The Túpac Katari Guerrilla Army ''(Ejército Guerrillero Túpac Katari)'' was a
guerrilla movement in
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
. Albeit of
indigenist inspiration, the movement had a multiracial membership. The organization descended directly from the original revolutionaries trained by
in the 1960s. Their objective was to fight for social equality in Bolivia and amongst its indigenous population. They carried out their first attack on July 5, 1991, destroying an electric power pylon in
El Alto
El Alto (Spanish for "The Heights") is the second-largest city in Bolivia, located adjacent to La Paz in Pedro Domingo Murillo Province on the Altiplano highlands. El Alto is today one of Bolivia's fastest-growing urban centers, with an estimat ...
, a major city which adjoins
La Paz
La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bo ...
, Bolivia's administrative capital. Most of the group's attacks have been similarly small-scale and they had confined their activities largely to Bolivia. The group suffered a major setback in a crackdown in 1992, when much of its leadership was neutralized through incarceration.
The group was named after
Túpac Katari
Túpac Katari or Catari (also Túpaj Katari) (c. 1750 – November 13, 1781), born Julián Apasa Nina, was the indigenous Aymara leader of a major insurrection in colonial-era Upper Peru (now Bolivia), laying siege to La Paz for six months. His ...
, a colonial-era indigenous revolutionary. One of their former members,
Álvaro García Linera
Álvaro Marcelo García Linera (; born 19 October 1962) is a Bolivian politician, sociologist, marxist theoretician, and former guerilla who served as the 38th vice president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. A member of the Movement for Social ...
, has served as the vice-president of Bolivia.
See also
*
UMOPAR
*
EZLN
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (, EZLN), often referred to as the Zapatistas (Mexican ), is a far-left political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.
Since ...
External links
Túpac Katari bolivia guerrillaejercito Túpac katari
on the group from the U.S. Navy Postgraduate School.
katari.org
Bolivian activist website that has documents related to the Túpac Katari
Defunct communist militant groups
Guerrilla movements in Latin America
1991 in Bolivia
Indigenous organisations in Bolivia
Indigenous rights organizations
Katarism
Paramilitary organisations based in Bolivia
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