Latin America: The Urban Guerrilla

I suggested to them that there were other ways of accomplishing political objectives besides violence. They did not agree with me, and they said that, in fact, any other form of political action in this country would be doomed to failure.

—U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, C. Burke Elbrick

Guerrilla warfare has plagued the hinterlands of Latin America for more than a decade. But the Brazilian kidnapers who seized Ambassador Elbrick two weeks ago and held him captive for 77 hours represent a relatively recent, and rapidly spreading, phenomenon—organized urban guerrilla warfare. Kidnapings, bombings...