For an international worker or person living overseas, knowledge of guerrilla warfare and the terrain that they live and fight on is of utmost importance.  In this excerpt by Che Guevara, we learn about the tactics of guerrillas in terrains that are disadvantageous to them.  This can help us protect ourselves when in such a location.  

Guerrilla in Unfavourable Terrains by Che Guevara

To have a war in this type of terrain, that is to say, not very rough, without forests, and with many ways to communicate, one must complete all of the fundamental requirements of guerrilla warfare, only changing the ways of doing it.  One must change, let´s say, the quantity, not the quality of guerrilla warfare.  For example: to follow the same previous order, the mobility of this type of guerrilla must be extraordinary, the attack made, preferably at night, should be very quiet, almost explosive, and the retreat not only quick but also the guerrillas must move themselves towards places distinct from those of origin - the farthest way from the action, always considering that there may not exist a possibility of shelter in a place inaccessible to the repressive forces.
One man can walk between thirty and fifty kilometers at night, but during the first hours of the day one can also march, except that the areas of operations aren´t perfectly controlled and there also exists the danger that the neighbors will see the troop pass and tell the persecutor´s army about the situation - where they saw the guerrilla troop and their course of action.  It is also preferable, in these cases, to act during the night, as quietly as possible, both before and after completing the action. It is also best to choose the first hours of the night, though there are times that the early hours of the morning are actually better. It is never good for the enemy to get accustomed to one definite type of war.  One must constantly vary the places and the hours of operations and the forms of carrying it out as well.  We already said that the battle mustn´t be persistent, but rather rapid. It must have a great degree of effectiveness, completed in little time, and followed by an immediate retreat. The methods employed here won´t be the same as those used in cases of unfavorable terrains.  It´s preferable to have a lot of automatic guns; during nighttime attacks, aim isn´t a determinate factor, but rather the concentration of shots is.  The more that automatic guns are shot at a short distance, the more likely it is that the enemy will be annihilated. 
Also, mine explosions on the paths and the destruction of bridges, are very important factors to consider.  The aggressiveness will be much less in regard to the persistence of attacks, and the continuation of the same, but there will also be much more violence and different arms can be used also, such as the mines previously mentioned and the shotgun.  The shotgun is a tremendous weapon, especially when in uncovered vehicles that are generally used for transporting troops, including those that have no special defenses, like an omnibus or something similar.  A shotgun loaded with small bullets is the most effective.  This is not just a guerrilla secret – these guns are also used in big wars and North Americans had squads of shot gun men with high quality arms armed with bayonets in order to rob hiding places of machine guns.     
There is one important problem to mention: the battalion.  This will most always be taken from the enemy.  The guerrillas must attack where there is absolute certainty of restoring any battalion that´s lost, or at least where they can count on getting large quantities of provisions from secure places.  In other words, an annihilating attack can´t be risked against of group of men if this will cost the totality of the battalion and it won´t be able to be recuperated. The tactic of the guerrilla must always consider the grave problem of the supply of bellicose material in order to continue the fight.  For this reason, the weapons should be equal to those that the enemy has, except for some whose battalion should be obtained in the same area or in the cities, like revolvers or shotguns. 
The number of men in a guerrilla troop of this kind must be more than ten or fifteen.  It´s of great importance to always consider limitations of size in regards to the integration of a single combative body.  Ten, twelve, or fifteen men can hide in the same place and at the same time set up a powerful resistance against the enemy and help themselves mutually.  Four or five is perhaps a very small number, but when the number is more than ten, the possibility that the enemy will find them in their base camp or marching is much greater.  Remember that, in the movement, the speed of the guerrilla army is equal to that of its slowest man. It´s more difficult to find uniformity in speed when there are twenty, thirty, or forty men, than when there are only ten. The guerrilla from the plains should basically be a runner. In the plains is where the practice of hitting and hiding should reach its greatest expression.  The guerrillas of the plains have a great inconvenience in that they can be approached quickly, due to not having place to set up a firm resistance, and therefore must live in completely clandestine conditions during a long period of time and not confide in any neighbor whose fidelity hasn´t been completely proved.  The repression of the enemy are so violent and brutal and, in general, reach not only the head of the family, but also, in many occasions, the wife and kids, that the pressure on individuals that aren´t dependable can determine that at any moment one might “become lax” and give indications as to where the guerrillas are or how they operate.  This would immediately provoke a blockade with always disagreeable consequences, although not necessarily mortal. When the conditions, the collection of weapons and the insurrectional state of the people, requires an increase in the number of men, the guerrillas must divide themselves.  If it´s necessary, at any given moment, they can get together for an attack.  However, in whatever way, immediately afterwards, they must disperse to the usual areas already divided into small groups of ten, twelve, or fifteen men. 
