structure of the army of a
revolutionary movement, as we have seen, a revolutionary army of
a guerrilla type, whatever its zone of operations, should also
have a non combatant organization for the performance of a
series of extremely important auxiliary missions. We shall see later

(03:08:55):
that this whole organization converges to lend the army maximum help,
since obviously the armed fight is the crucial factor in
the triumph. The military organization is headed by a commander
in chief, in the case of the Cuban experience, by
a commandant who names the commanders of the different regions
or zones. These latter have authority to govern their respective

(03:09:15):
territories of action, to name column commanders, that is to say,
the chiefs of each column and the other lower officers.
Under the commander in chief. There will be the zone
commanders under them, several columns of varying size, each with
a column commander. Under the column commanders, there will be
captains and lieutenants, which in our guerrilla organization were the

(03:09:36):
lowest grade. In other words, the first rank above the
soldiers was the lieutenant. This is not a model, but
a description of one reality of how the organization worked
in one country, where it proved possible to achieve triumph
over an army that was fairly well organized and armed,
even less here than in other respects. Is our experience

(03:09:57):
a pattern. It simply shows how, as events develop, it
is possible to organize an armed force. The ranks certainly
have no importance, but it is important that no rank
should be conferred that does not correspond to the effective
battle force. Commanded ranks should not be given to persons
who have not passed through the sieve of sacrifice and struggle,

(03:10:18):
for that would conflict with morality injustice. The description given
above refers to a well developed army already capable of
waging a serious combat. In the first stage of the
gorilla band. The chief can take the rank he likes,
but he will still command only a small group of men.
One of the most important features of military organization is

(03:10:40):
disciplinary punishment. Discipline must be one of the bases of
action of the guerrilla forces. This must be repeated again
and again. As we have already said, it should spring
from a carefully reasoned internal conviction. This produces an individual
with inner discipline. When this discipline is violated, it is
necessary always to punish the offender, whatever his rank, and

(03:11:03):
to punish him drastically in a way that hurts. This
is important because pain is not felt by a guerrilla
soldier in the same way as by a soldier of
the regular army. The punishment of putting a soldier in
jail for ten days constitutes for the guerrilla fighter a
magnificent period of rest, ten days with nothing to do
but eat, no marching, no work, no standing, the customary

(03:11:26):
guards sleeping at will, resting, reading, et cetera. From this,
it can be deduced that deprivation of liberty ought not
to be the only punishment available in the gorilla situation.
When the combat morale of the individual is very high
and self respect strong, deprivation of his right to be
armed can constitute a true punishment for the individual and

(03:11:48):
provoke a positive reaction. In such cases, this is an
expedient punishment. The following painful incident is an example. During
the battle for one of the cities of lasts Villa's
province in the final days of the war, we found
an individual asleep in a chair while others were attacking
positions in the middle of the town. When questioned, the

(03:12:10):
man responded that he was sleeping because he had been
deprived of his weapon for firing accidentally. He was told
that this was not the way to react to punishment,
and that he should regain his weapon, not in this way,
but in the first line of combat. A few days passed,
and as the final assault on the city of Santa
Clara began, we visited the first aid hospital. A dying

(03:12:32):
man there extended his hand. Recalling the episode one have narrated,
affirmed that he had been capable of recovering his weapon
and had earned the right to carry it. Shortly afterwards,
he died. This was the grade of revolutionary morale that
our troop achieved through the continual exercise of armed struggle.
It is not possible to achieve it at the outset,

(03:12:53):
when there are still many who are frightened, and subjective
currents served to put a brake on the influence of
the revolution. But Finally, it is reached through work and
through the force of continual example, long night watches and
forced marches can also serve as punishments, but the marches
are not really practical, since they consume the individual to
no purpose other than that of punishment, and they require

(03:13:15):
guards who also wear themselves out. The guards suffer the
further inconvenience of having to keep a watch on the
persons being punished, who are soldiers of scant revolutionary mentality
in the forces directly under my command. I impose the
punishment of arrest with privation of suites and cigarettes for
light offenses, and a total deprivation of food for worse offenses.

(03:13:37):
The result was magnificent, even though the punishment was terrible.
It is advisable only in very special circumstance. Guerrilla Warfare
nineteen sixty one, Appendices one organization in secret of the
first Gorilla Band. Guerrilla warfare obeys laws, some derived from
the general Laws of war and others owing to its

(03:13:59):
own special character. If there is a real intention to
begin the struggle from some foreign coup nine try, or
from distant and remote regions within the same country, it
is obvious that it must begin in small conspiratorial movements
of secret members acting without mass support or knowledge. If
the gorilla movement is borne spontaneously out of the reaction

(03:14:19):
of a group of individuals to some form of coercion,
it is possible that the later organization of this gorilla
nucleus to prevent its annihilation will be sufficient for a beginning.
But generally gorilla warfare starts from a well considered act
of will. Some chief with prestige starts in uprising for
the salvation of his people, beginning his work in difficult

(03:14:40):
conditions in a foreign country. Almost all the popular movements
undertaken against dictators in recent times have suffered from the
same fundamental fault of inadequate preparation. The rules of conspiracy,
which demand extreme secrecy and caution, have not generally been observed.
The governmental power of the country frequently knows in advance

