‘Caso Bombas’

CHILE RECENTLY DOMINATED WORLD HEADLINES through the much publicised rescue of 33 miners entombed in the Atacama desert after the dilapidated, unstable mine they were working in collapsed. When the ‘accident’ took place on 5 August, there seemed little hope of saving their lives.

9 DAYS LATER, on August 14, public prosecutor Ricardo Peña gave the order to set in motion “Operation Salamandra”, in which agents of the BIPE (Investigation Police) the ERTA , the GOPE (Special Forces of the Normal Police), LABOCAR (CSI) and a series of helicopters and police cars were used to carry out 17 spectacular dawn raids in Santiago and Valparaiso.

The excuse for this police operation is the so-called ‘Caso Bombas’, 23 explosive attacks registered in Santiago, which according to the police would have direct links with the arrested. The first raid was in the La Crota Bike Punk squat by the GOPE resulting in the arrest of 6 comrades. Of the six held, three are on remand, a female comrade with an arrest warrant and two because the police invented traces of TNT on their hands. Then it was the turn of the SSC and the Sacco and Vanzetti Library, by the ERTA and the BIPE, where they ripped out the metal grid of the window with a police car. The agents also carried out shootings with rubber bullets, hitting two comrades. 5 comrades were arrested from this space, one of whom remains in prison.

At the same time the Libertarian Library Johnny Cariqueo was raided in the Pudahuel municipality, here the police broke in smashing access doors and no one was arrested. The police also raided 14 houses, 12 in Santiago and 2 in Valparaiso. A total of 17 raids realized by the defenders of order and 14 comrades kidnapped. With the inestimable help of the mass media which created a climate of guilt around the arrestees, the temporary imprisonment of 8 out of the initial 14 people was ordered until the final trial takes place.

The other 6 were released and banned from leaving the country, establishing any sort of communication among themselves or with the people on remand. The arrested men were taken to the CAS (maximum security prison) and the women to the “Centro de orientacion femenina” (Centre for Female orientation). All of them are being held in isolation. On Monday 6 September another 2 people were arrested supposedly in connection with the so-called “Caso bombas”.

AUGUST 22, a probe emerges from a bore-hole in the mountain crust in the Atacama desert bearing the attached note: “We are all well here in the refuge – the 33”. The biggest reality TV show on earth gets underway.

In an operation costing an estimated $18m—a small price for the Chilean businessmen and capitalists to pay and one which their representative ex-media mogul and money lender, billionaire Piñera could not afford not to undertake. And so, using the lives of the 33 miners, the Chilean economy found a podium on which to delete the images of the Pinochet/CIA operation of physically eliminating all opposition to the regime, by visually affirming at planetary level the values of the democratic neoliberal model. Through democracy’s indispensable weapon, the media, the bosses’ ideal of the community of interest between exploited and exploiter, the ‘good worker’ and ‘concerned employer’, are exhibited along with all the other components of totalitarian democracy — family, homeland, religion, effusion of ‘human sentiment’, illusion of future wellbeing for all, etc. in a carefully controlled scenario (for example, the note sent up by the miners in support of the Mapuche struggle did not appear on the screen) capable of generating global catharsis.

A FEW MONTHS EARLIER, on July12th, 34 prisoners on remand of the Mapuche indigenous group went on a protracted hunger strike in the Chilean prisons of Temuco, Valdivia, Angol and Concepcion. They were demanding the abolition of the Anti-terrorist law as well as an end to the military occupation of their lands located in the South of the country and subjected for years to an ongoing plundering by western corporations. The Mapuche people are characterised by a strong bond with their surrounding natural environment. Their ancestral relation with their land as well as the destruction of the latter by national and international capital’s eternal quest to extract more and more profit from it has motivated the Mapuche to develop an increasingly militant line of action. These issues have been subjected to a total information blackout by the mainstream media.

In this reality of included and excluded, we find ourselves undeniably among the excluded. By necessity and by choice. And we too have our treasured images, a source of anger and inspiration in our own struggle. Yes, we are also part of the spectacle, we are inside it because we live in this alien world that every day that turns out to be more grotesque than the one before—but at least our intentions are honourable: to see its final eclipse in the ashes of the existent.

We cannot and will not delete the images that have penetrated us over recent times.

The smile of Maurizio Morales, anarchist comrade, ‘Punky Mauro’, blown up by his own home-made bomb as he set off on his bicycle towards the School of Prison Guards in downtown Santiago at 2 in the morning on May 22, 2009.

Scenes of uniformed brutes attacking desperate men, women and children as they retrieve goods of first necessity — water, sanitary goods, food, etc from semi-destroyed supermarkets following the devastating earthquake, images that inspire anger and indignation.

Images of shattered windows of banks etc, of streets aglow with the flames of insurgence after the State’s flow of electrical current has been cut by the young rebels.

The proud faces of the Mapuche people, intransigent in their endless struggle to the death against the plunder of their land by the greed of the national and multinational corporations.

Images of squats and libraries. Of beautiful comrades being dragged away by uniformed brutes.

These are all images that stoke the fires of our passions, the confirmation that there is no turning back, that we must fight with every means, the same fight.

The passion for freedom is without borders; the same goes for solidarity

random anarchists

International Solidarity with the 14 anarchists kidnapped by Chilean ’democracy’.

Welcome to Chile, a society of jails and jailers.

Saturday, August 14, in the cities of Santiago and Valparaíso, an action coordinated by all kinds of police special task forces violently raided three squatted social centres and many private homes in five communes. The police intimidated people with war weaponry, broke windows and doors, and took many personal items with them from all of the houses.

14 people were detained, only informed of the reason for their detention after three hours.

Later, six people were released on probation for lack of evidence against them. As for the people that remained imprisoned, they were put in isolation cells in maximum security jails awaiting a 180 day long investigation process and a potentially 20 year sentence for alleged illegal terrorist association. The State has alleged that these people were involved in making and detonating the bombs that have exploded lately in the capital. According to the prosecutor, this association was a hierarchical organization directed by key ringleaders.

