Bøker av Antonio Luis Sapienza Fracchia

Che's Guevara's Final Adventure: The Guerrilla in Bolivia, 1967 is a detailed military history of the final campaign of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, as he commanded the Bolivian National Liberation Army in a doomed campaign against the US-backed military regime headed by Air Force General René Barrientos.Between 1966 and 1967 Argentine-born Ernesto Guevara - known around the world as 'Che' - would lead the Cuban-backed Bolivian National Liberation Army in Ñancahuazú region of Bolivia, in what was known as the the Ñancahuazú Guerrilla. Bolivia at that time was governed by a military regime headed by Air Force General René Barrientos, who in November 1964 had overthrown the historic leader and constitutional president Víctor Paz Estenssoro and put an end to the nationalist-popular revolution that began in April 1952.At the beginning of the operations, Che's guerrillas obtained some positive results before the Bolivian army and troops of the security forces began a relentless pursuit, supported by aircraft of the Bolivian air force, which bombed and machinegunned the guerrilla camps. With US military help in the training of the Bolivian Army Rangers, it was possible to decimate the guerrillas and capture, and ultimately execute, Guevara in October 1967.Che's Guevara's Final Adventure: The Guerrilla in Bolivia, 1967 provides a detailed day-by-day account of the last campaign of a figure who even today remains an instantly recognisable icon of the left-wing revolutionary movements of the Cold War era, and is illustrated throughout with original photographs and includes specially commissioned color artworks.

Argentina's tumultuous years from 1955 to 1974, focus on the rise of Marxist guerrilla groups, their violent actions, and the military's responses during a period of political upheaval.Operativo Independencia Volume 1 covers the lengthy background of Operation Independence between 1955 and 1974, with a brief description of all subversive guerrilla groups, the Argentine Security Forces organization, and the ERP and Montoneros organizations.International Marxist terrorism won the sympathy of many university students, Catholic movements and intellectuals in Argentina in the 1960s and 1970s, using terms such as 'dependency, imperialism, subjugation, colonialism and dictatorship'. Many of these young people had been catechists linked to Third World priests, but instead of taking the peaceful path of Christian preaching, they chose the bloody path of arms. Marxism-Leninism managed to penetrate the minds of socially well-off young people, convincing them that armed struggle was the only valid alternative against military dictatorships and Yankee imperialism. This is how they recruited hundreds of young people who later saw their lives and dreams cut short by a useless fight against a well-armed and highly professional Army.Although the first groups began to appear after the overthrow of General Juan Domingo Perón in 1955, the main guerrilla groups would only appear towards the end of the 1960s. They would 'prepare' the ground for Perón to return to the country and be President again. Perón called them 'Wonderful Youth', but he had created a monster he could not handle in his last years of life.All these groups were inspired by the successful Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959 with an Argentine, Ernesto Guevara, aka Che, and unrealistically thought that they could seize power and turn Argentina into a 'socialist homeland' in the best Cuban style. But Argentina was not Cuba, and the Argentine Armed Forces, despite suffering deep divisions and internal conflicts, were powerful, well-armed and well-trained. Their members were highly motivated to defend the political model at the time.The subversive bands aimed to produce chaos in the country, infiltrating the Peronist mass, destroying institutions, and supporting violence against the state. To achieve their objectives, the guerrilla groups resorted to the most despicable acts: kidnapping politicians, police and military officers, diplomats, and national or foreign businessmen or their relatives for ransom; hijackings; taking prisons to free their fellow terrorists; bombing politicians' or military officers' houses, foreign factories, police stations and military bases; to the assassination of politicians, police and army officers, including even a former president, General Aramburu.Everything had an objective: to create chaos in the country to prepare for the coming of Perón. When the military governments gave way to free elections, with the Peronist candidate Héctor Cámpora winning in 1973, guerrilla activity did not decrease but instead increased significantly. Cámpora belonged to the Peronist left and was greatly influenced by his two Montonero sons, so Montoneros held crucial government positions. That cost him a severe reprimand from the Peronist leader, and when General Perón assumed the presidency, he declared these groups illegal and began to fight them. But there was also the Peronist right wing in the CGT (General Confederation of Labor) and later the so-called Triple A (Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance) led by José López Rega, which would be in charge of avenging those murders and kidnappings of trade unionists by Marxist groups, especially between 1973 and 1976.General Perón did not live much longer, and it was his wife, the vice president, who, upon assuming the presidency, had to face the severe problem of the guerrillas. Although her government ordered Operation Independence, she would not see the end of this story either, which would occur in another military government led by Lieutenant General Videla towards the end of the 1970s.Operativo Independencia Volume 1 covers the long period that began after the overthrow of the government of Perón in 1955 until 1974, the year before the launch of Operativo Independencia. All the subversive groups that appeared in that period, their prominent leaders and actions are covered. Of all of them, only two would be protagonists of the most violent crimes in the mid-1970s in Argentina, the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) and the Montoneros, whose organization is detailed in this volume.

Illustrated with over 150 original photographs of the personalities, aircraft, ships and ground forces from Argentina and Chile during the conflict.The Beagle Channel lies at the southernmost tip of South America and sovereignty over a number of islands there was hotly disputed between Argentina and Chile for much of the twentieth century. Navigation rights to this channel connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans were of considerable strategic value. In 1978, this dispute came within hours of breaking into large-scale open warfare between the two nations at sea, in the air and on land as Argentina launched Operación Soberanía (Operation Sovereignty).Argentina's plans involved far more than just seizing a few barely inhabited islands, however, and intended to strike deep into Chile in several locations along the length of the border between the two nations. In return, Chile planned to counterattack into northern Argentina to seize territory to be held as a bargaining chip for future negotiations. The plans of these two nations, with Argentina controlled by its Military Junta and Chile under the dictatorship of General Pinochet, threatened to draw in their Latin American neighbors.The Beagle Conflict: Argentina And Chile On The Brink Of War Volume 2 1978-1984 provides a detailed examination of the militaries of Argentina and Chile at the time of the 1978 confrontation, of their plans and deployments for war, and of the negotiations and settlement through the offices of the Vatican that ultimately settled this dispute. This volume also examines further military developments up to 1984 as tensions between the Latin American neighbors eased.The volume is illustrated with over 150 original photographs of the personalities, aircraft, ships and ground forces of the two nations, maps showing the plans for war, and specially commissioned color artworks.

Covers the origins of the disputes and border clashes between Chile and Argentina from independence until early 1978.The Beagle conflict was a territorial dispute between Argentina and Chile over the determination of the layout of the eastern mouth of the Beagle Channel, which affected the sovereignty of the islands located south of the channel, and east of Cape Horn and its adjacent maritime spaces.The first antecedents of the conflict date back to 1888, seven years after the signing of the Treaty of Limits. In 1901, the first Argentine map appeared in which some of the islands in question were drawn as within Argentina's control. Despite the small size of the islands, their strategic value between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans caused a long conflict between the two South American states that went on for much of the 20th century, causing a number of 'minor' incidents, and almost culminating in a major war.The conflict focused on the dispute over the sovereignty of the islands and the oceanic rights generated by them to Chile, but it was not limited exclusively to these islands.Volume 1 of The Beagle Conflict mini-series covers the origins of the dispute and border clashes between the two countries from the time of the independence of Chile and Argentina from the Spanish Crown, until early 1978, and is illustrated with original photographs, custom-drawn artworks and maps.

Azules versus Colorados is the name given to a series of armed confrontations between two factions of the Argentine Armed Forces in 1962 and 1963, during the de facto presidency of José María Guido.