(03:15:01):
about the intentions of the group or groups, either through
its secret service or from imprudent revelations, or in some cases,
from outright declarations, as occurred, for example, in our case,
in which the invasion was announced and summed up in
the phrase of Fidel Castro in the year fifty six.
We will be free or we will be martyrs. Absolute secrecy,

(03:15:23):
a total absence of information in the enemy's hands, should
be the primary base of the movement. Secondly, and also
very important, is selection of the human material. At times,
this selection can be carried out easily, but at others
it will be extremely difficult, since it is necessary to
rely on those elements that are available. Long time exiles

(03:15:43):
or persons who present themselves when the call goes out
simply because they understand that it is their duty to
enroll in the battle to liberate their country, et cetera.
There may not be the necessary facilities for making a
complete investigation of these individuals. Nevertheless, even though elements of
the enemy regime introduce themselves, it is unpardonable that they

(03:16:04):
should later be able to pass information, because in the
period just prior to an action, all those who are
going to participate should be concentrated in secret places known
only to one or two persons. They should be under
the strict vigilance of their chiefs, and without the slightest
contact with the outside world. Whenever there are concentrations, whether
as a preparation for departure or in order to carry

(03:16:26):
out preliminary training, or simply to hide from the police.
It is necessary always to keep all new personnel about
whom there is no clear knowledge available away from the
key places. In underground conditions, no one, absolutely no one
should know anything more than the strictly indispensable, and there
ought not to be talked in front of anyone. When

(03:16:46):
certain types of concentration have been carried out, it is
necessary even to control letters that leave and arrive in
order to have a total knowledge of the contacts that
the individuals maintain. No one should be permitted to live alone,
nor to go out alone personal contacts of the future
member of the liberating army. Contacts of any type should
be prevented by every means. However positive the role of

(03:17:09):
women in the struggle, it must be emphasized that they
can also play a destructive part. The weakness for women
that young men have when living apart from their habitual
medium of life in special even psychic conditions is well known.
As dictators are well aware of this weakness. They try
to use it for infiltrating their spies. At times, the

(03:17:30):
relationship of these women with their superiors is clear and
even notorious. At other times it is extremely difficult to
discover even the slightest evidence of contact. Therefore, it is
necessary also to prohibit relations with women. The revolutionary in
a clandestine situation preparing for war should be a complete ascetic.
This also serves to test one of the qualities that

(03:17:52):
later will be the basis of his authority discipline. If
an individual repeatedly disobeys orders of his superiors and makes
contacts with women, contracts, friendships that are not permitted, et cetera,
he should be separated immediately, not merely because of the
potential dangers in the contacts, but simply because of the
violation of revolutionary discipline. Unconditional help should not be expected

(03:18:16):
from a government, whether friendly or simply negligent, that allows
its territory to be used as a base of operations.
One should regard the situation as if he were in
a completely hostile camp. The few exceptions that, of course
can occur, are really confirmations of the general rule. We
shall not speak here of the number of persons that
should be readied. This depends upon so many in such

(03:18:39):
varied conditions that it is practically impossible to specify. But
the minimum number with which it is possible to initiate
a guerrilla war can be mentioned. In my opinion, considering
the normal desertions and weaknesses, in spite of the rigorous
process of selection, there should be a nucleus of thirty
to fifty men. This figure is sufficient to an initiate

(03:19:00):
an armed fight in any country of the Americas, with
their conditions of favorable territory for operations, hunger for land,
repeated attacks upon justice, et cetera. Weapons, as has already
been said, should be of the same type as those
used by the enemy. Considering always that every government is
in principle hostile to a guerrilla action being undertaken from

(03:19:22):
its territory, the bands that prepare themselves should not be
greater than approximately fifty to one hundred men per unit.
In other words, though there is no objection to five
hundred men initiating a war, all five hundred should not
be concentrated in one place. They are so numerous as
to attract attention, and in case of any betrayal of
confidence or of any raid, the whole group falls. On

(03:19:45):
the other hand, it is more difficult to raid various
places simultaneously. The central headquarters for meetings can be more
or less known and the exiled persons will go there
to hold meetings of all types, but the leaders ought
not to be present and accept very sporadically, and there
should be no compromising documents. The leaders should use as

(03:20:06):
many different houses as possible those least likely to be
under surveillance. Arms deposits should be distributed in several places.
If possible, These should be an absolute secret, known to
only one or two people. Weapons should be delivered into
the hands of those who are going to use them
only when the war is about to be initiated. Thus,

(03:20:27):
a punitive action against persons who are training, while leading
to their imprisonment, will not produce a loss of arms
that are very difficult to procure. Popular forces are not
in any condition to suffer such a loss. Another important
factor to which due attention must be given is preparation
of the forces for the extremely hard fight that is

(03:20:47):
going to follow. These forces should have a strict discipline,
a high morale, and a clear comprehension of the task
to be performed, without conceit, without illusions, without false hopes
of an easy triumph. The struggle will be bitter and
long reverses will be suffered. They can be at the
brink of annihilation. Only high morale, discipline, faith in final victory,

(03:21:09):
and exceptional leadership can save them. This was our Cuban experience.
At one time, twelve men were able to form the
nucleus of the future army because all these conditions were met,
and because the one who led us was named Fidel Castro.
Besides ideological and moral preparations, careful physical training is necessary.