This supposition is in absolute contradiction with anarchist ideas—most of the kidnapped people have been labeled anarchists—who are opposed to concepts of “leaders” and “hierarchies”…

Furthermore, this charade is a perfect outcome for the puppeteers and jailers who desire to keep their power. Above all, this is the result of those citizens who enjoy their peace so much, through their deafness and silence are helping to erase the oppressed, the masquerades, jails, and resignations…

‘The bombs case’ is the title that keeps appearing in the headlines of the newspapers like a bad novel, in which the main characters, the Minister/Secretary of the Interior, the prosecutor and his police henchmen are trying to catch the ‘undesirable’ anarchists. The beginning of the ‘bombs case’ is a saga of police persecution that dates back to September 10, 2006, the eve of an historic date in Chile when people mourn their dead and disappeared ones from the dictatorship, while others display their discontent with a democracy that has not changed much from the dictatorship.

In this context a Molotov bomb was thrown at the seat of the government. The images went around the world; the symbol of the concord of democratic parties was blown to pieces; the fraternal unifying factor of the left has been altered. Two weeks later, a vast police contingent raided the squat “La Mansion Siniestra” and arrested 6 people who, to their surprise had become, thanks to the distorting role of the press, an illegal association of “Molotov bomb-makers”, “violent criminals”, “vandals”. This scenario is the one that the 14 accused comrades were facing.

Back then, the police never thought that evidence was necessary, because the things they seized as alleged bomb-making materials were no more than common domestic utensils. These Molotovs never existed. During the judicial process the 6 antagonists accused in this story were allegedly the worst moral aberrations; public opinion has given legitimacy to sentences of up to five years in jail...

But OOPS... ‘mistake’! The accusations were fake, the police’s masquerade had been revealed. Finally, these 6 people did not serve the time they had been sentenced to. But that’s only after spending 11 days in a high security prison. Just as expected, no institution was held accountable for the irreversible physical and psychological punishments and damage inflicted on the detainees, not for the personal belongings that were seized from them and their comrades.

Four years have gone by since this incident, and with its passing, the travesty of justice, inequality and repression remain the order of the day.

Only to talk about JUST A FEW concrete examples:

According to the survey of “national socioeconomic characterization” (CASEN) the economic gap has increased from 13% to 15% since 2006. Meanwhile the government administration wants to spend 135 thousand million pesos to build, starting this year, 10 new prisons, which would add to the total of more than 16,500 new vacancies in the prison system. It is important to note, according to the sources of the mideplan, that 64% of the prison population are illiterate or have not finished their basic studies and are the poorest and the most marginalized people in Chilean society. This illustrates that the interest of the system is to imprison the most marginal people instead of educating them and providing them with the tools for a better life.

These prisons need jailers…

The alliance of ‘democratic’ parties was in charge of the government for a decade following the dictatorship, killing 42 people, and helping, instead of changing, the development of the ‘political constitution of Chile’ that was created by the dictatorship, strengthening it with reforms and continuing with its tradition of criminalizing social movements and perfecting the Anti-terrorism Law. One of the modifications to the Anti-Terrorism Law was to give policemen a status of ‘witnesses of faith’, whereby they frequently do not have to present concrete evidence against the accused, which gives the legal support to the masquerade/setups for those who represent a threat to the system. Among other barbarities, now in 2010, the turn of the ‘coalition for change’ with Sebastian Piñera in power. This regime is pro-dictatorship and a huge collaborator with the establishment of the neoliberal model. Let’s not forget that he was also the one that gave the Chileans the opportunity of having credit cards to live working in order to pay their debts. But above all, nowadays M. Piñera is famous for his campaign ‘the Battle against Delinquency’, in which he shows us his support for a policy of more ‘security’, in other words, and to be less moderate with the term, jailers that secure the power of their friends the businessmen and capitalists. To make sure that things proceed smoothly, the president will reinforce the repression against historically repressed populations, increasing police personnel to 15000 carabineros and increasing the salaries of civilian police, who in the last few months have had their salaries increased by 18%.

This is how the ‘Battle against Delinquency’ is an exemplary example of how the inefficacy of the alliance of political parties has erupted tragically into our lives. Today we become its scapegoats, displayed like pariahs in an outlandish play, in order to legitimize their ventures and win ‘moral sympathies’ among the spectators and the right. In this hunt to cover up facts, which have been intentionally invisible in the media, the hunger strike of 32 Mapuche political prisoners, who are fighting the adversity of Chilean justice and demanding their natural rights, is being hidden. Or another omission, the use of cheap, insufficient equipment to attempt the ‘rescue’ of 33 miners trapped only a few days earlier this week.

Today, these 14 comrades, among them, anarchists, communicators and social fighters, show solidarity to unjust causes, they are involved in open squatted social centres where they sustain libraries, video libraries, gardens, and people who exchange and question ideas and actions in forums and activities conducted in a horizontal manner. These people are automatically criminalized; prosecutors have enough ambiguous evidence to take their freedom away from them. For example, a tapped telephone call where a mother demanded that one of the accused people be taken care of: this was used as evidence against her. The open squatted spaces and the people who are committed to denouncing and transforming on a daily basis their own lives and their society have become more vulnerable to the apprehensions of the state and its prosecutions, which illustrates that this prosecution is also ideological.

Now...Who are the terrorists?

We are making a call to build an international support network for the people imprisoned on the 14th of August. Today more than ever! Internationalists of the world to solidarity and action, to face the kidnappings and lies of the Chilean State!.

Repressive strike in Chile. Solidarity now!

