Left Wing Terrorism in Chile
The MIR (Revolutionary Left Movement, Chile) and Manuel RodrÃguez Patriotic Front 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.[1]
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 defeated the MIR through detentions, disappearances and counterinsurgency warfare.
Guerrilla warfare
During the first three months of the Pinochet military regime, the Chilean armed forces and carabiniers suffered 162 killed in several clashes with the marxist guerrillas and civilian supporters of the MIR and Chilean Communist Party.[2]In all, 200 carabiniers, members of the Army, Air Force, Navy, 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.
Civilian losses
During the 1980s, 53 civilians were killed as a result of bombings and raids carried out by Left Wing guerrillas and their supporters from the civilian population.
Some 60 civilians died and 510 were injured after the collision and derailment of two trains when guerrillas or left wing radicals sabotaged one of the train lines in Limache.[3]
Notes
- â "The Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) waged a revolutionary terrorist struggle in Chile from 1965 until 1989. The MIR initially advocated revolution to overthrow the longest-standing democracy in Latin America in order to establish a Marxist regime." World Terrorism: An Encyclopedia of Political Violence from Ancient Times to the Post-9/11 Era, James Ciment, p. 196, Routledge, 2015
- â Latin America's Wars: The Age of the Professional Soldier, 1900â2001, Robert L. Scheina, p. 326, Potomac Books, 2003
- â "The crash occurred on a single line of track which had been damaged in early 1986 by a bomb attack." Keesing's Contemporary Archives, Volume 32, Keesing's Limited., 1986