(03:21:30):
The Gorilla's will, of course, select a mountainous or very
wild zone for their operations at any rate, in whatever
situation they find themselves. The basic tactic of the Gorilla
army is the march, and neither slow men nor tired
men can be tolerated. Adequate training therefore includes exhausting hikes
day and night, day after day, increasing gradually always continue

(03:21:54):
to the brink of exhaustion, with emulation used to increase speed.
Resistance and spid will be fundamental qualities of the first
Gorilla nucleus. Also, a series of theoretical principles can be taught,
for example, direction finding, reading, and forms of sabotage. If possible,
there should be training with military rifles, frequent firing, above

(03:22:17):
all at distant targets, and much instruction about the way
to economize bullets to the gorilla fighter. Economy and utilization
of ammunition down to the last bullet should be out
most like religious tenets. If all these admonitions are followed,
the gorilla forces may well reach their guerrilla warfare nineteen
sixty one two. Defense of power that has been won Naturally,

(03:22:42):
victory cannot be considered as finally won until the army
that sustained the former regime has been systematically and totally smashed. Further,
all the institutions that sheltered the former regime should be
wiped out. But since this is a manual for gorilla bands,
we will confine ourselves to analyzing the problem of national
defense in case of war or aggression against the new power.

(03:23:06):
The first development we meet is that world public opinion,
the respectable press, that truthful news agencies of the United
States and of the other countries belonging to the monopolies
will begin an attack on the liberated country, an attack
as aggressive and systematic as the laws of popular reform.
For this reason, not even a skeleton of personnel from
the for former army can be retained. Militarism, mechanical obedience,

(03:23:31):
traditional concepts of military duty, discipline, and morale cannot be
eradicated with one blow. Nor can the victors, who are
good fighters, decent and kind hearted, but at the same
time generally lacking education, be allowed to remain in contact
with the vanquished. Who are proud of their specialized military
knowledge in some combat arm in mathematics, fortifications, logistics, et cetera,

(03:23:55):
and who hate the uncultured guerrilla fighters with all their might,
are of course individual cases of military men who break
with the past and enter into the new organization with
a spirit of complete co operation. These persons are doubly
useful because they unite with their love of the peoples
cause the knowledge necessary for carrying forward the creation of

(03:24:16):
the new popular Army. As second step will be consequent
upon the first. As the old army is smashed and
dismembered as an institution and its former posts occupied by
the new army, it will be necessary to reorganize the
new force. Its former gorilla character operating under independent chiefs
without planning can be changed, but it is very important

(03:24:38):
to emphasize that operational concepts of the gorilla band should
still serve as the guide to structure. These concepts will
determine the organic formation and the equipment of the Popular Army.
Cares should be taken to avoid the error that we
fell into during the first months of trying to put
the new popular Army into the old bottles of military
discipline and ancient organization. This error can cause serious maladjustments

(03:25:03):
and can lead to a complete lack of organization. Preparation
should begin immediately for the new defensive war that will
have to be fought by the People's Army accustomed to
independence of command within the common struggle and dynamism in
the management of each armed group. This army will have
two immediate problems. One will be the incorporation of thousands

(03:25:24):
of last hour revolutionaries, good and bad, whom it is
necessary to train for the rigors of guerrilla life and
to give revolutionary indoctrination in accelerated and intensive courses. Revolutionary
indoctrination that gives the necessary ideological unity to the Army
of the People is the basis of national security, both
in the long and short runs. The other problem is

(03:25:47):
the difficulty of adaptation to the new organizational structure a
corps to take charge of sowing the new truths of
the revolution among all the units of the army should
immediately be created. It should explain to the soul, peasants
and workers who have come out of the mass of
the people, the justice and the truth of each revolutionary act,
the aspirations of the revolution, Why there is a fight,

(03:26:10):
why so many companions have died without seeing the victory.
United to this intensive indoctrination, accelerated courses of primary instruction
that will begin to overcome a literacy should also be
given in order to improve the rebel army gradually until
it has become an instrument of high technical qualifications, solid
ideological structure, and magnificent combat power. Time will create these

(03:26:33):
three qualities. The military apparatus can continue to be perfected
as time goes on. The former combatants can be given
special courses to prepare them to serve as professional military men,
who will then give annual courses of instruction to the
people joining voluntarily or by conscription. This will depend on
national characteristics and rules cannot be stated. From this point forward.

