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           254———National Liberation Army–Bolivia


           Musawi, along with his wife and 5-year-old son.      Bolivia, bordering on Brazil, Peru, Chile, Argentina,
           Hezbollah members then elected Nasrallah to head   and Paraguay, occupies a central place in Latin
           the party. Under Nasrallah’s leadership, Hezbollah  American history. The country has experienced more
           grew into a great political force, holding seats in the  than 200 coups in its 157 years as a nation. Because of
           Lebanese Parliament and managing schools, hospi-   its strategic location and chronic political instability, in
           tals, and various media outlets. In 1997, Nasrallah’s  1966 Che Guevara chose Bolivia to attempt to repeat
           18-year-old son Muhammad Hadi was killed in a fight  the successes of the Cuban revolution.
           with Israeli soldiers inside southern Lebanon. After  Guevara’s  foquista revolutionary theory held and
           his son’s death, Nasrallah told a Beirut crowd that he  his experiences in Cuba taught him that a mobile band
           thanked God for choosing his son to be a martyr.   of hardened guerrillas operating in the countryside
             When the Israeli forces withdrew from southern   could become the foco, or focal point, of peasant oppo-
           Lebanon in May 2000, Nasrallah publicly announced  sition to the government. Guevara arrived in Bolivia in
           that his Hezbollah fighters had won the only Arab vic-  March 1966 with a group of about 20 Cubans and
           tory in the 50-year conflict with Israel.          established a camp in the southern jungle, naming his
             Hezbollah’s increased involvement in Lebanon’s   new group the National Liberation Army. (A different
           political and social life has led to a disagreement  National Liberation  Army was founded in 1964 in
           among world governments about the group’s status.  Colombia, where it is still operative.) Guevara hoped
           The U.S. State Department included Hezbollah in its  that a successful communist revolution in Bolivia
           2000 list of world terrorist organizations, and froze  would ignite continent-wide wars of liberation.
           the group’s assets after the September 11, 2001,     Guevara’s group was joined by about 20 Bolivian
           attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City  communists, but the Bolivian Communist Party
           and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. A 2001 list  favored open political efforts over armed struggle and
           of terrorist organizations released by the European  refused to back his group. The largely Cuban forces
           Union, in contrast, did not include Hezbollah.     seem to have frightened the local peasants rather than
                                                              inspiring them to rebellion. Within weeks, Guevara’s
           See also HEZBOLLAH
                                                              camp was discovered by the Bolivian armed forces,
                                                              and the revolutionaries were forced to go on the run.
           Further Reading
                                                              Guevara’s health and that of his men declined rapidly
           Drake, Laura. Hegemony and Its Discontents: United States  in the jungle. After months of hardship during which
             Policy  Toward Iraq, Iran, Hamas, the Hezbollah and  the force was split in two and suffered many casual-
             Their Responses. Annandale, VA: United Association  ties, Guevara and the remnants of the ELN were cap-
             for Studies and Research, 1997.                  tured and executed by the Bolivian armed forces in
           Fisk, Robert.  Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War. London:  October 1967.
             Deutsch, 1990.
           Jaber, Hala. Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance. New York:  A few of the group’s members escaped the final
             Columbia University Press, 1997.                 military ambush, and for the next several years strived
                                                              to reestablish the ELN; Nestor Paz Zamora, brother of
                                                              future Bolivian president Jaime Paz Zamora, was killed
           NASSER, ABDELKARIM HUSSEIN                         fighting for the ELN during this period. By the early
           MOHAMED AL-. See AL-NASSER,                        1970s, however, the group had been effectively crushed
                                                              by the Bolivian military.
           ABDELKARIM HUSSEIN MOHAMED.                          In the late 1980s, a group calling itself the Nestor
                                                              Paz Zamora Commission and claiming to be a wing of
                                                              the ELN carried out several attacks in Bolivia. These
           NATIONAL LIBERATION                                attacks included the 1990 kidnapping and murder
           ARMY–BOLIVIA                                       of Jorge Lonsdale, president of Coca-Cola’s Bolivian
                                                              division, and an October 1990 attack on a U.S.
                                                              Marines’ residence in Bolivia’s capital, in which a
             The National Liberation Army–Bolivia (Ejercito de  Bolivian police officer was killed. This reincarnation
           Liberacion Nacional; ELN) was a Communist terror-  of the ELN ceased operating sometime in the 1990s;
           ist group that is now believed to be defunct.      the U.S. State Department has dropped the group from
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