Agents of the BIPE (Investigation Police) and the ERTA (equivalent to the SWAT) on the other side agents of the GOPE (Special Forces of the Normal Police), LABOCAR (CSI) and the department of intelligence of the police and a series of helicopters and police cars was the armoury used by the police for the 17 raids in Santiago and Valparaiso, at dawn on Saturday August 14. Among the 17 houses were 3 Squats and Social Centres, the squats being La Crota Bike Punk, the Social Centre Squat and the Sacco and Vanzetti Library in downtown Santiago, and the Autonomous Social Centre Johny Cariqueo in the Pudahuel municipality. Two houses were raided in Valparaiso. The excuse for this police operation lies in the “Bombs Case”, and 23 explosive attacks registered in Santiago, which according to the police would have direct links with the arrested.

The first raid was in the La Crota Bike Punk squat by the GOPE where the result was 6 companions arrested. Of the six held three were kidnapped, a female comrade with an arrest warrant and for the other two the police invented traces of TNT on their hands. Then it was the turn of the SSC and the Sacco and Vanzetti Library, by the ERTA and the BIPE, where they pulled out the metallic grid of the window with a police car. The agents also carried out shootings with rubber bullets, hitting two comrades. From this space 5 comrades were arrested, one of whom remains kidnapped. At the same time the Libertarian Library Johnny Cariqueo was raided in the Pudahuel municipality, here the police broke in by smashing access doors and no one was arrested. The police also raided 14 houses, 12 in Santiago and 2 in Valparaiso. A total of 17 raids realized by the defenders of order and 14 companions kidnapped. Formalization of the hostages. This Saturday around 16:00 pm the comrades were brought before the 11º Santiago Court Guarantee where the prosecution request extended their detention until next Tuesday, 17 August. They were charged with “installation of explosive or incendiary devices and terrorist conspiracy” (law made by Pinochet), a request which the Ministry of Interior would also make, risking 20 years. During the hearing, once again the circus-like nature of the Chilean courts was demonstrated. Judge Lidia Bruna agreed to each and every one of the requests of the Prosecutor and the Ministry of Interior (press presence, extending the period of detention for three days, isolation of the comrades from each other and from outside, and also the order to bring police collaborator Gustavo Fuentes “El Grillo” to the audience next Tuesday, to formalize with the rest of the alleged members of this “terrorist conspiracy.” The vultures of the bourgeois press were all in the courtroom and fired their flashes once the judge gave the signal for the guards to bring in the comrades. The arguments of the defence were heard and denied one after another. The judge had everything ready for each resolution and automatically read it with her voice of an old bitch from a paper on her desk. When she asked a companion if he had anything to say in relation to his detention, he said he had had repeated death threats, she responds “that’s all?”. Neither did the story about the destruction of particular houses of the comrades seem to attract much attention. The Prosecution justified the injuries caused by police to a comrade of Sacco and Vanzetti (a rubber bullet to his head and he was kicked on the nose) with the fact he would have been looking out of a window of the building throwing things and destroying evidence, which the comrade denied, immediately calling this version “Imaginative”, resulting in his being reprimanded for showing disrespect to the prosecutors. So beating and death threats and unnecessarily smashing into houses is part of the norm that judges uphold, but any questioning of the repressive apparatus cannot take place in this circus. The lady continued with the same attitude when the defence counsel talked about an “orchestration” between the various media to blame our comrades. When it became clear that the show was already coming to an end on Tuesday at 9:00pm, they began to hear the cheers of support, very welcomed by the spirits of our comrades. Banners held outside the courtroom, songs of support sung (“Free the prisoners to fight”): the expression of the old fascist lady was one of disgust and horror, some bodyguards immediately surrounded the prosecutor Alejandro Peña. After wrangling with those who went to support our comrades with two kinds of police dogs (police and press), the fascist judge made an order for the 14 comrades to be taken inside and then, from the cells area, came a contingent of furious policemen armed with sticks and shields, that flew over the benches of defendants and lawyers with the clear intention of beating up friends and relatives of the detainees. Of course, the bourgeois press has noted that all the comrades who came to support, well as the accused, attacked the press and other guardians of the capitalist order, but the truth is that the aggression came from the guards, while police and journalists beat many people savagely, and outside the enclosure were joined by riot police launching a manhunt that was not intended to arrest anyone but to punish directly. The companion Luisa Vergara had a traumatic brain injury, the mother of one of the detainees had minor injuries caused by a fucking journalist, and luckily most of the windows of this temple of shit (the court) were destroyed.. Also, several journalists were beaten and their cameras damaged. No comrade was arrested but many were beaten by the police. Once outside the courts the comrades found out that the SSC and Library Sacco and Vanzetti was being closed by a joint operation by the two police departments. During the afternoon, the building had been guarded by a truck from the PDI (Police Of Investigation), whose occupants at first denied entry to a group of comrades, but later agreed to let them in and take some things, warning that there was an order not to let the building be reoccupied. Hours later, at about 18:30, police entered the squat and carried out work to prevent access. The Library and all the other things that were not seized (this time they took little in the raid) remained sequestered there. The police did not exhibit any eviction order or anything, and said it was orders of the prosecutor. They also said the squat would be recovered by their legitimate owners, the ISP (Internal Revenue Service). A quick operation that took them by surprise yielded a number of books being put to safety, sparking a short police chase in the area without anyone being arrested.

The kidnapped comrades are:

Pablo Morales: Ex-Lautarista (A military political organization that operated in Chile at the end of the dictatorship and the beginning of democracy). Arrested at his house in Santiago.

Rodolfo Retamales: Ex-Lautarista. Arrested at his house in Santiago. His parents’ house was also raided.

Omar Hermosilla: Ex-Lautarista. Arrested at his home in Santiago.

Andrea Urzùa: In 2008 the police say that he and Marcelo Villarroel (comrades on trial for a bank robbery) were held. Arrested at his home in Santiago.

Felipe Guerra: Arrested in SSC and Library Sacco and Vanzetti. His mother’s house was also was raided. The comrade was injured by agents of the ERTA.

Cristian Cancino: He was arrested in the squat “La Idea” following the death of Mauricio Morales (comrade killed by his own bomb on May 22, 2009), where the police charged him with possessing almost 500 grams of black gunpowder. Cristian decided to assume his guilt in a short trail to get out of jail.

