Vanguardia Febrerista

   / February Vanguard

   A Paraguayan armed guerrilla group, formed in 1958 by young militants from the Partido Revolucionario Febrerista (PRF, February Revolutionary Party), a party exiled in Argentina. Led by Arnaldo Valdovinos, the Vanguardia harassed the Paraguayan government of General Alfredo Stroessner by launching attacks over the border. Although the Febrerista leaders repudiated the Vanguardia’s militancy, calling it a threat to party discipline, Valdovinos ignored them. He may have felt further committed because of the death of his brother, Raúl Ferrari Valdovinos, murdered in February 1959 by Stroessner’s agents in response to a Vanguardia guerrilla operation. In April 1959 the Febreristas suspended Valdovinos and other Vanguardia leaders from the party, forbidding regional and local party committees to give the Vanguardia any support. Later that year, the Vanguardia merged with another guerrilla group, the Movimiento 14 de Mayo para la Libertad Paraguaya (M-14, 14th of May Movement for Paraguayan Liberty), led by Benjamнn Vargas Peсa, and Valdovinos managed to obtain funding from the leftist democratic government of Rómulo Betancourt in Venezuela. But after being denied the top leadership position, Valdovinos left the movement. By the end of 1960, Valdovinos had been expelled from the party for insubordination, and the Vanguardia broke up.

   See also Frente Unido por la Liberación Nacional.