The Eloy Alfaro Popular Armed Forces (in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

: Fuerzas Armadas Populares Eloy Alfaro), also known as ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! (AVC) (roughly translated "Alfaro Lives, Dammit!") was a clandestine left-wing group in Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, founded in 1982 and named after popular government leader and general Eloy Alfaro

Eloy Alfaro

José Eloy Alfaro Delgado was the President of Ecuador from 1895 to 1901 and from 1906 to 1911. He became one the strongest opponents of pro-Catholic conservative President Gabriel Garcia Moreno...

.

History

AVC first received national attention in 1983, when it broke into a museum and stole swords which had been used by Eloy Alfaro. Some of the group's leaders were thought to be affiliated with Cuba, Libya and Nicaragua, and the group itself was linked to militant groups from other Latin-American countries, such as the M-19

19th of April Movement

The 19th of April Movement or M-19, was a Colombian guerrilla movement. After its demobilization it became a political party, the M-19 Democratic Alliance , or AD/M-19.The M-19 traced its origins to the allegedly fraudulent presidential elections of 19 April 1970...

 and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement

Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement

The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement was a Marxist revolutionary group active in Peru from the early 1980s to 1997 and one of the main actors in the internal conflict in Peru...

. From 1986-1987, AVC carried out several kidnappings, robbed banks and a factory, took over a number of radio stations in order to broadcast their manifesto, and killed four police officers while retrieving a group member from police custody.

In response to this activity, the government began carrying out raids against the group. By 1987, a large number of AVC's leaders and members had either been killed or arrested. In 1989, the government of Ecuador reached an agreement with AVC, with the group agreeing to end its violence. In 1991, the group officially reformed as a legitimate political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

. One year later, eight group members made an illegal, but non-violent entry into the British Embassy in Quito

Quito

San Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito , is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains...

, demanding the release of a group leader who was then imprisoned by the Ecuadorian government.

In popular culture

The group is the subject of a 2007 documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

titled ¡Alfaro vive carajo! Del Sueño Al Caos.