Foco The foco theory of revolution by way of guerrilla warfare , also known as focalism ( ) , was formulated by French intellectual and government official Régis Debray , whose main source of inspiration was Marxist revolutionary Ernesto " Che " Guevara ' s experiences surrounding his rebel army ' s victory in the 1959 Cuban Revolution . Its central principle is that vanguardism by cadres of small , fast - moving paramilitary groups can provide a focus ( in Spanish , " foco " ) for popular discontent against a sitting regime , and thereby lead a general insurrection . Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas , many " foco " ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements by the late 1960s . Background . Like other leader s of his time , such as Mao Zedong , Ho Chi Minh and Amílcar Cabral , Che Guevara believed that people living in countries still ruled by colonial powers , or living in countries chained by what he saw as a new form of economic exploitation , could best defeat what he perceived as colonial powers by taking up arms . Like other theoreticians , Guevara also believed that armed resistance needed to be built not by concentrating one ' s forces in urban centers , but rather through accumulation of strength in mountainous and rural regions where the enemy ' s presence was weakest . Cuban Revolution . " Foquismo " , which was formally theorized by Régis Debray , draws on Ernesto Guevara ' s experience of the 1959 Cuban Revolution , where a small group of 82 members landed in Cuba on board of the " Granma " , in December 1956 , and initiated a guerrilla war in the Sierra Maestra . During two years , the poorly armed " escopeteros " , at times fewer than 200 men , managed to win victories against Batista ' s army and police force , which numbered between 30 , 000 and 40 , 000 in strength . The small group finally managed to take Havana after the December 1958 Battle of Santa Clara . This surprising success led to the " foquismo " theory which , inspired by Mao ' s doctrine of people ' s war , counted on the support of the people to win the war . But the foquismo theory stated that this popular support would be created during the armed struggle itself : thus , against predominant Marxist theory , there was no need to wait for the " objective conditions " of a popular uprising to engage the last stage of the revolutionary struggle ( i . e . armed struggle ) . In other words , a small group of revolutionaries was considered to be enough to jumpstart a revolution since this group could begin the revolutionary struggle while at the same time developing the conditions necessary for popular support for the revolution . This theory focused heavily on the notion of vanguardism and on the moral value of the example . Theory . While focalism drew from previous Marxist - Leninist ideas and the Maoist strategy of " protracted people ' s war " , it also broke with many of the mid - Cold War era ' s established communist parties . Despite Nikita Khrushchev ' s eager support for " wars of national liberation " and the focalists ' own enthusiasm for Soviet patronage , Cuba ' s own Partido Socialista Popular had retreated from active confrontation with the Fulgencio Batista regime , so Castroism / Guevarism substituted the " foquista " militia for the more traditional vanguard party . In " La Guerra de guerrillas " ( Guerrilla Warfare ) , Guevara did not count on a Leninist insurrection led by the proletariat as had happened during the 1917 October Revolution , but on popular uprisings which would gain strength in rural areas and would overthrow the regime : the vanguard guerrilla was supposed to bolster the population ' s morale , not to take control of the state apparatus itself and this overthrow would occur without any external or foreign help . According to him , guerrillas were to be supported by conventional armed forces : " It is well established that guerrilla warfare constitutes one of the phases of war ; this phase can not , on its own , lead to victory . " Guevara added that this theory was formulated for developing countries , and that the " guerrilleros " had to look for support among both the workers and the peasants . In power , Castro sided with the USSR in the 1961 Sino - Soviet split , while Guevara sympathized with the People ' s Republic of China . Perhaps accelerated by this divide , the latter man shifted his energies away from Cuba to adventurism , promoting guerrilla " focos " overseas . Though this method had triumphed in Cuba , Guevara saw it subsequently fail in Africa and Latin America . Laurent - Désiré Kabila put it in practice in Congo . Despite being backed by the Castro regime , Guevara ' s attempt to forge an insurgency in Bolivia led to his capture and subsequent execution in 1967 . Foco after Guevara . Guevara ' s unsuccessful campaign in Bolivia dampened Cuba ' s overt support of focoist uprisings internationally for several years , and many revolutionary movements split into different factions , particularly New Left , Maoist and / or urban guerrilla breakaways from previous Moscow - line parties and / or " foco " groups . By the mid - 1970s , however , Cuba revived and further escalated its previous zeal , directly deploying its military in Africa before the collapse of " détente " — e . g . , supporting up the MPLA government in Angola . ERP . In Argentina , the People ' s Revolutionary Army ( ERP ) , led by Roberto Santucho , attempted to create a " foco " in the Tucumán Province . The attempt failed after the government of Isabel Perón signed in February 1975 the secret presidential decree 261 , which ordered the army to neutralize and / or annihilate the ERP insurgency ( which was not supported by a foreign power , and also lacked popular support ) . " Operativo Independencia " gave power to the Argentine Armed Forces to " execute all military operations necessary for the effects of neutralizing or annihilating the action of subversive elements acting in the Province of Tucumán . " General Acdel Vilas immediately deployed over 3 , 000 soldiers , including conscripts from the Fifth Infantry Brigade and two companies of elite commandos . While fighting the guerrillas in the jungle , Vilas concentrated on uprooting the ERP support network in the towns , using state terror tactics , inspired by the 1961 Battle of Algiers , later adopted nation - wide , as well as a civic action campaign . The ERP was quickly defeated , but this military campaign marked the beginning of the Dirty War in Argentina . Central America . After victories for a once - divided , recently - reunited Sandinista movement in Nicaragua and the United Front - style New Jewel Movement in Grenada in 1979 , Castro effectively supported the creation of the FMLN of El Salvador by pushing for the merge of five other communist factions between December , 1979 and October , 1980 . Similarly , Cuba supported four rival guerrilla groups ' decision to form the URNG coalition of Guatemala in 1982 .