ELN

At the end of June, 1993, the Colombian army launched an offensive against camps of the ELN in the mountain range around the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, near Colombia's Atlantic coast. During one of these operations, the 1st mobile brigade captured several camps of the ELN guerrillas. Much to their surprise one of the camps contained two trucks, that had been fitted with metal plates to form a type of armoured covering. One was a heavy dump truck, and the other was a lighter truck. What these armoured trucks were to be used for is not clear, but according to the army, the guerrillas planned to use the armoured trucks in some planned assaults against nearby towns.

Usually the objective of these assaults are the local police station and the bank, so the most logical use would be to help move a guerrilla demolition squad up next to police station to place an explosive charge, withdraw for the explosion and then transport the guerrilla assault element in close to the police station, without exposing the assault force to withering fire. In Colombia, all rural police stations have been turned into miniature forts, or block houses because of the frequent attacks. While guerrillas are often able to take the rest of a town, the police can usually hold out long enough for rescue forces to relieve them.

A third vehicle was photographed, very similar in concept to those captured in 1993. Published in 1997, the photograph shows the then commander of the army, General Bonnet posing in front of a home-made armoured vehicle. Because of the basic design similarities it can only be assumed that the vehicle belonged to the ELN. When this photo was taken and where is not known.

Recently, guerrilla home-made armor was used in combat in Colombia. At 1:45AM on July 17, 1998 policemen standing guard at the Buitrera station on the outskirts of Cali, only five kilo-meters from the city center, noticed a large dump truck advancing slowly toward the building. Immediately knowing that something was wrong, the guards alerted the rest of the policemen and took up positions. The total number of policemen at the station was thirteen, armed only with old World War II M-1 carbines. The dump truck suddenly accelerated and then slamming on the breaks slid parallel to the front of the station. The policemen at the station opened fire on the vehicle.

From inside the vehicle, an assault group of the Jose Maria Becerra front of the National Liberation Army (ELN) opened fire on the station, but was prevented from dismounting because of the fierce return fire of the alert policemen. However, the guerrillas stayed and fought from inside their vehicle because the bed had been equipped with sandwich armor consisting of a metal plate welded onto the outside of the bed and a foot and a half of compacted sand held in by another metal sheet on the inside of the bed. A second group of guerrillas took up position in the Maria Auxiliadora chapel, 50 meters from the station where they set up a machine-gun to support the assault. There were about 100 guerrillas involved in the assault, of which about half were women. The female guerrillas were shouting words of encouragement to the other guerrillas.

The guerrillas were equipped with Galil, AK-47 and M-16 rifles and fired rifle grenades at the station. Two of the thirteen policemen were wounded in the assault. The guerrillas however, failed to make the final assault against the station, probably thinking that the policemen were better armed than with old M-1 carbines. Unable to penetrate the station, and finally unable to contain the army reinforcements from the Third brigade, led by an EE-9 Cascabel armoured car, the guerrillas withdrew toward the mountains in a white Chevrolet LUV pick-up with double cabin, a grey jeep and a truck.

FARC

The FARC also built home-made armoured vehicles. Instead of heavy dump trucks, the FARC have chosen captured farm tractors as their choice of chassis. The chassis had been stripped down and fitted with extra thick tires, the driver's cabs were armoured with heavy steel plates and an M-60 machine-gun has been mounted on the top. One of these vehicles was used by the FARC in a raid in Meta province, sometime in March, 1998. A better recorded attack occurred on March 31, 1998 when two of this type of vehicle spearheaded an attack by 300 FARC guerrillas on the town of Vista Hermosa, in eastern Meta Department. The guerrillas attacked the bank and the police station. The bank was destroyed and the police station besieged.

The armoured vehicles were seen roaring through the town at speeds of up to 40 kilo-meters per hour (25mph). In an attempt to assault the police station, one of the vehicles crashed into the building, but suffered damage and was abandoned. One policemen and four guerrillas were reportedly killed.

Conclusions

This study has covered the use of armor, especially home-made armoured vehicles, by Latin American guerrilla forces. It shows a very interesting pattern in this region of the world. From Costa Rica in 1948 to Colombia some 45 years later, Latin American guerrillas and rebels have made and used armoured vehicles to advance their revolutionary cause in at least seven different conflicts. This adds a colorful, although rather esoteric chapter to the story of armoured vehicle development and use. It also challenges some of our stereotypes about guerrilla organizations and their methods. The effectiveness of the different designs was variable, and for the most part marginal to the overall war effort.

However, effectiveness in combat does not always reveal the boost to morale given to the guerrilla troops by the presence in combat or manufacturing process of these vehicles. Finally, the creation and use of these vehicles reveals the imagination and creative skills of Latin Americans. This creativity and imagination has made Latin America one of the most fertile grounds for the development of guerrilla warfare theory, strategy and tactics, ideas which are studied by aspiring revolutionary organizations around the world.

( You may have noticed some note numbers in this article, alas these were not with the article hopefully they will be with me for inclusion in the following issue of E.D. T.D.H. )

Insurgent Armor in Latin America

Insurgent Armor: Introduction
Insurgent Armor: Costa Rica 1948
Insurgent Armor: Cuba 1958
Insurgent Armor: Dominican Republic 1965
Insurgent Armor: Chile 1973
Insurgent Armor: Nicaragua 1978-1979
Insurgent Armor: El Salvador 1981-1989
Insurgent Armor: Colombia 1993-1998