Carlos Riveros: Arrested at his house in Santiago.

Camilo Perez: Arrested at his house in Santiago.

Ivan Goldenberg: Arrested at his house in Valparaiso. Police say the gun that Mauricio Morales was carrying at the time of his death, was owned by Ivan’s grandfather.

Candelaria Cortès-Monroy: Arrested at her house in Santiago. Candelaria in 2008 was stabbed by Gustavo Fuentes aka “El Grillo” who was her partner and who is accused of placing bombs.

Francisco Solar: Arrested at his house in Valparaiso.

Monica Caballero: Arrested at the squat “La Crota”.

Diego Morales: Arrested at the squat “La Crota”. The police invented that Diego had traces of TNT on his hands .

Vinicio Aguilera: Arrested at the squat “La Crota”. The police also invented that Vinicio had traces of TNT on his hands .

All male comrades are in the high security prison and female comrades in Women’s Counseling Centre.

Immediate Solidarity with our comrades kidnapped by Power! The “terrorist conspiracy” only exists in the head of the prosecutor Peña!

At the request of the Chilean authorities, the BND help to identify Italian who sent money to campaigners.

The Bundesnachrichtendienst or German Federal Research Service (BND) is following the footsteps of Italian citizen Matthew Rossi, suspected of having sent money to Chilean anarchist groups involved in the placing of explosive devices.

The collaboration of the German body is made on the basis of a request for Chilean authorities under the government case against 14 suspected members of the network involved in the attacks. According to reports, the petition alleges that the BND has large databases of European anarchists and the Italian suspect had lived in Germany.

TWO PEOPLE are in custody for this question.

One is Omar Hermosilla himself. The other, alleged anarchist Carlos Riveros Lüttge, known as “Carlangas.”

Communiqué from Mónica Caballero, anarchist prisoner in Chile

27/08/2010 — Chile

All the insurgents:

The hegemony of power came on the scene on August 14, around 7 am, when agents of the GOPE entered the place where I live or lived, the squatted house “La Crota”, destroying the gate of our library, the CDAI (Centro de Documentación Anarquista Itinerant) by linking it to a car and pulling it away. Hearing the noise I just made it in time to go into the courtyard where police, armed to the teeth and with their characteristic arrogance, blocked me.

Later I was taken to a room where they read out the accusations for which I continue to be held. During the same procedure my hands were submitted to an examination, in search of traces of explosives. This examination was carried out without my knowing anything, without anything being explained: a huge mistake on my part. The same examination was made against two other people who were in my beloved home: Vinicio Aguilera and Diego Morales, and is the only evidence that they have to accuse them. I tried to greet my fellow humans, canines and felines. One of my 4-legged comrades never stopped barking at the police. He never moved away from us. I stroked him and headed toward the front of the house, Biblioteka (CDAI), which was destroyed like a classic image of the totalitarian regimes. At that moment I was handcuffed, handcuffs that were my company for several hours on a number of occasions. In coming out from my beloved place, that the prosecutor would describe as “power centre”, the press try to snap the perfect photo of the “bombers”. They just received our deepest contempt. With my head never bowed I took the opportunity to shout slogans for the Mapuche prisoners, those who are currently on hunger strike. In the police car I was able to pick up on what news was being spread.

When I reached 33 ° Commissariat I found several others in the same situation as myself and more continuing to arrive. There are 14 of us. The courtroom hearings for the control of the generalities was full of comrades, friends, affini, relatives, brothers, who like us felt uncertainty. Illicit terrorist association and placing of explosive devices are the accusations against us. The formalization will take place on Tuesday. In coming out of the courtroom we managed to hear cries full of rage and anger from our people. Cries that deeply moved us and gave us strength for what was to come. We are not alone! Your actions and your attitude fills me with pride! Waiting until the formalization of the charges was eternal. Isolated, without any news, and not even a pencil. When the day arrived after Power had tried to leave us as long as possible in prison, through bars and handcuffs we managed to touch the hands of our comrades and shout a few words. During the hearing only one family member was allowed entry for each accused. The Church has associated with the Fiscalía Sur (the prosecution — NDT) and the Ministry of the Interior. The Prosecutor Alejandro Peña began with eloquence to expose the foundations of the Illicit Terrorist Association (which only exists in his head). According to him, the organization is informal, democratic and horizontal. At least this definition made us smile. So many years of investigation for such a complicated resolution?

What a precarious mentality for such honourable officials. Then, they continue with the evidence for each defendant: items such as books, photographs, written words, phone tapping, computers, pens, videos, posters and probably this same statement will be at the root of our dangerousness. As if the circus was not enough already, in a gesture both Machiavellian and morbid, the respected attorney shows photos of Mauricio Morales who died after the explosion of the device destined for the school for prison screws in May 2009. He tried to wound us, but has only fuelled our hatred.

A great element of proof would be the declaration of Gustavo Fuentes Aliaga, alias “El Grillo” narcotrafficker who on 31 December 2008 stabbed the comrade Candelaria Cortez-Monroy seven times. The court ordered 180 days of investigation.

But already we are no longer 14, but 8. 6 comrades remain kidnapped in the cells of capital. A strong hug to them. Four judges and years of investigations were not enough to find new items to mount an artifice of such proportions, leaving us in prison like this.

Currently I’m in SEAS (High Security Section) of the CPF (Female Penitentiary Centre) of Santiago. I shall continue with my vegan diet. The struggle against domination does not compromise up until the final consequences.

Proud of what I am and of my comrades, I embrace every act of solidarity and rebellion. They will not silence me. No more than the individual can and must fight for their freedom, nothing can move them but their heart.

May the wilderness protect the dear felines running on the rooftops and may a night of black auspices never come.

To everyone today and always: “Neither God nor master”.

With a heart in pieces, but beating stronger than ever!!

By putting an end to all exercise of authority and power, make anarchy live.

Mónica Caballero, Anarchist Prisoner,

SEAS, CPF, Santiago, Chile.

