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Trudeau's wigwam theory is challenged by some academic experts, who argue that the world's tribal minorities are not so much trying to drop out as to get back in the mainstream. Roosevelt University's Rubenstein describes increasing tribal violence as the typical desperation of "groups which are in danger of extinction. It's an attempt to re-enter the political universe." Terror is born when they demand re-entry on their own non-negotiable terms, and the rest of mankind be damned if those terms prove unattainable.
Terrorism in the U.S.'s northern neighbor is a relatively new phenomenon. To the south, it has long been endemic. To a great extent, the terrorists of Latin America claim to be acting in behalf of an underclass whose need is not "reentry" so much as simple entry —into economic, social and political structures from which they have always been barred. Then, too, Latin American politics have always been characterized by theatricality and excitability.
There are almost as many varieties of terror south of the Mexican border as there are countries. Brazil has been racked by a drawn-out campaign whose net effect has only been to set Latin America's most powerful country (pop. 90 million) back by several political lightyears. The army took power in 1964, the first terrorist bomb exploded in 1966, and a cruel upward spiral of terror and repression, including torture, has been under way ever since. The country has never had more than half a dozen terrorist bands, totaling perhaps 300 to 500 hard-core members. But their spectacularly successful kidnaping and ransoming of U.S. Ambassador C. Burke Elbrick a year ago, in return for the release of 15 jailed radicals, was the first intimation that a few urban guerrillas could force even the strongest governments to give in to their demands. Brazil's terrorists never developed a benign image; their acts have resulted in 40 deaths and nearly 200 injuries in the past two years.
Until recently, the Tupamaros of Uruguay could claim a large, disciplined membership of 3,000, and a reputation for stealing from the rich to help the poor. Some of their $1,600,000 haul from kidnaping wealthy businessmen and robbing banks went as welfare to families of imprisoned members. The good-guy image evaporated last August. In a remarkable parallel to the events in Canada, the Tupamaros abducted and murdered Daniel Mitrione, a U.S. police adviser, because the government would not free 160 "political" prisoners. Backed by a shocked public. President Jorge Pacheco Areco got the often cantankerous Uruguayan Congress to grant him emergency powers to fight the terrorists. More than 200 Tupamaros have been collared, in a manhunt that was pursued with decidedly un-Uruguayan zeal. At one house, the troops went so far as to confiscate books on "cubism," because they thought it was propaganda from Havana. So far, however, the troops have not been able to locate two other hostages, American Agronomist Claude Fly and Brazilian General Aloysio Mares Dias