The Armed Forces of National Liberation (in Spanish: ''Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional'', FALN) was a
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
n
guerrilla group
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
formed by the
Communist Party of Venezuela
The Communist Party of Venezuela ( es, Partido Comunista de Venezuela, PCV) is a communist party and the oldest continuously existing party in Venezuela. It was the main leftist political party in Venezuela from its foundation in 1931 until it ...
to foment revolution against the democratically elected governments of
Rómulo Betancourt
Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello (22 February 1908 – 28 September 1981; ), known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was the president of Venezuela, serving from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1964, as well as leader of Acción De ...
and
Raul Leoni.
Background
In 1958, Betancourt's Democratic Action (''Acción Democrática'', AD) party largely sidelined the left-wing, notably the
Communist Party of Venezuela
The Communist Party of Venezuela ( es, Partido Comunista de Venezuela, PCV) is a communist party and the oldest continuously existing party in Venezuela. It was the main leftist political party in Venezuela from its foundation in 1931 until it ...
(''Partido Comunista de Venezuela'', PCV). The 1959
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...
influenced PCV and student groups. Many leftist students formed the
Revolutionary Left Movement (''Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria'', MIR) in April 1960.
Betancourt's firm stance against Castro, especially Cuba's expulsion from the
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...
(OAS) led to bloody military uprisings in 1962,
first at Carúpano on the
Península of Paria, then
at Puerto Cabello. After the unsuccessful revolts, Betancourt suspended
civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
and arrested the MIR and PCV members of the forerunner to the
National Assembly of Venezuela
The National Assembly ( es, Asamblea Nacional) is the legislature for Venezuela that was first elected in 2000. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who were elected by a "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vo ...
bicameral Congress in 1962. This drove the leftists underground and founded the FALN on January 1, 1963.
The FALN were engaged in rural and
urban guerrilla
An urban guerrilla is someone who fights a government using unconventional warfare or domestic terrorism in an urban environment.
Theory and history
The urban guerrilla phenomenon is essentially one of industrialised society, resting both ...
activities, including seized the Venezuelan cargo ship ''Anzoátegui'', kidnapping
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid.
Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...
soccer star
Alfredo DiStefano (both performed by
Paul del Rio
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
*Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...
), sabotaging oil pipelines, kidnaping of American Colonel
Michael Smolen, bombing a
Sears Roebuck
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
warehouse, and bombing the
United States Embassy
The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as observer state Vatican City and non-member countries Kosovo a ...
in
Caracas
Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...
. FALN failed to rally the rural poor and to disrupt the
December 1963 elections.
The FALN fought through the
Llanos of Venezuela and along the Colombian border near the city of
San Cristóbal for many years. The president of Venezuela at the time,
Raul Leoni, sent troops to fight against the guerrillas. General
Rafael Sanchez Agüero eliminated the FALN in the state of
Táchira
Táchira State ( es, Estado Táchira, ) is one of the 24 states of Venezuela. The state capital is San Cristóbal.
Táchira State covers a total surface area of and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 1,168,908. At the end of the 19t ...
in 1969. Alongside Colonel
Arturo Julio Salazar.
In popular culture
The 1975 film ''
Chronicle of a Latin American Subversive'' (Spanish: ''Crónica de un subversivo latinoamericano'') by director
Mauricio Walerstein, narrates the real life FALN kidnapping of American Colonel Michael Smolen (portrayed as ''Colonel Robert Whitney'' by actor
Claudio Brook
Claudio Brook (born Claude Sydney Brook Marnat, 28 August 1927 – 18 October 1995) was a Mexican actor.
Life
Born in Mexico City, Brook had a prolific career, making around 100 film and television appearances in his 38 years as an actor. ...
) in revenge for
Nguyen Van Troi's death sentence.
See also
*
Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (Puerto Rico) FALN is an acronym
An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometime ...
References
External links
The Triumph of Democracyvia U.S. Library of Congress Country Studies/Area Handbook Series sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Army between 1986 and 1998.
{{Authority control
Communism in Venezuela
Communist Party of Venezuela
Defunct communist militant groups
Guerrilla movements in Latin America
Political organizations based in Venezuela
Paramilitary organizations based in Venezuela