(03:26:57):
We are expressing the opinion of the command of the
Rebel Army with respect to the policy to be followed
in the concrete Cuban situation. Given the menace of foreign invasion,
the conditions of the modern world at the end of
nineteen fifty nine or the beginning of nineteen sixty with
the enemy in sight, analyzed, evaluated, and awaited without fear.
In other words, we are no longer theorizing for the

(03:27:19):
instruction of others about what has already been done. Rather,
we theorize about what has been done by others in
order to apply it ourselves in our own national defense.
As our problem is to theorize about the Cuban case
and locate and test our hypothesis on the map of
American realities, we present as an epilogue the following analysis
of the Cuban situation Presera and its Guerrilla Warfare nineteen

(03:27:43):
sixty one. Epilogue Analysis of the Cuban situation, its present,
and its future. A year has now passed since the
flight of the dictator, the culmination of a long armed
civil struggle by the Cuban people. The achievements of the
government in the social, economic and political fields are enormous. Nevertheless,

(03:28:05):
it is necessary to analyze them, to evaluate each act,
and to show precisely the dimensions of our Cuban revolution.
This national revolution fundamentally agrarian, having the enthusiastic support of workers,
of people from the middle class, and today even of
owners of industry, has acquired a continental and worldwide importance,
enhanced by its peculiar characteristics and by the inflexible will

(03:28:28):
of the people. It will not be possible to present
a synthesis, however, brief of all the laws passed, all
of them undoubtedly of popular benefit. It will be enough
to select a few for special emphasis, and to show
at the same time the logical chain that carries us forward,
step by step in a progressive and necessary order of
concern for the problems of the Cuban people. The first

(03:28:52):
alarm for the parasitic classes of the country is sounded
in the rent law, the reduction of electric rates and
government intervention in a telephone company, followed by a reduction
in rates, all decreed in rapid succession. Those who had
thought Fidel Castro and the men who made this revolution
to be nothing more than politicians of the old style,
manageable simpletons with beards their only distinction, now began to

(03:29:15):
suspect that something deeper was emerging from the bosom of
the Cuban people, and that their privileges were in danger.
The word communism began to envelop the figures of the
leaders and of the triumphant guerrilla fighters. Consequently, the word
anti communism, as the position dialectically opposed, began to serve
as a nucleus for all those who resented the loss

(03:29:35):
of their unjust privileges. The law on vacant lots and
the law on installment sales aggravated this sensation of malaise
among the usurious capitalists. But these were minor skirmishes with
the reactionaries. Everything was still all right and possible. This
crazy fellow, Fidel Castro, could be counseled and guided to

(03:29:55):
good paths, to good democratic paths, by a dubois or
a poor It was necessary to place hope in the future.
The agrarian reform law was a tremendous jolt. Most of
those who had been hurt now saw clearly. One of
the first was gast In Bcuro, the voice of reaction.
He had accurately interpreted what was going to happen and

(03:30:17):
had retired to quieter scenes under the Spanish dictatorship. There
were still some who thought that the law is the
law that other governments had already promulgated such laws theoretically
designed to help the people carrying out these laws was
another thing. That brash and complex child that had the
initials Inra for its familiar name, was treated at the

(03:30:39):
beginning with peevish and touching paternalism within the ivory towers
of learning pervaded with social doctrines and respectable theories of
public finance, to which the uncultivated and absurd mentalities of
the guerrilla fighters could not arrive. But in Ra advanced
like a tractor or a war tank, because it is
tractor and tank at the same time, breaking down the

(03:31:00):
walls of the great est states as it passed in
creating new social relations in the ownership of land. This
Cuban agrarian reform appeared with various characteristics important for America.
It was anti feudal in the sense that it eliminated
the Cuban style lat of fundia andnulled all contracts that
called for payment of rent of land and crops, and

(03:31:21):
liquidated the servile relations that existed principally in coffee and
tobacco production, two important branches of our agriculture. But it
also was an agrarian reform in a capitalist medium to
destroy the pressure of monopoly on human beings isolated or
joined together, to help them work their land honorably and
to produce without fear of the creditor or the master.

(03:31:43):
It had the characteristic from the first moment of assuring
to peasants and agricultural workers. Those who give themselves to
the soil needed technical help from competent personnel, machinery, financial
help provided through credits from inra or Para state banks,
and big help from their association of People's stores that
has developed on a large scale in orient and is

(03:32:03):
in process of development in other provinces. The state stores,
replacing the old usurers, provide just financing and pay a
just price for the harvest. Compared with the other three
great agrarian reforms in America Mexico, Guatemala and Bolivia, the
most important distinctive characteristic is the decision to carry Cuban

(03:32:24):
reform all the way without concessions or exceptions of any kind.
This total agrarian reform respects no rights that are not
rights of the people, nor singles out any class or
nationality for discriminatory treatment. The force of the law falls
equally on the United Fruit Company and on the king
ranch as on the big Cuban landowners. Under these conditions,

(03:32:46):
land is being cleared mainly for the production of crops
which are very important to the country, rice, oil producing grains,
and cotton. These are being intensively developed. But the nation
is not satisfied and is going to recover all its
stolen resources. Its rich sub soil, which has been a
field of monopolist veracity and struggle, is virtually recovered by

(03:33:08):
the petroleum law. This law, like the agrarian reform and
all the others promulgated by the revolution, responds to Cuba's
irresistible necessities, to urgent demands of a people that wishes
to be free, that wishes to be master of its economy,
that wishes to prosper and to reach ever higher goals
of social development. But for this very reason, it is

(03:33:30):
an example for the continent and feared by the oil monopolies.
It is not that Cuba directly hurts the petroleum monopoly substantially.
There is no reason to believe the country to be
rich in reserves of the prized fuel, even though there
are reasonable hopes of obtaining a supply that will satisfy
its internal needs. On the other hand, by its law,

