NCJ Number
136054
Date Published
1990
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Banditry in Latin America during the 19th and 20th centuries sometimes represented political rebellion and sometimes represented an economic alternative in a situation of restricted opportunity.
Abstract
Banditry has involved attacks on both people and property and has been the subject of much folklore and literature. In some cases, bandits stated a political agenda; in others, their actions clearly had political significance. Gaucho outlaws in Argentina and bandits in Brazil, Bolivia, and Cuba were viewed by the masses as heroes who were defying their rich oppressors. The bandits of 19th-century Mexico and Hispanic bandits in California and the Spanish Borderlands in the same period also chose the bandit life because of the lack of legitimate alternatives for the rural poor. Other researchers have found motives of personal gain among bandits in Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and Cuba. Bandits sometimes professed political aims merely to give an impression of legitimacy, as shown by the bandits in Peru, Venezuela, and Cuba and during the Mexican independence wars of 1810-21. Other banditry in Mexico and Colombia was clearly political in nature. Bandits sometimes received more support from local elites than from the peasantry. Thus, outlaw networks often cut across class lines and committed their offenses for a variety of reasons. Photographs, illustrations, and 41 reference notes