For many Central Americans who came of age between the 1960s and 1980s, the solution to mass poverty, discrimination, and social exclusion lay in taking up arms against the entrenched structures of authoritarian militarism and oligarchic elites.

– Dirk Kruijt, Guerrillas

Some rebel groups abuse noncombatant populations, while others exhibit restraint, discipline, and control. Insurgent leaders in some countries transform local structures of governance, engaging civilians in the process of affecting political change; others build administrative machineries that do nothing more than extract resources. In some context, rebel groups kill their victims selectively; while in others violence appears indiscriminate, even random. Movements sometimes loot and destroy the property of civilian populations, while at other times they protect it from government attacks.