Mario Roberto Santucho

Mario Roberto Santucho (August 12, 1936 in Santiago del Estero – July 19, 1976 in Villa Martelli) was an Argentine revolutionary and guerrilla combatant, founder of the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (Workers' Revolutionary Party, PRT) and leader of Argentina's largest marxist guerrilla group, the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (People's Revolutionary Army, ERP).

Santucho was killed by the Argentine Armed Forces in a shootout in Villa Martelli (Buenos Aires Province) on July 19, 1976.

Santucho developed an early interest in politics. His brother Amílcar belonged to the Communist Party, while elder brother Francisco René, a writer and scholar of indigenous languages, was kidnapped and disappeared during Isabel Peron's rule in connection with his involvement with the ERP organization.

Santucho became involved in politics during his student years at the National University of Tucumán. He received a degree in Accounting and served as a delegate in student government.

In 1961 he married Ana María Villarreal and together they had three daughters: Ana, Marcela Eva, and Gabriela. During the same period he travelled throughout Latin America with Cuba as his final destination. While in Peru, he became familiar with Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre and drew intellectual inspiration from the founder of the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance, APRA). Later, he would participate in debates and conferences at universities throughout the United States.

Santucho was one of the driving forces behind the Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria (Revolutionary Coordinating Junta), a regional organization composed of Argentina's PRT, Bolivia's Ñancahuazú Guerrilla organization, Chile's Revolutionary Left Movement, and Uruguay's Tupamaros group.

Comrades often referred to Santucho by his nickname "Roby," although he was known to use other noms de guerre: Miguel, Comandante Carlos Ramírez, and Enrique Orozco, among others.

Santucho was instrumental in early efforts to unite the Frente Revolucionario Indoamericano (FRIP), of which he was then leader, with the Trotskyite organization Palabra Obrera. The group that emerged from their unification on May 25, 1965, the Marxist-Leninist organization known as the Workers’ Revolutionary Party, would combine the indigenous struggles of the former with the class-based politics of the latter to form one of Latin America's most important communist parties.

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