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General History
Lucio Cabanas
Ruben Figueroa
Lucio Cabañas
The massacre at Aguas Blancas stirred a revolutionary feeling amongst the people that was reminiscent of the revolutionary cause of Lucio Cabañas Barrietas. Motivated by the revolution in Cuba, 15 separate Guerilla districts developed in Mexico during the 1960s and 1970s. Cabañas helped lead one of these groups called the Army of the Poor and Peasant's Brigade Against Injustice, located in the Guerrero Mountains.
Cabañas was a rural 6th grade school-teacher who took to becoming a rebel after a dispute over school uniforms and student autotomity ended in violence and death. He argued that the poor could barely afford to feed their children, much less to clothe them in school uniforms like the school director insisted on. Cabañas fled for the mountains and became a follower of Genaro Vásques Rojas, another teacher who had become a rebel. However, Vásques Rojas was killed in a car wreck on Mexico's Morelia's Highway in 1972. It is believed that he was being pursued by the government's forces.
Cabañas fashioned himself after Emiliano Zapata, a hero of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-17. But depending on who you ask Cabañas is looked to as either a Robin Hood figure or a cold-hearted killer. Among the peasantry Cabañas had a lot of support and is still regarded as a legend, but in reality he only had about 300 followers. He is said to have had five beautiful gun-carrying women as bodyguards that went wherever he did. He is also supposed to have carried a knapsack full of money to give to any of the poor who needed it. On the other hand, he was also known as a murderer, kidnapper and bank robber who tortured those he opposed. He is notorious for the kidnapping of Guerrero's governor Ruben Figueroa senior, who was held for just over 100 days. And is accused of killing an Acapulco police chief. One of Mexico's largest manhunts was the search for Cabañas. Over 16,000 troops were sent to hunt him in the Sierra Madre de Atoyac Mountains. And at least 50 soldiers were killed looking for him, which only added to his legend.
No matter how much of Cabañas is romanticized today he was a strong leader who had a program that called for the defeat of the government that favored the rich. He wanted national reform that would assist the poor and wanted to remove Mexico from any form of colonialism from the US or any other country. Yes, for many Cabañas was an unwelcome revolutionary who favored a communist form of government but he was against the oppressive government that did not give opportunity for the poor to better their lives.
In December of 1974, Lucio Cabañas was cornered and killed in Atoyac. He had been pursued by thousands of troops trained by Brazilian and U.S. advisors in their rescue operation for Figueroa senior. Today, the remnants of his Party of Poor still continue to reach for Cabañas goals through his methods. More recently though, the legacy of Lucio Cabañas continues, He has inspired new guerilla groups such as the EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army) and EPR (Popular Liberation Army) to fight for their rights.