One can perfectly organize the armies with only one command and obtain respect and obedience from this command, with the necessity of being group.  It´s for this that the choice of boss is very important, and the certainty that this boss is going to answer ideologically and personally to the head boss of the zone. 
One of the weapons that can be used by the guerrilla – a type of heavy arm – of great utility due to its easy of transport and handling, is the bazooka.  Actually, the anti-tank grenade of the shotguns can replace it.  Naturally, it will be a weapon captured from the enemy.  It´s ideal to shoot above armored vehicles, and even above non-armored vehicles with troops, and to take small barracks with reduced garrisons, in little time.  It´s necessary to point out, however, that a maximum of three weapons can be taken per man, while still making a considerable effort.
Referring to the usage of heavy duty arms taken from the enemy, it´s obvious that not even one can be wasted. However, there are some arms, like the tripod machine gun, the heavy duty 50 caliber machine gun, etc, that if capture, can be used with a sense of conformity in front at eventual loss.  That´s to say, one can´t have a battle in the unfavorable conditions that we´re analyzing while defending a heavy machine gun or another instrument of this type – simply use it until the tactical moment that is precise for abandoning it in a secure position. In our war of liberation, abandoning a weapon constitutes a great offense and one never gives that case that they would admit a pretext, like the aim, heavy as it is, we express it, explaining clearly the only situation in which there isn´t a motive of ridicule.  The weapon of the guerrilla in unfavorable terrain is the rapid fire personal one.  The same characteristics of easy access are the ones that, in general, allow the area to be habitable and if there is a high concentration of peasants, it also enormously helps the supply.  By having people to count on, and making contact with establishments that are in charge of expending provisions to the people, a guerrilla army can be perfectly maintained without having to dedicate much time or money to long and dangerous lines of communication.  Also, in this it is good to stress the smaller the number of men, the easier it is to get food from these areas.  Essential supplies, hammocks, blankets, waterproof material, mosquito nets, shoes, medicine, and food can be found directly in these areas.  They are objects that are used daily in these areas.
Communication would be easier in the sense of being able to count on a larger amount of men and having many more ways to carry it out, but it would be much more difficult in regards to the necessary certainty of being able to deliver a message to a faraway place. To do this, very dependable, trustworthy contacts are needed.  There is also the danger of the capture of the one of the messengers, who constantly travels in enemy territory.  If messages aren´t of much importance, the verbal form can be used, but if they are important, than the written form in code should be used.  This method is used because experience has taught us that oral transmission completely distorts any communication transmitted in these conditions.
For the same reasons mentioned, and also considering the extreme difficulty of the job, industries have much less importance.  Factories for neither shoes nor weapons can be established.  One is practically limited to small workshops that are well hidden where shotgun cartridges can be reloaded, some types of mines can be made, and ultimately things that are really needed can be made or acquired. They can also count on friends´ workshops in the area for any kind of job that´s needed. 
This brings us to two consequences which logically emanate from the aforementioned. One of them is that the conditions of “sedentorization” in regards to the guerrilla war are opposite to the quality of productive development of the given places.  All of the favorable things that make an average man´s life easier, make the guerrilla´s life more difficult. As the average man acquires easier ways to live, the guerrilla´s life, on the contrary, becomes more nomadic and uncertain.  In reality, they are run by the same principle.  Precisely, for this reason, the tile of this chapter is: “Action in unfavorable terrain”, because all that is favorable to human life: the effect of communication, of urban and semi-urban nucleuses, of the large concentration of communication, of terrain easily worked by machine, etc. place the guerrilla in a disadvantageous situation.   
The second consequence is the work that a guerrilla must do, at the same time, with the people.  This job is made much more important in an area where only a single attack from the enemy can cause a catastrophe.  From this point, continues the sermon, continues the fight for the union of the workers, of the peasants, of the other social classes in the area, to achieve a united internal front with respect to the guerrillas. This work of the people, this constant work in the larger respect of the relations of the guerrillas and the people living in the area, must also consider the individual case of the recalcitrant enemy and eliminate them without even considering the danger. In this respect, the guerrillas must be drastic. There can´t be enemies inside the zone of operations in places that don´t offer security.