How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns

by Audrey Kurth Cronin

It would be easy to conclude from this survey thus far that only authoritarian regimes, or fragile recent democracies with authoritarian regimes standing in the wings, clumsily try to end terrorism through brutal repression. By this logic, the story of the Tupamaros should be a parable about the resilience of democracy in the face of terrorism, since the ultraleftist group attacked Uruguay, the most progressive and stable democracy in Latin America. But that is not what happened. Uruguay had room for dissent, a robust party system, a relatively educated, urban population, and an established democratic tradition. It was the first Latin American country to adopt the characteristics of a liberal welfare state, including progressive rights for women, labor unions, and minorities, as well as welfare benefits for the poor and state intervention in the economy. Unlike Peru, the country had almost no peasantry, and 88 percent of the population was concentrated in rural towns and the capital. A strong two-party system grew out of the nineteenth century, with the urban, progressive Colorado Party dominating the traditional, rural Blanco Party for most of the twentieth.