Little is known about the Roque Dalton Commando. The group claimed responsibility for an arson attack against the El Salvadoran Consulate in Guatemala City on December 21st, 1981. The building was burned to the ground and important records were destroyed. Rocket attacks were also reported against a local police station and the Chamber of Commerce. The group did not issue any ideological or political motivation for the attack. The Roque Dalton Commando never claimed responsibility for any other incident. <P><br /><br />The Roque Dalton Commando took its name from a controversial communist El Salvadoran poet. In addition to writing literature, Roque Dalton was active in the leftist guerrilla movement in El Salvador in the early 1970s. He was a leader of the People's Revolutionary Army, which eventually merged with other groups to form the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN) in 1979. Dalton was killed by his rebel comrades as part of an internal feud in 1975. <P><br /><br />Low-level terrorist violence was common in Guatemala during the early 1980s. Left-wing rebels were fighting with the government and its semi-official "death squads." Political violence, kidnappings, and murders were frequent. Bombings and rocket attacks, particularly against foreign businesses or diplomatic targets, were also common. While these incidents were typically small in scale, they were frequently deadly. Furthermore, they were often perpetrated by unnamed or previously unknown groups (such as Roque Dalton Commando). <P><br /><br />The burning of the El Salvadoran Consulate is best understood in the context of this low-level violence. While the perpetrators who carried out the attack may have been affiliated with other Guatemalan leftist rebel groups, they may also have been unaffiliated communist sympathizers. The choice of the El Salvadoran Consulate was likely significant as well. At the time, leftist rebels in El Salvador were ratcheting up operations against the country's military government. By attacking an outpost of the government of El Salvador, the Roque Dalton Commando may have been trying to declare their solidarity with El Salvador's FMLN. Or, perhaps, they may have been native El Salvadorans living in Guatemala intent upon waging their local struggle abroad.  <P><br />