Tupamaro: Urban Guerrillas

In Caracas, Venezuela, the murder capital of the world, a revolutionary gang enforces justice –an eye for an eye. Hailed by some as modern-day Robin Hoods and as ruthless thugs by others, the Tupamaros are an enigma long puzzled over by scholars and the U.S. foreign service. With unprecedented access to these controversial vigilantes, the film chronicles seven turbulent years in the life of Alberto ‘Chino’ Carias, a former guerrilla fighter and a Tupamaro leader who rose to prominence after Hugo Chavez’s election in 1999.

Once accused of robbing banks and killing cops, Chino sheds his outlaw reputation and takes a government post, formally embracing the socialist movement. But when Chavez dies, revolutionary turns on revolutionary. The country careens through a middle-class exodus, mind-bending inflation, and the unraveling of new programs meant to empower the poor. In the absence of true law and order, Chino clings ever more desperately to his contradictory roles as saint and executioner.