(03:33:51):
Cuba gives a palpable example to the brother peoples of America,
many of them foraged by these monopolies or pushed into
intersigne wars in order to satisfy then miscacs, necessities or
appetites of competing trusts. At the same time, Cuba shows
the possibility of acting in America and the exact hour
when action ought to be considered. The great monopolies also

(03:34:12):
cast their worried look upon Cuba. Not only has someone
in the little island of the Caribbean dared to liquidate
the interests of the omnipotent United Fruit Company legacy of
mister Foster Dulles to his heirs, but also the empires
of mister Rockefeller and the Deutsch Group have suffered under
the lash of intervention by the popular Cuban Revolution. This law,

(03:34:32):
like the mining law, is the response of the people
to those who try to check them with threats of force,
with aerial incursions, with punishments of whatever type. Some say
that the mining law is as important as the agrarian reform.
We do not consider that it has this importance for
the economy of the country in general, but it introduces
another new feature, a twenty five percent tax on the

(03:34:55):
amount of product exported to be paid by companies that
sell our minerals abroad, leaving now something more than a
whole in our territory. This not only contributes to our
Cuban welfare, it also increases the relative strength of the
Canadian monopolies in their struggle with the present exploiters of
our nickel. Thus, the Cuban Revolution liquidates the latter Fundia,

(03:35:16):
limits the profits of the foreign monopolies, limits the profits
of the foreign intermediaries that dedicate themselves with parasitic capital
to the commerce of importation, launches upon the world. A
new policy in America dares to break the monopolist status
of the giants of mining and leaves one of them
in difficulty, to say the least. This signifies a powerful

(03:35:36):
new message to the neighbors of the great stronghold of
monopoly and causes repercussions throughout America. The Cuban Revolution breaks
all the barriers of the new syndicates and diffuses its
truth like a shower of dust among the American masses
anxious for a better life. Cuba is the symbol of
nationality renewed and Fidel Castro the symbol of liberation. By

(03:35:59):
a simple law of gravity, the little island of one
hundred fourteen thousand square kilometers and six and one half
million inhabitants assumes the leadership in the anti colonial struggle
in America, in which serious handicaps in other countries permit
Cuba to take the heroic, glorious, and dangerous advanced post.
The economically less weak nations of colonial America, the ones

(03:36:21):
in which national capitalism develops haltingly in a continuous, relentless
and at times violent struggle against the foreign monopolies, now
seede their place gradually to this small new champion of liberty,
since their governments do not have sufficient force to carry
the fight forward. This is not a simple task, nor
is it free from danger and difficulties. The backing of

(03:36:44):
a whole people and an enormous charge of idealism and
spirit of sacrifice are needed in the nearly solitary conditions
in which we are carrying it out in America. Small
countries have tried to maintain this post. Before Guatemala, the
Guatemala of Ketsal that dies when it is imprisoned in
a cage. The Guatemala of the Indian tecum Yumum fell
before the direct aggression of the colonialists. Bolivia, the country

(03:37:09):
of Morillo, the protomarter of American independence, yielded to the
terrible hardships of the struggle. After setting three examples that
served as the foundation of the Cuban Revolution. The suppression
of the army, bagrarian reform, and nationalization of Mind's maximum
source of riches and at the same time maximum source
of tragedy. Cuba knows about these previous examples, knows the

(03:37:31):
failures and the difficulties. But it knows also that we
are at the dawning of a new era in the world.
The pillars of colonialism have been swept aside by the
power of the national and popular struggle. In Asia and Africa,
solidarity among peoples does not now come from religion, customs, tastes,
racial affinity, or its lack. It arises from a similarity

(03:37:55):
in economic and social conditions, and from a similarity in
desire for progress and recruits. Asia and Africa join hands
in Bandum. Asia and Africa come to join hands with
colonial and indigenous America through Cuba. In Havana on the
other hand, the great colonial powers have lost ground before
the struggle of the peoples. Belgium and Holland are two

(03:38:18):
caricatures of empires. Germany and Italy lost their colonies. France
is bitterly fighting a war that is lost. England, diplomatic
and skillful, liquidates political power while maintaining the economic connections.
American capitalism replaced some of the old colonial capitalisms in
the countries that began their independent life. But it knows

(03:38:42):
that this is transitory, and that there is no real
security for its financial speculations in these new territories. The
octopus cannot there apply its suckers firmly. The claw of
the imperial eagle is trimmed. Colonialism is dead or is
dying a natural death in all these places. America is

(03:39:02):
something else. It has been some time since the English lion,
with its voracious appetite, departed from our America, and the
young and charming Yankee capitalists installed the democratic version of
the English Clubs, imposing their sovereign domination over every one
of the twenty republics. These is the colonial realm of
North American monopoly, its reason for being in last hope,

(03:39:24):
the backyard of its own house. If all the Latin
American peoples should raise the flag of dignity as Cuba
has done, monopoly would tremble. It would have to accommodate
to a new political economic situation and to substantial prunings
of prophets. Monopoly does not like profits to be pruned.
And the Cuban example, this bad example of national and

