ABSTRACT
The year 1986 was even more catastrophic. Leader Ricardo Merino died in June, Hamed Vazconez fell in September, and Arturo Jarrin in October. Jarrin was arrested in Panama and did not make it back to Ecuador alive. The official version was that he was killed in an armed clash, but other versions point to an execution by the Panamanian or Ecuadoran police. The Batallon America never got off the ground in terms of numerical strength and dissolved when the M-19, its main driving force, began to consider abandoning armed struggle. The international context was no longer as receptive to armed revolutionary fight as it had been in the past, and the Colombian Movimiento 19 de Abril, with whom Alfaro Vive had connections, had become a legal organization. The approaching end of the Cold War also contributed to the decline of guerrilla struggle.
