Chile bombings from 2005

A series of bomb attacks, which continued as of 2014 with about 200 bombs up to that date, started in the capital of Chile, Santiago, in 2005.[1]

The bombings

The bombs were constructed by placing gunpowder inside a fire extinguisher. About two-thirds of bombs detonated, with the remainder defused. Targets include banks (about a third of bombs), police stations, army barracks, churches, embassies, the headquarters of political parties, company offices, courthouses and government buildings. The bombs mostly detonate at night, and there have been few injuries amongst passers-by, none serious. The only fatality was a young anarchist, Mauricio Morales, who was killed in May 2009 by a bomb he was carrying. In 2011 another anarchist, Luciano Pitronello, was severely injured by a bomb he was planting.

Claims of responsibility and Notable incidents

Around 80 different groups claimed responsibility for the attacks; authorities do not know if they are dealing with a group that continually changes its name, or many separate cells. Some groups name themselves after past anarchists worldwide, including Leon Czolgosz, who assassinated US President William McKinley in 1901, and Jean-Marc Rouillan, a jailed French left-wing militant. "The friends of gunpowder" has also been used.

An Improvised explosive device blast near a mausoleum belonging to former Carabineros de Chile, near a police station, at the same time, a phone call alerted to the installation of a similar element on the north campus of the Catholic University of Temuco. An anarchists cell so called Lumpenes Destructivos-Rodrigo Donoso Jiménez - Jose Huenante claimed responsibility for the attack[2][3][4]

Between 9 and 10 September 2014, two improvised bombs exploded in the Chilean resort town of Vina del Mar. On the night of September 9, a bomb detonated inside a supermarket, injuring one woman. The bomb consisted of a plastic bottle filled with aluminum and hydrochloric acid, was placed inside a trash can. The bomb exploded after the local janitor attempted to empty the trash can. The second device detonated inside the Open Plaza mall's bathroom.[5]

On 25 September 2014, a home made explosive device detonated inside a man's bag while he was carrying it. The victim was later identified as 29-year-old Sergio Landskron Silva. In the aftermath of the explosion Silva remained engulfed in flames while laying on the sidewalk. Bystanders and policemen failed to assist the victim, fearing that a second explosive device remained in his bag. Silva was pronounced dead several minutes after being transferred to a hospital. According to Silva's brother, he has been living on the streets for a prolonged period of time, while struggling with drug addiction. Silva was allegedly planning to plant the bomb in the Yungay neighborhood of Santiago.[6][7][8]

On May 2, 2018 Members of Carabineros de Chile and the Fiscalía sur investigate an improvised explosive device abandoned in the metropolitan area of Santiago. The explosive did not explode and was destroyed by members of the anti-explosive unit. The group Individualistas Tendiendo a los Salvaje claim responsibility for this and other bombs that didn't detonate.[9]

On February 27 an makeshift explosive blast against a building in the comune of Vitacura, Santiago de Chile. The building belonging to a real estate company. The building were evacuated after registering a couple of explosions with thirty minutes apart, without leaving injuries. To the next day an anarchist cell claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that the objective of the first attack was against the wealthy class, while the second explosion to members GOPE acussed them to "rapers" and "murders".[10][11][12][13]

Aftermath

Several suspects were arrested and prosecuted, but most were acquitted. Injured bomber Pitronello was tried, but convicted only of lesser offences and sentenced to house arrest. Hans Niemeyer, a Chilean sociologist and anarchist, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for planting a bomb in a bank in November 2011. Authorities were investigating links between anarchist groups in Chile and Europe. Two Chilean anarchists who had been tried and acquitted in Chile were later arrested in Spain, and charged with planting a bomb in a church in Zaragoza in 2013, an attack claimed by a group named after Mateu Morral, a Spanish anarchist who attempted to assassinate the King of Spain in 1906. In 2010 a letter bomb was addressed to the Chilean embassy in Athens. An opinion poll in 2014 found that about two-thirds of Chileans feared the attacks and felt that the problem was escalating, with nearly 30 bombs in 2014 by August.

gollark: There are weird visual quirks like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCollough_effect which persist for a while.
gollark: That's not actually guaranteed either.
gollark: Actually, you can, but only in bizarrely specific ways.
gollark: Well, consciousness/abstract reasoning/etc.
gollark: "You" are some specific brain modules which handle consciousness and language and whatever; it's hardly guaranteed that you have write access to everything else.

See also

References
  1. BBC News: Chileans baffled by persistent bomb attack, 20 August 2014s
  2. "Artefacto explosivo detonó en mausoleo de Carabineros en Cementerio de Temuco". Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  3. "Artefacto explosivo detona parcialmente en mausoleo de Carabineros en cementerio de Temuco". Bio Bio Chile. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  4. "Bomba estalla en mausoleo de Carabineros: Grupo anarquista se atribuyó el hecho". La Segunda. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  5. "New Chile bombings hit resort city". Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  6. "Chile Investigates Terrorist Ties to Man Killed by Another Bomb on Santiago's Streets". Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  7. "Identifican a hombre muerto en la explosión ocurrida en Barrio Yungay". Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  8. "Testigos relatan explosión en el barrio Yungay: "Tenía otra cosa en la mano, por eso nadie ayudó"". Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  9. "Investigan supuesta reaparición de grupo "eco-terrorista" tras atentado a Landerretche (In Spanish)". Bio Bio Chile. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  10. ""Afinidades Armadas en Revuelta": El grupo que se adjudicó las bombas puestas en Vitacura (In Spanish)". The Clinic.cl. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  11. "Gobierno se querella por delito de colocación de artefacto explosivo tras estallidos en Vitacura". Bio Bio Chile. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  12. "Grupo se adjudica detonación de artefactos explosivos de ayer en Vitacura". La Tercera. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  13. "Adjudicación de atentados explosivos contra inmobiliaria Transoceánica en la comuna de Vitacura". Cedema. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
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