# Olancho Guerrilla Incursion (1983)

URL: https://allhistories.com/honduras/timeline/1983-olancho-guerrilla-incursion
Location: Juticalpa, Olancho, Honduras
Themes: battle

The early 1980s saw a growth in small Honduran leftist groups, among them the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers of Honduras (PRTC-H), the Cinchoneros and the Lorenzo Zelaya Popular Revolutionary Forces. They carried out bombings, kidnappings and hijackings, and some received training in Nicaragua and Cuba. In September 1983 a platoon-sized column of about 96 PRTC-H fighters led by José María Reyes Mata crossed the Río Coco from Nicaragua into the mountains of Olancho. With them as chaplain was James "Guadalupe" Carney, a Chicago-born Jesuit and Second World War veteran who had worked for years with Honduran peasants before moving to Nicaragua. Short of supplies, the column was quickly detected and encircled by the Honduran army; 23 guerrillas surrendered and others died in combat or of hunger and exposure. The column broke up, and Carney, by then in his late fifties and physically exhausted, disappeared. The army stated that Carney died of starvation in the mountains, but his body was never found. A former Battalion 3-16 member later testified that he was captured and killed on the orders of General Álvarez. The failure of the incursion, and of a similar attempt in 1984, showed that armed revolution had little support among Honduran peasants, while the Carney case became an enduring human rights cause in the United States. At this point in the timeline (September 1983), the President of Honduras was Roberto Suazo Córdova (27 January 1982 – 27 January 1986).

## Why it matters
The Olancho incursion marked the failure of armed revolution in Honduras and produced one of the era's most notorious disappearances.

Ruler at the Time: [Roberto Suazo Córdova](https://allhistories.com/honduras/rulers/roberto-suazo-cordova)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — James Carney (American priest)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Carney_(American_priest))
- [Wikipedia — History of Honduras (1982–present)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Honduras_(1982–present))
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — James Carney Honduras](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=James+Carney+Honduras)
- [Wikipedia — Democracy, Mitch and Crisis (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Honduras)