Chile — Comunique of arrested comrade Andrea Urzua from prison

24/08/2010 — Comrades, friends, brothers, family,

A week has passed since the aggressor of women, the honourable Attorney Peña’s media show, (an allusion to a domestic violence complaint concerning the Chilean Marini — NDT). These have been hard days, far from my family, seeing a science fiction show on TV legitimised by audiences who have only shown how inefficient, ridiculous and barely credible the justice of the rich is.

It all started Saturday, August 14, at 6.50 am. While I was sleeping with my companion and my little daughter I heard a noise that made me think of an earthquake. But no, they were agents of the GOPE that ... were searching the place where I live. It was all very violent, while they were beating, blocking and handcuffing my companion I and my little one had weapons turned on us. A lot of shouting, excited police told us: “quiet, collaborate ... don’t move, don’t talk ... don’t make it difficult” ... in those long seconds I thought I might be killed by those wretches with the little one in my arms ... we didn’t understand what it was about ... we asked them to calm down, to show us the search warrant, what were the accusations ...

There was no reason for all the fuss ... we asked them not to aim their weapons as I was with my baby ... we tried, once blocked, to calm them down and to get them to explain to us what was happening ... a cop appeared, like the others, armed to the teeth, asking me my name, when I tell them who I am he looks satisfied to know ... everything was very stupid, they knew perfectly well that I lived there, knew where I work, the places I frequent, I saw them, they were too obvious ... about two months ago an RP came asking for me to my in-laws’ house (where I live) with the excuse that I was a ‘victim of VIF’, it was obvious that the persecution that had gone on for years had not ended, that strange visit was intended merely to confirm my address. I do not want to present myself as a victim, but nothing can explain the violence of pointing a gun against an 11 month old baby girl, this action is at best despicable and without justification. At 7:45 in comes the Captain ... the one who was in charge of the searches and arrests. Only then did things calm down a bit ... forensic police in white overalls shut themselves in the bedroom where I sleep with my family (a room which, like the rest of the house was searched more than 6 times) they took away books, the computer, our telephones and an infinite number of things that really I do not understand what function they could have in “Operacion SALAMANDRA”. While they were searching every room of the house they were filming us, taking photos ... the captain tells me that my arrest is part of the investigations carried out by the comedian Attorney Peña, the famous Bombas case, investigations going on for four years, with four successive prosecutors, with arrests that led nowhere, that rely exclusively on the declaration of a schizophrenic, narco-trafficker and woman-beater called Gustavo Fuentes Aliaga, alias “El Grillo”. The accusations against me are: “transport of explosives and illicit terrorist association”.

Between 9:30 and 10 they transferred me to 33 ° commissariat where I am “genteelly” received by a high-ranking policeman (without identification) who shouting asks me my name and threatens me with: “Now you’ll see that this is not a game” ... the situation started to get heavy when I see “my friends” there too ... the press ... the jubilant cops ... the truth is, the situation was too much ... they try to subject my hand to an examination for signs of explosives, but I refuse because there was no lawyer present ... the show went on, other reporters, other cops, other people ... We are moved (in that place we were already 10) to the control of the arrests. There both the prosecutor and the Ministry of the Interior appear as complainants, for a judge there is donna Alejandra Apablaza who not only did not take our concerns into account, but left the investigations open until Tuesday 17.

I am taken to the high security section of the CPF (central Female Penitentiary) of Santiago, isolated from the other prisoners. On Tuesday, at the hearing for the validation of the arrests, the Catholic church associated itself as a complainant, after the preparation of the police programme that Peña had prepared shows us the “evidence” with which we are accused of illicit terrorist association. Telephone conversations that say nothing other than the usual calls you can have between friends, videos that can be found on the Internet (made from TV programmes), leaflets, posters ... all public things in anyone’s possession. They say we are an illegal association that has an “informal, horizontal and democratic” structure. That the leaders are Pablo and Garza. All the others, we would have a horizontal position, without intermediate leaders or any other position. It is said that our goal is the elimination of capital, the bourgeoisie, the church and any kind of power ... all with only 300 Chilean pesos.

The picture of the body of Punky Mauri after the explosion was shown to us in a Machiavellian sadistic way... and so on, without any logic but to arrest us, trying to close the space of solidarity with political prisoners, counter-cultural spaces (some of them defined by the prosecutor as “power centres”) and all that is against the government, the system and power. I always thought that with the rise to power of Piñera all those against the fascist government of the bosses would be struck, but I never imagined that this would happen with such stupid, vulgar tricks. In fact the evidence is so rude and crude that it would not surprise me if this letter was seen as further proof against me. There are many things in my head, there are many ideas, so much anger and so much love ... kidnapping is the word I have in mind, I am another who has been kidnapped ... they are keeping me away from my family and friends only for being what I am: one that is convinced of the idea, an ironclad solidarity, one that thinks, one that criticises ... actually, as I once read: “Solidarity is a powerful weapon” and it is obvious that they fear it. When I got to know the struggle I fell in love with her. You can speak of madness, but it is my beautiful madness ... I struggle for emancipation, I love freedom with my whole being, with all my strength ...

Now it remains only (for the time being) send you much newen (strength in Mapuche language — NDT) thanking you for each one of the demonstrations of affection and support. I ask you to keep your eyes open, because it does not end here, that’s obvious. A strong, close and fraternal embrace to each one of you.

ONLY THOSE WHO STRUGGLE LIVE, AND WE ARE MORE ALIVE THAN EVER!!! (I have heard this in these parts)

AKTIVE EFFEKTIVE SOLIDARITY!!! INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!!!

Andrea Urzúa Cid

P.P S.E.A.S. C.P.F.

Comunique from prison from Rodolfo el Garza Retamales

On 14 August, at 6:40am, my house was raided by police of the Dipolcar along with the Gope, in search of evidence and accusing me of being the leader of an illicit terrorist association, the warrant signed by the prosecutor investigating the ‘caso bombas’.

