Left Wing Terrorism in Chile

The MIR (Revolutionary Left Movement, Chile), Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front and other Left Wing guerillas waged a revolutionary war in Chile from 1965 until 1989. The Chilean Left Wing guerrillas initially advocated revolution to overthrow the longest-standing democracy in Latin America in order to establish a Communist dictatorship.

On 4 September 1970, when Chileans elected as president Salvador Allende Gossens a Marxist, the MIR decided to carry out his socialist reforms by force. This resulted in the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet on 11 September 1973 who largely defeated the Left Wing guerrillas and civilian supporters MIR through detentions, disappearances and counterinsurgency warfare.

Guerrilla warfare

During the first three months of the Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90), the Chilean armed forces and carabiniers suffered 162 killed in operations against the Marxist guerrillas and civilian supporters of the MIR and Chilean Communist Party.At least 238 members of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Police (not including private security and prison guards) were killed in the line of duty from 1973 to 1989.

At the end of March 2013, it was announced that the Chilean government was considering a proposal by parliamentarians to compensate the nearly 30,000 Chilean conscripts mobilized after the Coup d'etat and that remained almost double the expected time in uniform.

Experts believe that Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) is behind the 250 reported cases of suicide among former Chilean conscripts, during the last four decades.

Civilian losses

During the 1980s, 53 civilians were killed and hundreds wounded as a result of bombings and raids carried out by Chilean Marxist terrorists and their supporters from the civilian population.

Another 60 civilians died and 510 were injured after the collision and derailment of two trains when left wing guerrillas or radicals sabotaged one of the train lines in Limache.

Terrorism in the 1970s

On 5 Februaary 1970, Leftists hijack a plane. In the resulting gunfight a flight attendant, Scarlet Burgos and a detective are wounded. Left Wing Radical Lenin Valenzuela is killed in the return fire.

Terrorism in the 1980s

On 15 July 1980, three guerrillas disguised as street workmen, stop the vehicle of Lieutenant Colonel Roger Vergara Campos, director of the Army's Intelligence School in Chile, killing him and wounding in a hail of bullets his driver (Sergeant Mario Espinoza Navarro) with their AK 47 assault rifles, causing a woman who witnessed the terrorist attack to fall into a deep state of shock.

On 30 December 1980, MIR guerrillas kill two carabinier NCOs, 31-year-old Corporal Washington Godoy Palma, and 27-year-old Corporal Daniel Alberto González Leiva.

In February 1981, in a war communiqué sent to the various press agencies of Santiago, the MIR guerrillas claim to have carried out more than 100 successful operations during 1980, including bomb attacks against the main electricity towers on 11 November, which caused widespread blackouts in Santiago and Valparaiso, and bomb attacks on three banks in the capital on 30 December in which a police officer was shot dead and at least three civilians wounded.

On 14 September 1981, during attempts to establish an operations base in Neltume, southern Chile, seven MIR fighters were killed in clashes with the police.

On 19 September 1981, army private Víctor Manuel Silva Nahuelpan is killed during counterinsurgency operations in the Neltume area.

In November 1981, MIR guerrillas kill three members of the Investigative Police in an ambush, and also attempt to assassinate Supreme Court President Israel Bórquez Montero.

In further operations carried in November 1981, units of the Chilean Army destroy two MIR bases in the Neltume mountains, capturing large ammunition depots in the process.

In revenge attacks, MIR militants carry out twenty-three bomb attacks during March and April 1982.

In the last week of August 1983, General Pinochet reminded army cadets at the Military Academy that "The forces of order are waging total war to the death against communism."

On 30 August 1983, guerrillas gun down and kill the Military Governor of Santiago, General Carol Urzúa Ibáñez and his two bodyguards, army corporals Carlos Riveros Bequiarelli and José Domingo Aguayo Franco.

In October and November 1983, MIR guerrillas detonate bombs against four Chilean companies that do business with the United States.

On 28 December 1983, the guerrillas kill in an ambush two policemen, carabinier Francisco Javier Pérez Brito and sergeant Manuel Jesús Valenzuela Loyola.

Between December 1983 and August 1984, leftist militants and guerrillas detonate 300 bombs against banks, businesses, police stations and electricity poles, causing six blackouts in and around Santiago.

On 31 March 1984, a police bus in downtown Santiago is destroyed by a bomb planted by Left Wing guerrillas, killing a noncommissioned officer and wounding 11 policemen and 6 civilians.

On 29 April 1984, MIR guerrillas detonate 11 bombs in the Chilean capital, derailing a subway train, injuring 22 passengers in the process, including seven children.

On 5 September 1984, guerrillas operating in Copiapó shoot and kill 27-year-old Army Lieutenant Julio Briones Rayo.

In the last week of October 1984, Left Wing radicals destroy a number of electricity poles, causing blackouts in several Santiago suburbs and 16 policemen are reported injured in tackling the leftist violence.

On 2 November 1984, a Carabiniers bus is targeted during the Chilean national cycling championship and four police special forces are killed in the guerrilla bomb attack.

On November 4, 1984, five guerrillas in a vehicle attack with automatic weapons and bombs a police station in Santiago, killing two police officers and wounding three more.

On 7 December 7 1984, urban guerrillas kill a policeman and detonate a bomb in a subway station in Santiago, wounding 6 civilians.

On 18 December 1984, guerrillas plant a bomb in the Intendance of the O'Higgins Region, wounding 12 civilians in the resulting explosion.

On 25 March 1985, MIR terrorists plant a bomb at the Araucano Hotel in Concepción, killing a marine sergeant, 32-year-old René Osvaldo Lara Arriagada and an army sergeant, 41-year-old Alejandro del Carmen Avendaño Sánchez, who were trying to defuse the bomb.

On 27 March 1985, a car bomb damages two banks and a hotel in the capital, injuring seven civilians (two journalists, four office workers and a passerby) in the leftist terrorist attack. That same day, another bomb was planted in the branch of the Osorno Bank of the city of Valparaíso, seriously wounding four employees.

On 14 May 1985, leftists detonate bombs in the suburbs of Lo Prado and Conchalí in Santiago.

On 27 June 1985, the driver of a locomotive is killed while removing an electricity pole lying across the train track, victim of a bomb blast.

On 12 July 1985, leftist terrorists wound three policemen in a bus with a hand grenade and detonate 15 bombs in all the major Chilean cities.

On 19 July 1985, leftists attack the United States Consulate in Santiago. In the operation, guerrillas of the Patriotic Front Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) detonate a high explosive bomb, killing a civilian passer-by and wounding another two. The following month, another leftist bomb is planted in the Paseo Ahumada, wounding another five pedestrians.

On 9 August 1985, leftist militants operating in the Chilean capital cause major blackouts in Santiago, and shoot and wound two policemen in their patrol car and destroy with Molotov cocktails four passenger buses.

On 6 December 1985, a policeman is shot dead by four leftist guerrillas who opened fire with machine guns as he walked home. That same month, 15 passenger buses in Santiago are destroyed with petrol bombs and the marxist guerrillas plant another bomb in the Santiago Metro subway, before escaping after a gun-battle with the police.

In all, 866 Left-Wing terrorist attacks take place during 1984 and 1985.