| People's Guerrila Army | |
| Leaders: | |
| Motives: | Establishment of a socialist state in Argentina |
| Ideology: | Marxism–Leninism Guevarism Foco theory |
| Position: | Far-left |
| Opponents: | Argentine National Gendarmerie |
People's Guerrilla Army was a guerrilla organization of Argentina that operated between 1963 and 1964 in Salta Province created by Jorge Masetti, with soldiers from Argentina and Cuba. This organization was the first communist guerrilla in Argentina.
After the victory of the Cuban Revolution, Masetti —an Argentine journalist who spent time in Cuba covering the revolution and was founder of Prensa Latina— took inspiration to create a guerrilla to do a Communist revolution in Argentina following the idea of Che Guevara to start in the whole continent different "focos" of revolutions. The idea matured after the fall of Arturo Frondizi as president of Argentina.
Masetti founded the group in 1963 and named him as First Commander and Che Guevara as Second Commander, who wanted officially to join the group in a future. The group decided to star the operations in the rainforest of Oran, Salta Province, in a zone near the border with Bolivia. He started the planning of the purchase of weapons and the logistic to prepare the arrival of Che Guevara in the zone.[1]
The group started with approximately 30 soldiers and wanted to encourage peasants to join the movement. The group started doing political statements in Tucuman and Salta, and organising attacks against installations Argentine National Gendarmerie. Nevertheless, the Gendarmerie easily defeated the group and captured or kill many of the members in these attacks by order of President Arturo Illia. It never had the training or supplies to confront to face the forces of the law.[2] [3]
Masetti then disappeared and was never seen again.[4]