ABSTRACT
Extraordinary waves of terror have swept many Latin American societies since 1970, most occurring in guerrilla-based insurgencies or even civil wars. The exceptional number of surviving guerrillas suggests that terror against guerrilla combatants themselves was considerably more muted than in Cuba, even though terror against the peasantry was still common during army sweeps through guerrilla zones. The contrast of Venezuelan government terror with that carried out in Guatemala is striking from a methodological point of view. The consistent reappearance of guerrilla terror against fellow countrymen in the most diverse settings is due directly to two factors: the guerrillas’ claim to constitute legitimate authority, and the high degree of guerrilla vulnerability to “information leakage". Information on guerrilla terror is sketchy because guerrillas attempt to hide from the public actions incongruent with their professed values, a stance common to social movements in general.
