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Martin Gil del Real

Latin American History and Film
Daniel Rodriguez
Two Romeros Analysis
When speaking of violence, one is bound to step on the toes of another; for violence is a

matter that carries a lot of weight to most, and interpretations of its necessity is complex and

diverse. This makes conflict to arise naturally when disagreements on this necessity occur.

Violence as a necessity tends to gain ground when there is a need for _change_; and it is this

contest over how critical that change must be to justify the violence from which [fill in here]. Is

the change essential and needed enough to warrant violence? There exists a spectrum of answers

and stance on this question in a general sense, yet this multiplicity remains true when the

question is directed to the violence enacted by the guerrilla warfare seen throughout Las

Americas. It warrants in turn the question: has the violence in the name of Revolution been able

to justify its means in actually producing a state of change? Professor Daniel mentioned in class

a quick statement that struck me, and for which I would like to sit with. That statement being that

the ideology revolving revolutionary guerrilla violence tends to aim toward the objective of

snagging the state, of obtaining control over the state to drive a country in a new direction. In this

process of the upholding of a state, what does the continued upholding of the idea (the necessity)

of the state become incapable of changing?

A factor to consider in this analysis is the existence of other global forces that will

continue with their previous status-quo a midst the change in power. This manifests itself in two

(non-comprehensive) forms, that will be examined: The transnational Revolutionary allies, and

the capitalist powerhouses. Looking at the former, we will examine into these Revolutionary

allies through the lens of the Revolutionaries present in the book Death of Somoza, which
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recounts the adventures of a group of Argentine guerrillas in there pursuit of the former

Nicaraguan dictator. In the book, one of the guerrillas states their motives to assist in the

revolutionary struggle in Nicaragua, that being that “for us, to help the Nicaraguan revolution

was not only a matter of assisting a brother country, but it was also to help all the other liberation

movements of Latin America” (Alegria and Fakoll, 27). Their ideology is one built off of a

transnational duty for liberation, which is apparent in many guerrilla ideologies. Yet, once this

ideology transcends to the level of a state, how well does it hold under the pressures of the state.

When prompted if to mention the potential assassination of the blight known as Somoza

to the Sandinistas, it is quickly rejected, since “They aren’t a guerrilla movement any longer;

they’re running a state, and for reasons of state I’m certain they wouldn’t approve” (34). Here,

we can see a small taste of how priorities of a liberation movement almost immediately shift

under the demands of the maintaining of a state.

In addition to all this, a shift in power likewise does not change the influence of the

global capitalist forces at play. Their economies are still very mucc there and the need to “play

within the game” remains present and is felt as very real. A point of reference to draw from

could be the Cuban Thousand Ton Sugar Harvest (I’m paraphrasing, could not find the source

somehow); in an era where Cuba was just beginning to shed its wings as a communist state, it

still had to depend on sugar exports to support its economy, and boasted about its ability to reach

an incredible large supply. Regardless of if the goal was reached or not, because of external

economic forces, the state (here Cuba) has to organize itself in a way that plays into it’s

“economic advantages and disadvantages” that dominates a capitalist culture. Once a state, the

mere act of maintaining that power seems to work in a way that upholds previous systems, and

hence, has a reduced potential to enact change.

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Works Cited

Alegría Claribel, and D. J. Flakoll. Death of Somoza. Curbstone Press, 1996.