Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front
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The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (Spanish: Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez) (FPMR) is a communist organization in Chile, named for a figure in Chile's independence movement, Manuel Rodríguez. The group was founded in 1983 as the armed wing of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh), during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. It has since become independent from the PCCh, and has joined the parliamentary system during the transition to democracy, participating to the Juntos Podemos Más left-wing coalition.
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[edit] Founding
Pinochet had banned the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh) after overthrowing President Salvador Allende and seizing power in the Chilean coup of 1973. Following the coup, the PCCh entered a process of reevaluation of its policies, notably criticizing the lack of a military policy. This led to the creation of an armed wing in 1974, which would form the basis for the FPMR. In September 1980, Luis Corvalán, the general secretary of the PCCh, announced that the "popular rebellion against Pinochet's tyranny [was] legitime," thus initiating the "policy of mass popular rebellion," which culminated in the formation of the FPMR in 1983. The group's aim was to generate the conditions of a massive rebellion, through audacious acts which would jeopardize the dictatorship's stability.
The group should be seen as a sign of the PCCh's strong shift to the left following Pinochet's seizure of power. Arguments that the Popular Unity government should have widened its social base to draw in sections of the middle class and former supporters of Christian Democracy were rejected and instead it was argued the Allende government should have instead armed the workers and rejected accommodation with the armed forces.
Critics have since argued that the PCCh's policy reorientation at this time was sectarian and ultra-leftist and ultimately has led to the serious decline of the party[who?].
[edit] Activities
The FPMR first appeared on the national scene by provoking a power shortage in the central zone of Chile on December 14, 1983. It mainly engaged at first in acts of sabotage, robberies of food then distributed to the population and others acts which hoped at increasing the social crisis rooted in the 1982 economic crisis. It then extended its operations to armed struggle per se. Thus, on 16 July 1985, they attacked the US consulate in Santiago with a car bomb, killing one and injuring two.
On September 7, 1986, the FPMR attacked Pinochet's car in an assassination attempt. Five of Pinochet's body guards were killed. Pinochet, however, only suffered minor injuries. Also in 1986, Chilean security forces caught the FPMR smuggling an 80-ton shipment of weapons, including T-4 plastic explosives, RPG-7 and M72 LAW rocket launchers as well as more than three thousand M-16 rifles.
The failure of Pinochet's attempted assassination led to an internal crisis in the FPMR, leading to splits and to the complete autonomy of the group towards the PCCh. Furthermore, the political repression against the group led to the arrest of many important members, heavily affecting the group's logistics. A spin-out led to the creation of the Movimiento Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (MPMR) in 1987.
Marcelo Barrios Andres, a 21 years-old member of the FPMR, was assassinated on August 31, 1989 in Valparaíso, by a group which included military official Marina Óscar Aspe, captain Sergio Schiffelle Kirby, sergent Jorge Figueroa, and Silverio Fierrio and Luis Ceballos, along with 18 Marines. They were supposed to arrest him on orders of Valparaíso's public prosecutor. However, they simply executed him. Tens of ammunitions were found in his body, and the trace of almost 500 shots found in his house. Marcelo Barrios is on the Rettig Report's list of executed activists, and Marina Óscar Aspe is included as guilty of human rights violations in the 2001 Comisión Ética contra la Tortura [1].[1]
On March 21, 1990, members of Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, entered Gustavo Leigh office and shot at him. Five bullets hit his body. Other than the loss of an eye, he was able to make a complete recovery.
[edit] Transition to democracy
After the restoration of democratic rule in Chile in 1991, the FPMR reduced its actions. It split into two parts: one which returned to seeking change through the political system, and another which continued to advocate armed struggle. The latter faction continued to commit kidnappings and robberies, including the murder of the Independent Democrat Union senator Jaime Guzmán on April 1, 1991 (the suspects escaped to Cuba). Other main targets included Mormon churches, the kidnapping of Cristian Edwards, son of the owner of the principal countries newspaper El Mercurio, and US businesses in Chile such as McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant franchises[2]. After these operations, the FPMR ceased all activity until 1996.
On December 30, 1996, the group organized the evasion of various FMPR members imprisoned in the high security prison of Santiago de Chile, including Patricio Ortiz. The FPMR abandoned armed struggle in December 1997, and has now joined the parliamentary system, participating to the Juntos Podemos Más left-wing coalition.
In 2002, a spin-out led to the creation of Identidad Rodriguista (IR).
In 2005 FPMR member Patricio Ortiz received political asylum in Switzerland. He was sentenced in Chile to ten years of prison for the assassination of a carabinero in 1991, during the beginning of the transition to democracy. Ortiz had evaded himself from a Chilean prison in 1996, and reached Switzerland the following year. Following an extradition request by Chile, he was detained by Swiss authorities, who later refused to extradite him as his physical integrity could not be assured (i.e. possibility of torture: extraditing him would have violated article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights [3]). Swiss authorities then freed him and granted him asylum [4]. In 2007 the Socialist President Michelle Bachelet criticized the political asylum given to Ortiz, which lifted indignation of human rights NGOs [5][6].
[edit] References
- ^ a b Capítulos desconocidos de los mercenarios chilenos en Honduras camino de Iraq, La Nación, September 25, 2005 - URL accessed on February 14, 2007 (Spanish)
- ^ Intelligence Resource Program
- ^ Patricio Ortiz sera admis à titre provisoire, Confédération helvétique, 3 September 1998 (French)
- ^ Patricio Ortiz reiteró que Suiza le otorgó el estatus de refugiado político, Radio Cooperativa, 27 July 2005 (Spanish)
- ^ Bachelet afirmó que el refugio en Suiza a Patricio Ortiz "es difícil de explicar", Radio Cooperativa, June 1, 2007 (Spanish)
- ^ Bachelet y el asilo político (por Patricio Negrón), June 12, 2007 (Spanish)
