A few weeks ago the international press agencies announced that Yon Sosa, the leader of the Guatemalan MR 13 [Movimiento Revolucionario 13 de Noviembre—November 13 Revolutionary Movement], died in combat near the Mexican frontier. The fact that he fell under the bullets of a Mexican patrol is symbolic. A fighter inspired by so profound an internationalist spirit was seen by all the hangmen of Latin America as a dangerous enemy to be struck down.
Marcos Antonio Yon Sosa received his military training from U.S. officers, who tried to teach him counterinsurgency techniques in their special school in Panama. In his case, as in that of other young Latin-American officers, this training proved to be one of the ruses of history that ruling classes can never eliminate, especially in their decline. Yon Sosa's experience was to be fully utilized over a ten-year period but in a way diametrically opposite to what his instructors wanted.
In 1960 the young officer began his revolutionary struggle. In collaboration with Luis Turcios and other companions, he organized a coup d'etat against the reactionary government of Ydigoras Fuentes. The attempt ended in failure and from that time on Yon Sosa became an outlaw. He eluded pursuit by his enemies up until the day of the ambush, which was probably organized by men linked to the future president of Mexico and anxious to help out Guatemala's new president Arana Osorio.
The movement founded by Marcos Yon after the failure of the 1960 coup very quickly won a place among the movements of armed struggle in Latin America. The name of the MR 13 became known throughout the world. And rightly so, because it can boast of long and glorious experience and many of its activists and cadres have paid with their lives for their unwavering fidelity to the cause of the Guatemalan revolution.
It would be wrong, however, to judge the MR 13 exclusively from the standpoint of its dynamism and the heroism of its fighters. This movement very quickly became distinguished by its adherence to the most advanced revolutionary conceptions. In a stage when considerable confusion about the nature of the Latin-American revolution reigned even in the ranks of those who had broken with the opportunist conceptions of the Communist parties, the MR 13 made the perspective of a socialist revolution in Guatemala the axis of its struggle.
The MR 13 drew the lesson of the dramatic experience of 1954 in this way: "The PGT [Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo—Guatemalan Party of Labor, the name of the CP] talks about a national democratic revolution," Yon Sosa said in an interview in 1965. "The MR 13 is convinced that there is no basis for a national democratic revolution, that it is not possible for the workers and peasants to participate in the government in collaboration with the bourgeoisie. You cannot put a dog and a cat in the same bag. How could such a government function?"
Yon Sosa's orientations regarding the methods of armed struggle also are worth pointing out. Marcos Yon had reflected on his own experience—his attempted coup d'etat of November 1960—and had come to reject all adventurist or putschist conceptions. He did not share the ideas of the advocates of the foco, whose most representative spokesman was Régis Debray with his book Revolución en la revolución?. He did not underestimate the importance of political campaigns, of propaganda among the workers and peasants. He continually stressed the necessity of developing the guerrilla struggle in liaison with the mass movement.
In the interview already quoted, he said, for example: "What is developing in Guatemala is not a military struggle but a social one. I do not think that we are going to defeat our enemy solely by guerrilla warfare. The guerrilla fighters are only one expression of the mobilization of the masses, of the workers and peasants."
At the time of the Tricontinental Conference in January 1966 Yon Sosa was the object of a very sharp attack by Fidel Castro, in the context of a polemic against the Fourth International. Castro reproached him for not breaking relations with some Mexican activists, who claimed to be Trotskyists and were working with his organization.
We appreciated Yon Sosa's laudable attitude, his refusal to give way to pressure, to accept any discrimination against activists. We respected his position, even though we were aware that the activists in question were members of the Posadista sect and were trying, with inadmissible methods, to promote conceptions within the MR 13 that were really only a pitiful caricature of Trotskyism.
Later the MR 13 expelled the Posadistas, who had stolen funds from the movement for their own aims. Once again the attitude of Yon Sosa and his companions was exemplary. Despite the extreme gravity of the Posadistas' crime, committed against an organization engaged in a fierce struggle, no hasty justice was applied against them. The accused had an opportunity to defend themselves. The final verdict imposed the penalty of expulsion. But while this decree uncompromisingly condemned them, it did not impugn their revolutionary spirit.
The political side of the decision was to break with the Fourth International, which in Yon Sosa's eyes was represented by Posadas. Later some of the MR 13 leaders became aware of the real situation, that Posadas and his clique had broken with the Fourth International already in late 1961. It is significant in any case that Yon Sosa never changed his basic conceptions, which remained in fact very close to those of the Trotskyist movement.
While remaining intransigent in his revolutionary orientations, Marcos did not give up trying to overcome the divisions within the Guatemalan movement. Agreements were concluded at one point with the FAR [Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes—Rebel Armed Forces] of César Montes, but unfortunately were never put into practice. However, he did not resign himself to this situation and did not stop working for revolutionary unity. In this area also, he taught a necessary lesson.
Yon Sosa's death in battle is a very severe loss for the Guatemalan and Latin-American revolution. The struggle is a terribly difficult one and it will be long. Many fighters will still have to pay with their lives for the triumph of socialism over imperialism and so-called national capitalism. Yon Sosa's name now joins that of Che Guevara and of innumerable other martyrs on the glorious honor roll of the Latin-American revolution.