TERRORISMO EN AMÉRICA DEL SUR? EL CASO DE \" ALFARO VIVE CARAJO \" Terrorism in South America? The Case of \" Alfaro Vive Carajo \"

Terrorism today is on the agenda worldwide. Its political nature has prevented consensus among thedifferent actors within international organizations, hindering a solution that enjoys global acceptance,hence in the field of security poses a threat to states. South America was influenced by the Cuban revolutionin 1959, with a wave of armed groups appearing in the 60s, which acted according to regional and globaltrends. This article links these groups using David Rappoport´s classification of Terrorism and aims to showthe existence of two periods within the "third wave" of this classification. A first period of subversion thathad more characteristics of rural insurgency, and a second period, known as the urban insurgency, withmore features of terrorism. This work begins with a conceptual analysis of terrorism, followed by a study ofthe performance of groups framed within the non-governmental terrorism in South America and finallyanalyzes the performance of the group Alfaro Vive Carajo in Ecuador and the actions taken in their period ofexistence.