Montoneras

The Montoneras originally were known as the armed civilian, paramilitary groups who organized in the 19th century during the wars of independence from Spain in Hispanic America.

They played an important role in the Argentine Civil War, as well as in other Hispanic-American countries during the 19th-century, generally operating in rural areas.

These groups had a hierarchical structure that focused on organizing the gauchos in the most effective way to achieve their goals, and they typically fought in the style of guerilla warfare.

The Spanish historian Manuel Ovilo y Otero noted they operated similarly to those guerrillas fighting in Spain against Napoleon's troops from 1808 to 1814.

[6] In the history of Argentina, "montoneras" were usually military units from rural areas, generally cavalry, led by local caudillos.

For example, the montoneras organized by Blas Basualdo in Entre Ríos Province in 1814 from historic accounts appear to have been mobs of men without discipline.

They often had to travel long distances through the unpopulated country between towns and cities, and to fight in places dictated by natural geographical features, choosing locations where the proximity of waterways or mountains of trees could give them an advantage.

[8] At one time, historians avoided using the term montoneras to describe the fighters who defended the north of the country during the war of independence.

Revisionist historians have sometimes praised the montaneras as authentic defenders of provincial federalism against the centralism of Buenos Aires Province.

In Santiago del Estero Province, the insurgent leader Juan Felipe Ibarra used a defense of a "scorched earth" policy.

Buenos Aires Province preferred to organize professional armies, limiting the action of rural militias to defense against the Indians.

[10] During the period called the "National Organization", after the enactment of the 1853 Constitution of Argentina, the struggle between political groups was expressed in fighting between regular troops and montoneras.

Their costumes were no less varied; hussar jackets, coats infantry, and ingrown furs, removed the royalists dead, were interspersed with patriotic uniforms.

The commander of them, Captain ..., who had been appointed to consider their particular feats, was armed with a pistol, a rifle and a long straight sword he had taken a Spanish colonel, who was killed in single combat.

They comprised an armed wing - a cavalry - of a popular opposition movement against violence committed by landowners or authorities of the new republican power.