People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam

The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) is a former Tamil militant group. It is currently a pro-government paramilitary group and political party. PLOTE's political wing is known as the Democratic People's Liberation Front.

Origins

PLOTE was founded in 1980 by an ex-surveyor Uma Maheswaran alias Mukundan, who became its general secretary. He was the chairman of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers or LTTE) from 1977–1980. He was trained in Lebanon and later in Syria under the Palestinian nationalist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. After a bitter rivalry with Velupillai Prabhakaran, Uma Maheswaran left the LTTE in 1980 and formed PLOTE.

International cooperation

PLOTE was active in cultivating international connections: it established links with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) under George Habash, the Tunisian Communist Party, the Democratic and Social Movement communist party of Algeria, the Turkish Organisation for Solidarity with Palestine, the African National Congress, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front of El Salvador, the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, and the ruling Mauritian Militant Movement in Mauritius and Communist Party in Cuba. These links were later picked up by the LTTE.