Finished reading REVOLUTION IN THE REVOLUTION? By Régis Debray. This book discusses armed struggle and political struggle in Latin America during the 1950s and 1960s. Fidel Castro’s successful revolution in Cuba in 1959 inspired leftists throughout Latin America to take up arms against dictatorial regimes embraced by US political and economic interests.
French-born Debray arrived in Cuba in 1961, met Castro and other guerrilla fighters, and observed closely the workings of the revolution. He was granted access to numerous unpublished documents directly related to the 1956-58 insurrection.
Later Debray spent long periods in South America, studying radical political parties, movements and guerrilla fronts. He noticed that some of them were employing strategy and tactics copied from earlier armed struggles in Russia, China, Vietnam and Spain that were basically unsuitable for Latin America. He believed the Cuban model was more relevant.
“Revolution in the Revolution?” was first published in 1967. I had read it in my youth but couldn’t grasp everything at that time. Now, reading a recently published 50th anniversary edition, I have a fuller appreciation of the book which is regarded among leftist circles as an important historical document.