(03:39:46):
international dignity, is gaining strength in the countries of America.
Each time that an impudent people cries out for liberation,
Cuba is accused. And it is true in a sense
that Cuba is guilty because Cuba has shown the way,
the way of the armed popular fight against armies supposed
to be invincible, the way of struggle in wild places,

(03:40:07):
to wear down and destroy the enemy far from his bases,
in a word, the way of dignity. This Cuban example
is bad, a very bad example. And monopoly cannot sleep
quietly while this bad example remains at its feet, defying danger,
advancing toward the future. It must be destroyed. Voices declare

(03:40:28):
it is necessary to intervene in this bastion of communism.
Cry the servants of monopoly disguised as representatives in Congress.
The Cuban situation is very disturbing, say the artful defenders
of the trusts. We all know that their meaning is
it must be destroyed very well. What are the different
possibilities of aggressive action to destroy the bad? Example, one

(03:40:52):
could be called the purely economic. These begins with a
restriction on credit by North American banks and suppliers to
all business men, men, national banks, and even the National
Bank of Cuba. Credit is thus restricted in North America
and through the medium of associates. An attempt is made
to have the same policy adopted in all the countries
of Western Europe, but this alone is not sufficient. The

(03:41:16):
denial of credits strikes a first strong blow at the economy,
but recovery is rapid and the commercial balance evens out.
Since the victimized country is accustomed to living as best
it can, it is necessary to apply more pressure. The
sugar quota is brought into the picture. Yes, no, no, yes. Hurriedly,

(03:41:36):
the calculating machines of the agents of monopoly total up
all sorts of accounts and arrive at the final conclusion.
It is very dangerous to reduce the Cuban quota and
impossible to cancel it why very dangerous because, besides being
bad politics, it would awaken the appetite of ten or
fifteen other supplier countries, causing them tremendous discomfort because they

(03:41:59):
would all cons they had a right to something more.
It is impossible to cancel the quota because Cuba is
the largest, most efficient, and cheapest provider of sugar to
the United States, and because sixty percent of the interests
that profit directly from the production and commerce in sugar
are United States interests. Besides, the commercial balance is favorable

(03:42:21):
to the United States. Whoever does not sell cannot buy,
and it would set a bad example to break a treaty. Further,
the supposed North American gift of paying nearly three cents
above the market price is only the result of North
American incapacity to produce sugar cheaply. The high wages and
the low productivity of the soil prevent the Great Power

(03:42:42):
from producing sugar at Cuban prices, and by paying this
higher price for a product, they are able to impose
burdensome treaties on all beneficiaries, not only Cuba. Impossible to
liquidate the Cuban quota. We do not consider likely the
possibility that monopolists are employing a very of the economic
approach in bombarding and burning sugar cane fields, hoping to

(03:43:04):
cause a scarcity of the product. Rather, this appears to
be a measure calculated to weaken confidence in the power
of the revolutionary government. The corpse of the North American
Mercenary stains more than a Cuban house with blood. It
also stains a policy and what is to be said
of the gigantic explosion of arms destined for the rebel army.

(03:43:25):
Another vulnerable place where the Cuban economy can be squeezed
is the supply of raw materials such as cotton. However,
it is well known that there is an overproduction of
cotton in the world, and any difficulty of this type
would be transitory fuel. This is worth some attention. It
is possible to paralyze a country by depriving it of fuel,

(03:43:47):
and Cuba produces very little petroleum. It has some heavy
fuel that can be used to operate as steam driven machinery,
and some alcohol that can be used in vehicles. Also,
there are large amounts of petroleum in the world. Egypt
can sell it, the Soviet Union can sell it. Perhaps
Iraq will be able to sell it shortly. It is

(03:44:08):
not possible to develop a purely economic strategy as another
possibility of aggression. If to this economic variant were added
an intervention by some puppet power, the Dominican Republic, for example,
it would be somewhat more of a nuisance, but the
United Nations would doubtless intervene with nothing concrete having been achieved. Incidentally,

(03:44:30):
the new course taken by the Organization of American States
creates a dangerous precedent of intervention behind the shield of
the trujell pretext monopoly solaces itself by constructing a means
of aggression. It is sad that the Venezuelan democracy has
put us in a difficult position of having to oppose
an intervention against Truheo. What a good turn it has

(03:44:51):
done the pirates of the continent. Among the new possibilities
of aggression is physical elimination by means of an assault
on the bold fellow Fidel Castro, who has become by
now the focus of the monopolies wrath. Naturally, measures must
be arranged so that the other two dangerous international agents,
Raoul Castro and the author are also eliminated. This solution

(03:45:15):
is appealing. If simultaneous assaults on all three, or at
least on the directing, had succeeded, it would be a
boon to the reaction. But do not forget the people, messrs,
monopolists and agents, the omnipotent people who, in their fury
at such a crime, would crush and erase all those
who had anything to do directly or indirectly. With an
assault on any of the chiefs of the revolution, it

(03:45:36):
would be impossible to restrain them. Another aspect of the
Guatemalan variant is to put pressure on the suppliers of
arms in order to force Cuba to buy in communist countries,
and then use this as an occasion to let loose
another shower of insults. This could give results. It may
be some one in our government has said that they

