He describes his experience as a member of a revolutionary student cell, his naïve enlistment as a teen-age guerrilla with the Somalis, and his survival of imprisonment, famine, and near-death by firing squad with the vivid swiftness of a Stephen Crane story.
In 1994 Mr Vieira won an election, with most voters supporting his ruling party of ageing guerrillas.
Opposition parties here are typically toothless and ineffectual, posing little threat to the aging guerrillas who remain popular with ordinary citizens.
But then we would all be talking about the growing irrelevance of the mainstream media in an age when guerrilla "journalists" can easily execute an end run around them.
Plus, Bukele would add a youthful, entrepreneurial edge to the party – a boon for a political organisation dominated by ageing former guerrillas.
The plot that has Aimée pounding the cobblestones of this quaint quarter is a circular affair that entails much chasing after aging urban guerrillas who tend to be incoherent, hostile or dead when found.
Later, in the same region, a teen-age Islamic separatist guerrilla among a group I'd been staying with begged me to adopt him and take him to America.
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Out of the Mountains, The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla, is a warning of the vulnerability of what he calls "feral cities", of coastal ones in particular, faced with hit-and-run attacks, ambushes, snipers, and bombings.
"At first you don't notice their age, you just see guerrillas," said Sgt. Jairo Herrera.
She was an active-duty FARC guerrilla from the age of twelve, but three years ago she was arrested by the Venezuelan Army at a roadblock outside of town.
