Frente Unido por la Liberación Nacional

   / United National Liberation Front (FULNA)

   A Paraguayan armed guerrilla organization that, in 1960, fought the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner. Funded by the Partido Comunista Paraguayo (PCP, Paraguayan Communist Party) and Fidel Castro’s Cuba, FULNA attracted young militants from two exiled political parties: the Partido Liberal (Liberal Party) and the Partido Revolucionario Febrerista (PRF, February Revolutionary Party). Liberal and Febrerista party elders, however, disapproved of FULNA’s communist ties and threatened its members with expulsion.

   On 3 May 1960 a group of 17 FULNA guerrillas crossed from Brazil into Paraguay, attacking the village of Capitán Bado. They were beaten back by police and then wiped out by the military before they could get back across the border. FULNA then sent about 200 guerrillas into Paraguay to establish a base camp. They were soon discovered by the military and defeated, their bodies thrown into the Paraná River. FULNA’s final invasion, on 20 December 1960, like the previous ones, ended in disaster.

   See also MOVIMIENTO 14 DE MAYO PARA LA LIBERTAD PARAGUAYA; VANGUARDIA FEBRERISTA.