(03:45:57):
will attack us as communists, but they are not going
to eliminate us as imbeciles. Thus it begins to appear
as if a direct aggression on the part of the
monopolies will be necessary. Various possible forms are being shuffled
and studied in the IBM machines, with all processes calculated.
It occurs to us at the moment that the Spanish
variant could be used. The Spanish variant would be one

(03:46:21):
in which some initial pretext is seized upon for an
attack by exiles with the help of volunteers, volunteers who
would be mercenaries, of course, or simply the troops of
a foreign power, while supported by navy and air. While
enough supported, shall we say, to be successful. It could
also begin as a direct aggression by some states, such
as the Dominican Republic, which would send some of its

(03:46:43):
men are brothers and many mercenaries to die on these
beaches in order to provoke war. This would prompt the
pure intentioned monopolists to say that they do not wish
to intervene in this disastrous struggle between brothers. They will
merely limit and confine and freeze the war within its
presence limits by maintaining vigilance over the skies and seas
of this part of America with cruisers, battleships, destroyers, aircraft carriers, submarines, minesweepers,

(03:47:11):
torpedo boats, and airplanes. And it could happen that while
these zealous guardians of continental peace were not allowing a
single boat to pass with things for Cuba, some many
or all of the boats headed for the unhappy country
of Trujillo would escape the iron vigilance. Also, they might
intervene through some reputable Interamerican organ to put an end

(03:47:33):
to the foolish war that communism had unleashed in our island.
Or if this mechanism of the reputable American organ did
not serve, they might intervene directly, as in Korea, using
the name of the international organ in order to restore
peace and protect the interests of all nations. Perhaps the
first step in the aggression will not be against us,

(03:47:54):
but against the constitutional government of Venezuela, in order to
liquidate our last point of support on the continent. If
this happens, it is possible that the center of the
struggle against colonialism will move from Cuba to the great
country of Bolivar. The people of Venezuela will rise to
defend their liberties with all the enthusiasm of those who

(03:48:14):
know that they are fighting a decisive battle, that behind
defeat lies the darkest tyranny, and behind victory the certain
future of America. A stream of popular struggles can disturb
the peace of the monopolist cemeteries formed out of our
subjugated sister republics. Many reasons argue against the chance of
enemy victory, but there are two fundamental ones. The first

(03:48:35):
is external. This is the year nineteen sixty, the year
that will finally hear the voices of the millions of
beings who do not have the luck to be governed
by the possessors of the means of death and payment. Further,
and this is an even more powerful reason, an army
of six million Cubans will grasp weapons as a single
man in order to defend its territory and its revolution.

(03:48:57):
Cuba will be a battlefield, or the army will be
nothing other than part of the people in arms after destruction.
In a frontal war. Hundreds of gorilla bands, under a
dynamic command and a single center of orientation will fight
the battle all over the country. In cities, the workers
will die in their factories or centers of work. And
in the country the peasants will deal out death to

(03:49:19):
the invader from behind every palm tree and from every
furrow of the new mechanically plowed field that the revolution
has given them. And around the world, international solidarity will
create a barrier of hundreds of millions of people protesting
against aggression monopoly will see how its pillars are undermined,
and how the spider web curtain of its newspaper lies

(03:49:39):
is swept away by a puff. But let us suppose
that they dare to defy the popular indignation of the world.
What will happen here within? The first thing to be noted,
given our position as an easily vulnerable island without heavy arms,
with a very weak air force and navy, is the
necessity of applying the gorilla concept to the fight for

(03:49:59):
national defense. Our ground units will fight with the fervor,
decision and enthusiasm of which the sons of the Cuban
Revolution are capable in these glorious years of our history.
But if the worst occurs, we are prepared to continue
fighting even after the destruction of our army organization. In
a frontal combat, in other words, confronting large concentrations of

(03:50:21):
enemy forces that succeed in destroying ours, we would change
immediately into a guerrilla army with a good sense of mobility,
with unlimited authority in our column commanders, though with a
central command located somewhere in the country giving the necessary
direction and fixing the general overall strategy, the mountains would
be the last line of defense of the organized armed

(03:50:42):
vanguard of the people, which is the rebel army. But
in every house of the people, on every road, in
every forest, in every piece of national territory, the struggle
would be fought by the great army of the rear guard,
the entire people, trained and armed in the manner now
to be described. Since our infant entry units will not
have heavy arms, they will concentrate on anti tank and

(03:51:04):
anti air defense mines in very large numbers. Bazukahs or
anti tank grenades, anti aircraft cannon of great mobility in
mortar batteries will be the only arms of any great power.
The veteran infantry soldier, though equipped with automatic weapons, will
know the value of ammunition. He will guard it with

(03:51:24):
loving care. Special installations for reloading shells will accompany each
unit of the army maintaining reserves of ammunition, even though
precariously the air force will probably be badly hurt in
the first moments of an invasion of this type. We
are basing our calculations upon an invasion by a first
class foreign power or by a mercenary army of some

(03:51:46):
other power helped either openly or surreptitiously by this great
power of first magnitude. The National Air Force, as I said,
will be destroyed or almost destroyed. Only reconnaissance or liaison
planes will remain, especially helicopters from minor functions. The Navy
will also be organized for this mobile strategy. Small launches

