Latinnews Archive
Brazil and Southern Cone - 24 December 1987
Carreno affair draws attention to split between CP and FPMR
The kidnapping and subsequent spectacular release of Colonel Carlos Carreno (see Page 6) have centred attention on the abductors, the Frente Patriotico Manuel Rodriguez (FPMR), and their currently strained relations with the Chilean Communist party (CP).
The FPMR was set up by the CP in late 1983, recruiting many of its cadres from among former members of the armed forces. Its purpose was to provide an armed force capable of 'defending and supporting popular mobilisation'.
Tension between the party and the FPMR was first triggered by two incidents, in August and September last year: the discovery by the security forces of an FPMR arsenal (WR-86-33) and the arrest of FPMR members involved in the attempt on President Augusto Pinochet's life (WR-86-36). The party leadership accused the FPMR, on both occasions, of disregarding security to the point of jeopardising the entire set-up.
As the party began to debate the adoption of its strategy towards the coming plebiscite, the FPMR came under even stronger criticism for departing from its original brief and conducting 'unauthorised' attacks, such as the hold-up of a bakery and the planting of a bomb in front of the US embassy -- the latter claiming a civilian victim.
As the party leadership began to demand greater submission by the FPMR to the CP's political objectives, dissidence by FPMR 'militarists' grew into an open split, which became manifest towards August this year.
The CP ordered a reorganisation of the Frente, seconding more party militants to the FPMR directorate, and insisting that the Frente should stick to its original brief. But the majority of the older FPMR cadres opted to pursue their own strategy of escalating armed confrontation with the regime.
The division became undeniable when two simultaneous editions of the FPMR's official organ, El Rodriguista, began to circulate.
It was the majority, dissident faction of the FPMR which conducted the kidnapping of Carreno in early September -- just as the party was putting the finishing touches on its 'tactical decision' to throw its weight behind the legal opposition to the regime, on the grounds that the conditions are not ripe for an armed uprising (RS-87-09).
In the wake of the Carreno episode -- a clear blow to the security services -- the CP is now pointing to the 'authorised' FPMR as evidence that, tactics aside, it has not completely rules out armed action.
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