From the classroom to the mountains. The participation of the normal students in the GPG guerrilla in Chihuahua

Abstract

Chihuahua has largely been regarded as an economically and politically marginal region that has had a complex history of guerilla warfare.  The People's Guerrilla Group (Spanish: Grupo Popular Guerrillero, the GPG) sprang up when civilians reached the limits of their endurance for the repression exercised against the vulnerable populations.  The guerrilla warfare in Chihuahua began initially as a politically active group that later undertook armed actions that led them to the assault on the Madera barracks on September 23, 1625. This research focuses on the involvement of students from rural normal schools in the development of the GPG and its transition from peaceful political activism to guerrilla warfare under the criterion of marginality. In this sense, before endorsing political violence, victims of repression who oppose a state´s unfair actions and who´s strength resides on their ethical values respond against state repression through non-violent active resistance. Thus, this work, concentrating on the development of the GPG, presents conclusions that differ from other approaches and proposes that state repression was the major determinant of this group´s political violence as a form of self and collective defense, and that this guerilla warfare had both the right and strength to defend itself.