It is necessary to turn political crisis into armed conflict by performing violent actions that will force those in power to transform the political situation of the country into a military situation. That will alienate the masses, who, from then on, will revolt against the army and the police and blame them for this state of things. … Marighela's essential philosophy was that a resort to blind terrorism would inevitably provoke the forces of law and order into an equally blind repression, which in turn would lead to a backlash by the hitherto uncommitted, polarise the situation into two extreme camps and make impossible any dialogue of compromise by eradicating the "soft centre".

QUESTION: A provocative strategic logic — how often has this escalation gambit actually worked versus backfired on the instigators? XREF: Connects to familiar contemporary discourse about police provocateurs and tensions escalating public confrontation with authorities.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 369