Bust of Eloy Alfaro was stolen from the headquarters of the Supreme Liberal Junta in Quito On September 22, at the Pululahua resort (Pichincha), Jarrín, Mireya Cárdenas and Edgar Frías held a press conference in which they announced the existence of the organization. On November 2, the facilities of the radio stations: Noticia, La Fabulosa and Universal de Guayaquil were seized to condemn the intervention of United States in Nicaragua. At the end of 1983 Jarrín and about twenty guerrillas traveled to Libya to receive military training in one of the camps sponsored by Muamar el Gaddafi. Basantes and Frías temporarily assumed control of AVC. In October, during training near Esmeraldas, Basantes and Cárdenas were arrested for illegal possession of weapons. In April 1984, after the return of Jarrín from Libya and the release of Basantes from prison, the members of the AVC met and elected a Central Command made up of Jarrín, Basantes and Frías. On May 4, the AVC occupied the offices of the Ecuadorian News Agency (ANE) in Guayaquil to send a message against León Febres-Cordero, then a candidate for the presidency of Ecuador, and in support of Rodrigo Borja. On May 29, AVC militants abandoned pamphlets and detonated a low-power explosive in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Quito. On June 12, the brothers Ricardo and Lilian Jarrín (both disguised as religious) assaulted the Banco de los Andes in Quito. On June 14, Jarrín along with half a dozen guerrillas assaulted the Banco del Pacífico, also in Quito. After the robbery, Jarrín and other guerrillas took refuge in the house of Consuelo Benavides, a worker at the Ministry of Industries and an AVC sympathizer. The police captured and tortured them. After the arrest of his sister and the threat of arrest of their parents by the police, Jarrín confessed his identity, his membership of the AVC and his participation in the robbery of Banco del Pacífico. Benavides for her part remained detained for months, accused of illicit association. She was released on April 14, 1985, after which she contacted the AVC in a rural area of Esmeraldas. On August 10, the day that Febres-Cordero assumed the presidency of Ecuador, the AVC took over several radio stations to announce its opposition to the incoming government. In December, the AVC stole toys from a Quito factory and then distributed them among the residents of the poor neighborhoods of the city.