(03:52:08):
will give the smallest target to the enemy and maintain
maximum mobility. The great desperation of the enemy army in
this case, as before, will be to find something to
receive his blows. Instead, he will find a gelatinous mass
in movement, impenetrable that retreats and never presents a solid front,
though it inflicts wounds from every side. It is not

(03:52:30):
easy to overcome an army of the people that is
prepared to continue being an army in spite of its defeat.
In a frontal battle. Two great masses of the people
are united around it, the peasants and the workers. The
peasants have already given evidence of their efficiency in detaining
the small band that was marauding in Pinar del Rio.
These peasants will be trained principally in their own regions,

(03:52:53):
but the platoon commanders and the superior officers will be trained,
as is now already being done in our military base.
From there they will be distributed throughout the thirty zones
of agrarian development that form the new geographical division of
the country. This will constitute thirty more centers of peasant struggle,
charged with defending to the maximum their lands, their social conquests,

(03:53:16):
their new houses, their canals, their dams, their flowering harvests,
their independence, in a word, their right to live. At
the beginning, they will oppose also a firm resistance to
any enemy advance, but if this proves too strong for them,
they will disperse, each peasant becoming a peaceful cultivator of
his soil during the day and a fearsome guerrilla fighter

(03:53:37):
at night, scourge of the enemy forces. Something similar will
take place among the workers. The best among them will
be trained also to serve thereafter as chiefs of their companions,
teaching them principles of defense. Each social class, however, will
have different tasks. The peasant will fight a battle typical
of the guerrilla fighter. He should learn to be a

(03:53:59):
good shot, to take advantage of all the difficulties of
the ground, and to disappear without ever showing his face.
The workers, on the other hand, have the advantage of
being within a modern city, which is a large and
efficient fortress. At the same time, their lack of mobility
is a drawback. The worker will learn first to block
the streets with barricades of any available vehicle, furniture or utensil.

(03:54:22):
To use every block as a fortress, with communications formed
by holes made in interior walls, to use that terrible
arm of defense, the Molotov cocktail, and to coordinate his
fire from the innumerable loopholes provided by the houses of
a modern city, from the worker masses, assisted by the
national police and those armed forces charged with the defense

(03:54:43):
of the city, A powerful block of the army will
be formed, but it must expect to suffer great losses.
The struggle in the cities in these conditions cannot achieve
the facility and flexibility of the struggle in the countryside.
Many will fall, including many leaders. In this popular struggle.
The enemy will use tanks that will be destroyed rapidly

(03:55:03):
as soon as the people learn their weaknesses and not
to fear them. But before that the tanks will leave
their balance of victims. There will also be other organizations
related to those of workers and peasants. First the student militias,
which will contain the flower of the student youth, directed
and coordinated by the rebel army, Organizations of youth in general,

(03:55:24):
who will participate in the same way, and organizations of
women who will provide an enormous encouragement by their presence,
and who will do such auxiliary tasks for their companions
in the struggle as cooking, taking care of the wounded,
giving final comfort to those who are dying, doing laundry,
in a word, showing their companions in arms that they
will never be absent in the difficult moments of the revolution.

(03:55:48):
All this is achieved by wide scale organization of the masses,
supplemented with patient and careful education, an education that begins
and is confirmed in knowledge acquired from their own experience.
It should constant trade on reasoned and true explanations of
the facts of the revolution. The revolutionary laws should be discussed,
explained studied in every meeting, in every assembly wherever the

(03:56:11):
leaders of the revolution are present for any purpose. Also,
the speeches of the leaders, and in our case particularly
of the undisputed leader, should constantly be read, commented upon,
and discussed people should come together in the country to
listen by radio, and where there are more advanced facilities,
to watch by television. These magnificent popular lessons that our

(03:56:33):
Prime Minister gives. The participation of the people in politics,
that is to say, in the expression of their own
desires made into laws, decrees and resolutions should be constant.
Vigilance against any manifestations opposed to the revolution should also
be constant, and vigilance over morale within the revolutionary masses

(03:56:54):
should be stricter, if this is possible than vigilance against
the non revolutionary or the disaffect. It can never be
permitted lest the revolution take the dangerous path of opportunism
that a revolutionary of any category should be excused for
grave offenses against decorum or morality simply because he is
a revolutionary. The record of his former services may provide

(03:57:17):
extenuating circumstances, and they can always be considered in deciding
upon the punishment, but the act itself must always be punished.
Respect for work, above all, for collective work, and work
for collective ends ought to be cultivated. Volunteer brigades to
construct roads, bridges, docks or dams, and school cities should

(03:57:37):
receive a strong impulse. These serve to forge a unity
among persons showing their love for the revolution with works.
An army that is linked in such ways with the people,
that feels this intimacy with the peasants and the workers
from which it emerged, that knows besides all the special
techniques of its warfare and is psychologically prepared for the
worst contingencies, is invincible, and it will be even more

(03:58:00):
invincible as it makes the just phrase of our immortal
Camillo a part of the flesh of the army and
the citizenry. The army is the people in uniform. Therefore,
for all these reasons, despite the necessity that monopoly suppressed
the bad example of Cuba, our future is brighter than ever.
End of guerrilla warfare

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