DEVELOPMENT AND CONTROL OF FRONT ORGANIZATIONS
The development and control of front organizations (or "facade" organizations) is an essential process in the guerrilla effort to carry out the insurrection. That is, in truth, an aspect of urban guerrilla warfare, but it should advance parallel to the ca
mpaign in the rural area. This section has as its objective to give the guerrilla student an understanding of the development and control of front organizations in guerrilla warfare.
2. Initial Recruitment
The initial recruitment to the movement, if it is involuntary, will be carried out through several "private" consultations with a cadre (without his knowing that he is talking to a member of ours). Then, the recruit will be informed that he or she is alre
ady inside the movement, and he will be exposed to the police of the regime if he or she does not cooperate.
When the guerrillas carry out missions of armed propaganda and a program of regular visits to the towns by the Armed Propaganda Teams, these contacts will provide the commandos with the names and places of persons who can be recruited. The recruitment, wh
ich will be voluntary, is done through visits by guerrilla leaders or political cadres.
After a chain of voluntary recruitments has been developed, and the trustworthiness of the recruits has been established by their carrying out small missions, they will be instructed about increasing/widening the chain by recruiting in specific target gro
ups, in accordance with the following procedure:
From among their acquaintances or through observation of the target groups - political parties, workers' unions, youth groups, agrarian associations, etc. - finding out the personal habits, preferences and biases, as well as the weaknesses of the "recruit
able" individuals.
Make an approach through an acquaintance, and if possible, develop a friendship, attracting him through his preferences or weaknesses: it might be inviting him for lunch in the restaurant of his choice or having a drink in his favorite cantina or an invit
ation to dinner in the place he prefers.
Recruitment should follow one of the following guidelines:
If in an informal conversation the target seems susceptible to voluntary recruitment based on his beliefs and personal values, etc., the political cadre assigned to carry out the recruitments will be notified of this. The original contact will indicat
e to the cadre assigned, in detail, all he knows of the prospective recruit, and the style of persuasion to be used, introducing the two.
If the target does not seem to be susceptible to voluntary recruitment, meetings can be arranged which seem casual with the guerrilla leaders or with the political cadres (unknown by the target until that moment). The meetings will be held so that "ot
her persons" know that the target is attending them, whether they see him arrive at a particular house, seated at the table in a particular bar or even seated on a park bench. The target, then, is faced with the fact of his participation in the insurrecti
onal struggle and it will be indicated to him also that if he fails to cooperate or to carry out future orders, he will be subjected to reprisals by the police or soldiers of the regime.
The notification of the police, denouncing a target who does not want to join the guerrillas, can be carried out easily, when it becomes necessary, through a letter with false statements of citizens who are not implicated in the movement. Care should
be taken that the person who recruited him covertly is not discovered.
With the carrying out of clandestine missions for the movement, the involvement and handing over of every recruit is done gradually on a wider and wider scale, and confidence increases. This should be a gradual process, in order to prevent confessions
from fearful individuals who have been assigned very difficult or dangerous missions too early.
Using this recruitment technique, our guerrillas will be able to successfully infiltrate any key target group in the regime, in order to improve the internal control of the enemy structure.
3. Established Citizens, Subjective Internal Control
Established citizens, such as doctors, lawyers, businessmen, landholders, minor state officials, etc., will be recruited to the movement and used for subjective internal control of groups and associations to which they belong or may belong.
Once the recruitment/involvement has been brought about, and has progressed to the point that allows that specific instructions be given to internal cadres to begin to influence their groups, instructions will be given to them to carry out the following:
The process is simple and only requires a basic knowledge of the Socrates dialectic: that is the knowledge that is inherent to another person or the established position of a group, some theme, some word or some thought related to the objective of per
suasion of the person in charge of our recruitment.
The cadre then must emphasize this theme, word or thought in the discussions or meetings of the target group, through a casual commentary, which improves the focus of other members of the group in relation to this. Specific examples are:
Economic interest groups are motivated by profit and generally feel that the system hinders the use of their capability in this effort in some way, taxes, import-export tariffs, transportation costs, etc. The cadre in charge will increase this feeling
of frustration in later conversations.