With the passing of the hours, and after being beaten by police of the Dipolcar and officer Segis Sostomo RP 3239 of the 30th police station, I learned that even my parents’ house has been subjected to raids, as well as three social centres and 12 houses of comrades in different municipalities between Santiago and Valparaiso, with a total of 14 arrests, all accused of being part of an anarchist cell with two leaders, two financers and 10 operative members, all in the sinister imagination of the prosecutor Peña. Even before we were formally charged, we males were transferred to C.A.S. maximum security prison and the women to Centro de Orientation Femenina, each one put in isolation.

Tuesday 17 a hearing took place to formalize the situation and there we were able to hear the evidence against us: phone tapping, photos, videos, forensic tested clothing and a surprise.

This turned out to be a character known as El Grillo, who has collaborated and has offered himself to the prosecution as a witness, pointing in his confessions to some people — who have been arrested – who according to him are responsible for a number of acts of sabotage.

For those who do not know, this character was arrested Dec. 31, 2008 for attempting to murder his wife, Candelaria, today accused of illicit terrorist association. At the time of arrest Fuentes, alias el grillo [the cricket], told prosecutor Armendariz, that he, along with Candelaria and another three persons, had made and placed bombs and that he knew those who carried out the acts of sabotage, in an obvious attempt to clean his image and pass himself off as a major player in the social struggle.

At the hearing the hours passed, 15 in total, and we learned a vast amount of false prosecution arguments that contradicted themselves, even provoking a smile from the jailers throughout the media show. Despite the substantial amount of arguments presented by defence lawyers, who delegitimized the prosecution evidence demonstrating the inconsistencies, the pressure of the Government through the Ministry of the Interior could be felt.

In the end, 8 out of 14 of us remain in prison. Power has played all its cards and its sinister attorney-star could not be seen in a bad light in front of the public. Now once again I find myself going along these corridors full of the young people who fill the walls of the Chilean prisons, because it is for them that they were built, to accommodate and conceal the social injustice, poverty and inequality of this system where the rich get richer and the poor content themselves with the crumbs that the bosses bestow on them.

From listening to the radio today to which I belong, I thank and appreciate the support they have given me since the first day of my arrest. You will be under fire, from here all my support and my strength. A kiss to each one of you ... to all the programs we hear, to the glorious people of La Victoria and its neighbours, a kiss to my son and all those who have shown solidarity with affection.

SANTIAGO – A small bomb exploded early Tuesday outside a Catholic church in the southern Chilean city of Temuco, destroying the front door and shattering windows, police and press reports said.

The blast occurred at 3:05 a.m. outside the Iglesia del Buen Pastor in downtown Temuco, the capital of La Araucania region, some 672 kilometers (about 420 miles) south of Santiago.

The explosion also damaged some nearby houses, Radio Cooperativa said.

Some pamphlets from a group calling itself Kaos Nativo Orquestal were left outside the church, investigators said.

Initial indications are that bomb was fashioned from a fire extinguisher packed with explosives.

The bomb was similar to those used in previous attacks in Temuco and Santiago that were blamed on anarchist groups.

A bomb damaged a bank branch early Saturday in the capital

More than two dozen bombings have been staged in Chile in the past few years.

Responsibility for the blasts is usually claimed by anarchists or anti-globalization groups, some of them linked to Chile’s disgruntled Mapuche Indians.

A member of one of the anarchist groups linked by authorities to the attacks died in mid-2009 in Santiago when the bomb he was carrying in a backpack exploded while he was riding a bicycle.

A special prosecutor is investigating the bombings, which occur periodically.

The detonator on a bomb planted at the Regional Justice Secretariat in Temuco failed on New Year’s

Eve.

Asel Luzarraga, a Spanish writer and front man of an anarchist punk group, was arrested in connection with the failed bombing.

Luzarraga participated in protests supporting Mapuche land claims in the region. EFE

Tuesday September 7, 2010

Condo development attacked, bank sabotaged in Seattle

A Bank of America’s atm slots were superglued, and a nearby vacant condo development was decorated with graffiti reading: NO CONDOS, NO PRISONS, FOR CHILE (A)

An outside hose was also left running into a sliding door in order to flood the lower level.

DWELL Development tears down existing homes and replaces them with expensive “eco-friendly” condos that further the gentrification of Seattle’s neighborhoods. We find it ludicrous that these condos are located mere blocks from one of the most recent sites of Nickelsville, Seattle’s tent city. And, in a world of dying ecosystems, the construction of “extremely energy efficient and environmentally friendly” condos means absolutely nothing.

Bank of America is one of the three joint financial advisers (including Merrill Lynch and Barclays Int.) for GEO Group Corp. The GEO Group Corp. is a private prison firm that is paid millions by the U.S. government to detain undocumented immigrants and other prisoners. This corporation runs the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.

We hold no illusion that these acts of sabotage will cause these corporations to financially collapse tomorrow. Instead, we attack in order to bring about a small rupture in the social fabric of our daily lives, allowing us to express our own personal rage, and knowing that to remain on the offensive is crucial to both our struggle and our spirits.

In solidarity with all prisoners,

In solidarity with our comrades facing heavy repression in Chile,

In solidarity with the victims of police violence in Seattle and everywhere,

— some anarchists

SOLIDARITYACTIONS FOR THE COMRADES IN CHILE

Thursday 19 August there was a gathering outside the consulat of Chile in Buenos Aires Argentina of anarchists and anti-authoritarians in solidarity to the 14 arrested. The road was blocked for half an hour, slogans were sprayed on the walls and leaflets were read with a megaphone for the 14 and for the Mapuche on hunger strike.

Thursday 19 August an explosive device was deactivated, made from a fire extinguisher and explosive substances, left outside the 21st police station in Santiago, Chile. While in a shopping mall in in the city centre 4 sound bombs went off and leaflets were found near by calling for solidarity to the 14 arrested.

Friday 20 August there was a gathering outside the consultant of Chile in Cordoba, Spain. 5 people were arrested.

