Communism in Bolivia

The Ñancahuazú Guerrilla or Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia (National Liberation Army of Bolivia; ELN) was a group of mainly Bolivian and Cuban guerrillas led by the guerrilla leader Che Guevara which was active in the Cordillera Province of Bolivia from 1966 to 1967. The group established its base camp on a farm across the Ñancahuazú River, a seasonal tributary of the Rio Grande, 250 kilometers southwest of the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The guerrillas intended to work as a foco, a point of armed resistance to be used as a first step to overthrow the Bolivian government and create a socialist state. The guerrillas defeated several Bolivian patrols before they were beaten and Guevara was captured and executed. Only five guerrillas managed to survive, including Harry Villegas, and fled to Chile.

The Teoponte Guerrilla was an armed conflict that occurred in 1970. After the failure of Che Guevara's guerrilla, radical leftists in Bolivia began to organize again to set up guerrilla resistance, but suffered severe persecution that left many incarcerated, dead, or in exile. Despite this, radical university students in Bolivia organized a new insurgency attempt in Teoponte in 1970, trying to overcome mistakes made by Guevara's guerrilla. The participants were mostly Bolivians, but Chileans, Argentines, and Peruvians also partook. The guerrilla, which took form in an expedition into the lowlands starting from the Altiplano, lasted from July 19 to November 1 and saw most of its inexperienced participants die by attacks from the military or from disease. When Salvador Allende assumed office in Chile on November 4, his very first decree was to give asylum to the survivors.