Political aspirants, particularly if the are not successful, feel that the system discriminates against them unfairly, limiting their capabilities, because the Sandinista regime does not allow elections. The cadres should focus political discussions t
owards this frustration.
Intellectual social critics (such as professors, teachers, priests, missionaries, etc.), generally feel that the government ignores their valid criticism or censors their comments unjustly, especially in a situation of revolution. This can easily be shown
by the guerrilla cadre at meetings and discussions, to be an injustice of the system.
For all the target groups, after they have established frustrations, the hostility towards the obstacles to their aspirations will gradually become transferred to the current regime and its system of repression.
The guerrilla cadre moving among the target groups should always maintain a low profile, so that the development of hostile feelings towards the false Sandinista regime seems to come spontaneously from the members of the group and not from suggestions of
the cadres. This is internal subjective control.
Antigovernmental hostility should be generalized, and not necessarily in our favor. If a group develops a feeling in our favor, it can be utilized. But the main objective is to precondition the target groups for the fusion in mass organizations later in t
he operation, when other activities have been successfully undertaken.
4. Organizations of Cells for Security
Internal cadres of our movement should organize into cells of three persons, only one of them maintaining outside contact.
The cell of three persons is the basic element of the movement, with frequent meetings to receive orders and pass information to the cell leader. These meetings are also very important for mutually reinforcing the members of the cell, as well as their mor
ale. They should exercise criticism of themselves on the realization or failures in carrying out individual subjective control missions.
The coordination of the three-member cell provides a security net for reciprocal communication, each member having contact with only an operational cell. The members will not reveal at the cell coordination meetings the identity of their contact in an ope
rational cell; they will reveal only the nature of the activity in which the cell is involved, e.g., political party work, medical association work, etc.
There is no hierarchy in cells outside of an element of coordination, who is the leader, who will have direct but covert contact with our guerrilla comandante in the zone or operational area. The previous diagram does not indicate which new operational ce
ll is the limit, but it indicates that for every three operational cells, we need a coordination cell.
5. Fusion in a "Cover" Organization
The fusion of organizations recognized by the Sandinista government, such as associations and other groups, through internal subjective control, occurs in the final stages of the operation, in a tight connection with mass meetings.
When the guerrilla armed action has expanded sufficiently, armed propaganda missions will be carried out on a large scale: propaganda teams will have clearly developed open support of the institutions; the enemy system of target groups will be well infilt
rated and preconditioned. At the point at which mass meetings are held, the internal cadres should begin discussions for the "fusion" of forces into an organization - this organization will be a "cover" source of our movement.
Any other target group will be aware that other groups are developing greater hostility to the government., the police and the traditional legal bases of authority. The guerrilla cadres tn that group - for example, teachers - will cultivate this awareness
-building, making comments such as "So-and-so, who is a farmer, said that the members of his cooperative believe that the new economic policy is absurd, poorly planned and unfair to the farmers."
When the awareness-building is increased, in the sense that other groups feel hostility towards the regime, the group discussions are held openly and our movement will be able to receive reports that the majority of their operatives are united in common,
greater hostility against the regime. This will be developed and the order to fuse/join will come about. The fusion into a "cover" front is carried out thusly:
Internal cadres of our movement will meet with people such as presidents, leaders, and others, at organized meetings chaired by the group chief of our movement. Two or three escorts can assist the guerrilla cadre if it becomes necessary.
Publish a joint communique on this meeting, announcing the creation of the "cover" front, including names and signatures of the participants, and names of the organizations that they represent.
After releasing this communique, mass meetings should be initiated, which should have as a goal the destruction of the Sandinista control.
6. Conclusions
The development and control of the "cover" organizations in a guerrilla war will give our movement the ability to create the "whiplash" effect within the population, when the order for fusion is gives. When the infiltration and internal subjective control
have been developed parallel with other guerrilla activities, a democratic guerrilla commander will literally be able to shake up the Sandinista structure and replace it.
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