In Barcelona early the same morning, there was an attack at a a prison architecture event and at the architects union. Paint was thrown and damage was done.

The Chilean state has put on guard its embassies and consulates in Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Italy and Greece, since there have been attacks before on some of them.

Responsibility claim from Thessaloniki, Greece

Sunday, August 29, 2010

This old world is struggling to stay alive. Its engine power and legacy is violence. Its most ruthless, most barbaric but at the same time its truest face is revealed with the suppression of every resistance, every threat that is bred inside of it.

Let’s be done with the stupid arguments that come aside the police operations for the abolishment of — outersystematic- violence. Whoever claims so categorically that they are against violence, is simply lying to others and himself.

Violence is the basic substance of this world.

It is located in our perception for the space that is defined by the borders between our houses and neighbourhoods that form a controlled and predictable environment.

It characterizes the rhythms of everyday life by cutting up time and selling it to everyone that enjoys economic superiority.

It determines relationships, through segregation and unconditional assimilation which leads to the division of people. The most brutal result though is the rhetorical justification of the above that happens with the excuse of a liberty while in reality it’s our own shackles.

So we move offensively as well, violently, without letting it totally define our existence. Having knowledge of our contradictions, we aim at the hypocrisy that seems to be the only thing that keeps the balance in this social field. We know that the choices we make will define, on a great scale, the rest of our lives. That’s why we don’t act foolishly. The possible consequences do not discourage our action. Our choices are based on conscience and what we’ve lived through, they have a genuine base. By discovering people that have made the same choices as us we discover comrades. With our common desires as a starting point we demolish the authoritarian myths about criminal organizations of maniacs and we become a piece of the “international terrorist organization” that consists of insurrectional individuals.

So we decided to use our own diplomacy, torching 5 vehicles of the diplomatic force in the early hours of Saturday 28th august in Thessaloniki.

We dedicate our attack to all the Chilean comrades that since the 14th of august are being attacked by the Chilean state (at this moment 8 of them are in maximum security prisons while the other 6 have been temporarily released with conditions), as well as to the comrades that are being persecuted for the Conspiracy Cells of Fire case (on august 31st is the court of appeals to decide the continuation or not of the imprisonment of P. Masouras and H. Hadjimihelakis).

We chose this way and period of time because we wanted to define our own field of combat, outside the coincidence of T.I.E.(thessaloniki international exhibition) and the festival of oppression by the Ministry to protect the citizen in collaboration with local authorities, that will take place in the city streets.

We believe that explosions of collective spontaneity, as useful as they are, are strategically wrong to be applied in fields of combat cut to fit the oppressive mechanisms. We believe that in such mass demonstrations the bet is organization — from before and not on the spot — of defence and offence so it’s possible to clash in real time and with reversed — to our interest this time- terms.

Diplomatic Force of Arsonists

(For the intensification of internationalist solidarity)

* * *

Thursday, August 26, 2010

We are writing from clandestinity all over South America. We delegates of the undersigned collectives are making an effort to convene to send a message of truth to all aware people oppressed by the State of Chile.

1 — We condemn the terrorist way of acting of the State of Chile over the past 200 years of systematic repression and social inequality maintained by blood and fire by each of its rotting institutions.

2 — With the full force of our insurgent people we REJECT the performance of searches and arrests that plagued the young people on Saturday, August 14.

3 — With total absolute responsibility we hereby WE DECLARE that ALL those arrested do not belong to, nor have they ever been part of, the collectives that have decided to respond to historic State violence with bombs. We know this and the government of the clown Piñera and Attorney Peña also know it.

4 – WE ACCUSE, as directly responsible for this TV show, the State, the bosses and the fawning press, they have all hidden the social violence that they have imposed, pointing the finger at the occasional bomb explosions that are simply the outcome of the inequalities and oppression of this snob capitalism. THE STATE IMPOSES THE SOCIAL WAR, we did not invent it, we who are its victims. We, on the contrary, have stopped being victims and have risen up as free human beings.

5 – WE HAVE NEVER BEEN in the Occupied houses. Any person of normal intelligence knows that those are cultural spaces in which young people meet to converse, debate, and hope to live at community level. If the state CRIMINALISES these places is only due to pure myopia and implicit defeat in wanting to destroy anything they cannot understand. The systematic indiscriminate repression of the young is the zenith of the orthodox fascist.

6 – WE HAVE NEVER SUBMITTED TO nor have we entered into alliances with political parties or movements related to the right, centre or left. WE NEITHER HAVE NOR DO WE RECOGNISE the authority of anyone, either bureaucrats or marxist ex-combatants nor people with mental problems that claim actions that they never carried out (like this stranger who stabbed his girlfriend and still survives in prison). WE ARE libertarians. WE DO NOT HAVE MILITARY HIERARCHIES OR PARTY DIRECTIVES. WE ARE FREEDOM FIGHTERS. WE ARE EVERYONE.

7 — We, the undersigned collective, WE HAVE PLACED BOMBS. Our objectives were: banks, financial corporations, embassies, police stations, barracks, churches, political parties, gyms of the lords of this country, everything that belongs to the historical oppressors of the working people. WE DO NOT REPENT, moreover IT IS OUR PRIDE, as is the fact that so far no police have approached us. WE ARE THEIR DEFEAT.

8 – WE REALISE that the summer earthquake struck most of the structures of all the collectives, that limited our actions and so far it has not been possible to rebuild what was lost.

9 — In these over 20 years we have been using different types of weapons. If we had wanted we could have caused fatalities. The famous TNT has been a part of the popular arsenal for a number of years. The office of Chilectra attack was not the first time that we have used it, all the comrades responsible for this attack confirm so here. If you want to know where we got it the answer is simple: from the market, the same that you idolize and the new prosecutor protects. (In the investigations the Chilean military intelligence are looking into the actions carried out with the explosive TNT, — NDT).

