Know your enemy

The past year has been marked by a series of violent attacks by anarchists in Santiago and, to a lesser extent, indigenous Mapuche groups in the south of Chile. The international media has been quick to warn of the rise of domestic terrorism, citing 2014 as the country’s most violent year in decades. While casualties have indeed risen, statistically speaking, there has been no major increase in the frequency of terrorist attacks in 2014 compared with the last three years. What has changed is the intensity of attacks and the growing willingness of anarchist groups in particular to attack public spaces - including metro stations, banks and supermarkets - to broadcast their message. 

Chile’s intelligence agency, the Agencia Nacional de Inteligencia (ANI), has been unable to counter these threats. President Michelle Bachelet’s response has been sluggish and contradictory: she has repeatedly denied the existence of terrorism in Chile and only very reluctantly invoked the country’s anti-terrorism laws. When these laws have been invoked, the government has incorrectly generalised the security situation in the country, aggregating indigenous Mapuche and anarchist groups. Until recently, the government was very reluctant to give greater power to the ANI for fear of inviting comparisons with the intelligence services that operated under Pinochet’s military rule. Amendments to the country’s anti-terrorism law will come into effect in mid-2015 and will expand the ANI’s staff and responsibilities, including the use of undercover agents. The government needs to ensure that new anti-terrorism laws and operations do not conflate violent anarchist agendas seeking to overthrow the state with indigenous Mapuche demands for land reform in the south, or it risks uniting these groups in common opposition. Rather, the anarchists, who are responsible for the most violent attacks in Santiago, should be the target of a revamped ANI.

The United Nations and Inter-American Court of Human Rights have condemned the government’s violent repression of indigenous Mapuche protestors, bringing Chile’s anti-terrorism laws under domestic and international scrutiny. The conflict between state authorities and the Mapuches in the southern region of Araucanía intensified during Bachelet’s first term when anti-terrorism laws targeted so-called Mapuche “terrorists.” In reality, while there are militant elements among the Mapuche, the vast majority of so-called terrorist incidents are better classed as civil unrest, beginning as popular protests and occasionally descending into violence. By refusing to include the Mapuche (who account for nearly 10% of Chile’s population) in discussions relating to land reform, Bachelet has further aggravated militant Mapuches. In Araucanía, Mapuche protest groups have targeted, sometimes violently, the operations of multinational mining companies, as well as Chilean landowners. Their tactics include burning agricultural land, attacking forestry equipment, road blocks and issuing death threats. While most incidents result exclusively in damage to property, since 2012, several attacks in Araucanía have led to fatalities. Unless Bachelet follows through on former president Sebastián Piñera’s promise to work towards integrating the Mapuche into the country’s political process instead of prosecuting their leaders as terrorists, we are likely to see continued violence in Araucanía.

Increasingly more violent attacks by anarchist groups in Santiago present a more serious threat to Chilean national security. In 2014, there have been at least 30 improvised explosive device attacks attributed to anarchist groups on police stations, metro stations, supermarkets and other public spaces. This year has been characterised by an increasing severity of attacks, with more people injured in 2014 than in any other year in the past 20 years, including one unprecedented fatality and two bomb attacks in the coastal city of Viña del Mar. Crucially, violent anarchist groups now seem willing to attack busy public areas. On 8 September 2014, a group called the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire (CCF) blew up a fire extinguisher filled with gunpowder and shrapnel in a shop inside the Escuela Militar metro station. The attack left 14 people injured (two in critical condition) and was the most violent bombing since 1986. Worryingly for the government, the CCF, along with the International Conspiracy for Revenge, have ties to international anarchist networks in Greece and Italy respectively. Though largely uncoordinated, these networks have encouraged each other to carry out attacks against foreign-owned businesses and infrastructure.

Since starting her second presidential term in March this year, Bachelet has delivered on promised tax and education reforms. With the rejection of a recent proposal to build a controversial hydroelectric dam in Patagonia, her administration has taken important steps in addressing issues that have previously sparked protests. Ensuring the speedy functionality of the ANI will also reap benefits, provided that it focuses on isolating anarchist terrorist cells to prevent attacks. Mapuche protestors must not be the target of new anti-terrorism legislation if the government is serious about inviting them to the negotiating table.