Latinnews Archive
Latin American Weekly Report - 1 September 1988
Informal repression takes to the street;ARRAY OF 'CIVILIAN' GROUPS HARASS REGIME'S OPPONENTS
Last year, adversaries of the Pinochet regime were likely to find the death threats they received signed by otherwise unknown organisations such as Comando 135 Trizano, Accion Chilena Anticomunista, CNC and NSR.
The threats have not only continued but multiplied, and new names have emerged. Intimidation has grown increasingly gruesome: warnings are delivered in the form of cats with their throats slit. And repression has gone beyond intimidation, to a catalogue which includes abductions, beatings, and the disruption by force of opposition gatherings -- even leaving aside the unacknowledged arrests and the cases of torture clearly attributable to the security forces themselves.
As this 'informal' campaign of intimidation and repression has taken to the streets, its perpetrators have become more clearly identifiable. Though some are ostensibly associated with right-wing political movements, links with the state's security services are noticeable, even when all wear civilian dress.
The presence of army academy cadets was reported among one group of thugs attacking opposition demonstrators. Purported civilians taking part in an abduction were identified as members of Carabineros, the militarised police. Moreover, the uniformed police ostensibly refuse to intervene when these groups act.
What follows is a far from comprehensive list of groups participating in different degrees in the harassment of 'no' campaigners and others perceived as opponents of the regime. It is based mainly on reports published in recent days in the Chilean, with added background from our own files.
The groups
* Patria y Libertad: A right-wing 'shock' force founded by the lawyer Pablo Rodriguez and active in the 1970s, now resuscitated. National co-ordinator is Javier Andrade.
* Los Barbudos: New 'shock' group. Press reports identify the leader as Major Julio Corbalan, currently vice-president of the right-wing party Avanzada Nacional, also known as Alvara Valenzuela, his alias in the CNI, the secret police, where he rose to become chief of operations (WR-88-30).
* G-51: Organisation of extreme right-wing university students, much photographed recently while roughing up journalists and opposition students.
* Frente Nacionalista Husares de la Muerte: A shadowy organisation, known mainly as a signature on death threats delivered through the post to opposition politicians. Declares a commitment 'to annihilate Marxist-Leninist terrorism and its accomplices.'
* Movimiento Civico de Autodefensa Vecinal: Recently established as a neighbourhood campaigning force. President: Raul Arevalo Cruz. Analysts have remarked on its similarity with the Comandos de Proteccion Comunal (Proteco), with a violent record in the Allende years.
Other names which crop up in threatening letters and graffiti are 'Los Hijos de Pinochet' and 'Luis Carrera', and overt right-wing organisations such as 'UDI por el Si' (a breakaway faction of the mainstream UDI) have sprouted their own gangs of toughs.
Return to top