10 — The Prosecutor Peña. What can we say about him. What everybody knows : that he was a cocaine addict as a student, called “jalandro” by his neighbors for being jalero, with a greater sense of inferiority than his stature, hungry for power and for the chair of national Attorney, a friend of big drugs traffickers at the expense of the small ones that he arrested, liar, coward and potential murderer. This is Attorney Peña. Journalists: DO NOT BE AFRAID to know the truth about this sinister bureaucrat.

11 – WE DECLARE OUR COLLECTIVE REPUDIATION of the frame-up against the 14 young people. Those guilty of the libertarian bombings are the State and capital.

FREEDOM TO ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS

ANTISTATE RESISTANCE!

FUERZAS AUTONÓMICAS Y DESTRUCTIVAS LEÓN CZOLGOSZ

BANDA ANTIPATRIOTA SEVERINO DI GIOVANNI

FEDERACIÓN REVUELTA 14F – BRIGADA GAETANO BRESCI

BANDA DINAMITERA EFRAÍN PLAZA OLMEDO

MIGUELARCÁNGEL ROSCIGNA

TAMAYO GAVILÁN

ANTONIO ROMÁN ROMÁN

COLUMNA DURRUTI

CARAVANAS ICONOCLASTAS POR EL LIBRE ALBEDRÍO

Chile: behind the media Circus

AUGUST 14 2010, 14 anarchists were arrested in Santiago de Chile and accused of being involved in a series of bombing campaigns in the country over the past year. Statements have since been released by several groups claiming responsibility for the attacks while the arrestees themselves have denied any responsibility since the very beginning of this charade.

The evidence presented against them by the prosecution could not be more ridiculous; from magazines and newspapers to common household items apparently intended for the manufacturing of “explosive devices”, anything is welcome to bolster paranoia.

A few months earlier, on July12th, 34 prisoners on remand of the Mapuche indigenous group went (and still remain, after 74 days) on hunger strike in the Chilean prisons of Temuco, Valdivia, Angol and Concepcion. They are demanding the abolition of the Anti-terrorist law as well as an end to the military occupation of their lands located in the South of the country and subjected for years to an ongoing plundering by western corporations. The Mapuche people are characterised by a strong bond with their surrounding natural environment. Their ancestral relation with their land as well as the destruction of the latter by national and international capital’s eternal quest to extract more and more profit from it has motivated the Mapuche to develop an increasingly militant line of action.

While these issues have been subjected to a total information blackout by the mainstream media, both Chilean and international, the mining ‘accident’ that happened on August 6 at the San José copper mine in Copiapo, Chile resulting in 33 miners remaining trapped over 2,300 feet underground, has on the contrary enjoyed a great deal of media attention. Piñera, the recently elected Chilean president, is using the incident to clean the poor image of his government after a series of highly unpopular moves. His sluggish and elitist reaction to what happened following lasts summer’s earthquake along with his extreme conservative policies badly hitting the poorest social classes, had made his level of popularity drop dramatically. Hence the deployment of this “Big Brother” operation aimed at creating a false image of national unity. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid by the mass media to facts such as the workers not receiving their wages, their appalling working conditions and their message of support to the Mapuche cause. Instead, the journalists have focused on unimportant details such as how many bibles the miners got or the number of wives claiming benefits for each one of their trapped husbands.

For the average respectable and law-abiding British citizen, commonly ignorant of facts such as the UK’s involvement as one of the chief arms providers to Pinochet’s dictatorship back in the 80s, this subject might seem to fall into the category “none of my business”. However, silly as it might sound, he or she might be wiping their ass every day with paper manufactured from trees taken straight from the deforestation of Mapuche lands. Every penny we have in our pockets is made from copper, involving us directly in the condition of these miners in Chile and quite sure many other countries. The same goes for the chips in our laptops, our mobile phone... the list could go on for a while. London is a major economic centre, meaning that many triggers are pulled, a lot of blood is spilled so that capital can keep flowing into the city. It is the ‘counterterrorism law’ enacted in 1984 by Pinochet, which still allows Mapuche activists to be charged as ‘terrorist suspects’ and tried in military courts today.

Chile passes for a democratic country now. So maybe in your opinion everything is all right and no reasons should be left for protest or radical change. In the same line of thinking, all those Chilean anarchists might actually deserve whatever befalls them. The mistake is to think that any democratic country guarantees freedom, welfare and a fair life for everybody. Look around, look at yourself, can you really see that democratic paradise existing anywhere?

Even the most affluent democratic states like the UK keep their share of homeless, poor and beggars. A life devoted to the pursuit of a professional career soon reveals itself as an unsatisfactory senseless rat race driven by nothing but money and kept going in many cases by tonnes of anti-depressants. More and more families are struggling to make ends meet, while the vast majority of the population are granted the “freedom” of wasting their life tied to the chains of wage slavery. The same old story of exploitation and authoritarian abuse comes to the surface again and we find that under the auspices of our beloved democracy political power is exerted by a bunch of thieves known as professional politicians. They say we have the “power” and the “freedom” to elect them but this is starting to sound for an increasing amount of people like a bloody joke. What this fundamental lie hides is that we remain stripped of any power, whether personal or collective, to make decisions concerning our own lives.

On top of all this the “crisis” comes and as usual it is the poorest, whether the working or unemployed part of the population, who have to pay for the mess. At all times we are reminded how lazy we are and how little we do to increase productivity due to our lack of a “competitive” and market/business-oriented mind. Of course, it is always our fault; we are not perfect slaves yet, we still need a bit of a reminder so it’s time to cut this and that, it’s time to make things more and more difficult. Everything will be all right — unless of course, someone does not swallow these lies and tries to do something about it that does not follow the legally permitted (and therefore useless) ways of protest. Such is the case of the Chilean anarchists. Such is the case of the Mapuche people. Such would our case be if we were to confront the rules of our own democracy.

Immediate freedom to the arrested anarchists!

Stop the plunder of Mapuche land now!

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!!

AGAINST THE TERRORISM OF THE

STATE AND CAPITAL!

Random anarchists in London

‘Caso Bombas’ Chile 2010

Santiago, Chile 2010