Extract from the judicial declaration of anarchist comrade Francisco Solar taking responsibility for sending explosive packages to the 54th station of the carabineros [Federal Police of Chile] and against the former Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Hinzpeter in July 2019, action claimed by “Cómplices sediciosos/Fracción por la Venganza” [Seditious Accomplices/Vengeance Faction] and for the double attack on the Tánica building on February 27, 2020, in the midst of the revolt, action claimed by “Afinidades Armadas en Revuelta” [Armed Affinities in Revolt].
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In November 2017, our idea was to move away from the big cities, mainly Santiago, because of its frenetic way of life, and to start a self-sustaining project. Although I opted for that way of life, I did not stop thinking that the most appropriate way to fight against an overpowering system based on authority and predation is through violent revolutionary action. Only from this is it possible to achieve moments of destabilization that, even if they are fleeting instants, reveal the vulnerability of power In the middle of 2018 I decided to start pursuing that kind of action (…) Once I made that decision I started to think about some target, being clear that if I was going to take a great risk, the action had to be powerful. I thought of carrying out an action as a response, as revenge against people linked to repression and business power. Both criteria were fully met by Rodrigo Hinzpeter, who in 2019 was manager of the Quiñenco group, whose president is Andronico Luksc. Hinzpeter had also been Minister of the Interior under the first government of Piñera, leaving a trail of repression that will be difficult to forget. He harshly repressed social and student mobilizations, trying to pass a law marked by prohibitions of all kinds, known as the Hinzpeter Law. As Minister of the Interior he was politically responsible for the murder of young Manuel Gutiérrez, harshly repressed the social mobilizations in Aysén and Freirina, militarized the Mapuche territory, resulting in hundreds being wounded, many of them children, and countless prisoners.
In August 2010, along with thirteen other people, we were subjected to the repressive delusions of Hinzpeter, who in his eagerness to put an end to the bombings that had occurred mainly in the eastern sector of the capital since 2005, imprisoned us by inventing evidence, hiring prisoners willing to corroborate the thesis of the prosecution, a thesis that referred to the existence of a terrorist conspiracy.
It was for these reasons that I decided to attack Hinzpeter, deciding that he represented a completely legitimate target. I began to investigate Hinzpeter (…) I went to the Itaú building to see the flow of people, the people entering and leaving. I tried to enter the 14th floor, where the Quiñenco Group offices were located and I could not because of the strict controls at the entrance (…) so I thought it would be best to send an explosive package addressed to Rodrigo Hinzpeter’s office, to make sure that he was the one to open the package.
At this point it is important to point out that indiscriminate attacks have never been part of anarchist practice, our objectives are clearly defined and aimed at those responsible for oppression and repression. As my intention was to carry out a major action (…) I decided to use dynamite.
In 2018 and early 2019, the context was marked by police brutality against students demonstrating against the Safe Classroom Law and for various demands. It was common to see images of carabineros beating students who crossed them and even taking them out of their classrooms to take them to police stations. It is important to point out that this struggle against the Ley Aula Segura [Safe Classroom Law] was the direct antecedent of the call for fare evasion that the students made in the face of the increase in Metro fares which was the trigger for the revolt that began on October 18.
Without the perseverance of the students perhaps nothing of what happened after that date would have happened, therefore I decided to respond to this police brutality by attacking the police in their own facilities. My idea was to attack them as an institution, for what they represent, for their history of blood, torture and death. I decided to attack the 54th station of the carabineros in Huechuraba as a gesture of revenge for the murder of my comrade Claudia López in September 1998.
Although it is clear to me that the officers who worked in that police station in 2019 were not the same ones who murdered my comrade, it was that place that served as a point of operations at that time, and continues to be so for every day of protest. With this I wanted to signal a response: that no one and nothing is forgotten.
My intention was to wound only one carabinero, the highest ranking one, and that was Major Manuel Guzmán, therefore, so I decided the explosive should not be of great power and opted to use black powder inside a steel cylinder.
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The intention of this action, to respond both to the aggressions of the police and to that of a former Minister of the Interior remembered for his repressive role and today manager of an economic group that owns practically all of Chile, was completely fulfilled.
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Regarding the so-called Fact 2 (Tánica), I can explain in order to contextualize. The revolt started on October 18, 2019 was still alive in the last months of 2019 and early 2020, many protests were happening day after day despite the harsh repression of the police. March was looming as a key month where many things could happen, among them even the resignation of Piñera. It was in this context that I decided to contribute to the revolt with the placement of two explosive devices.
The eastern sector of the capital had been the target of some demonstrations provoking the rejection of those who live there out of fear of being threatened and even losing their privileges. One could see how people who were demonstrating peacefully in La Dehesa were insulted and even assaulted, and also how the army and the police shielded those neighbourhoods in a clear complicity between the repressive force and the wealthy class. Therefore I decided to hit those districts, but specifically one neighbourhood within them – Santa Maria de Manquehue, where the newspaper El Mercurio is located, historical mouthpeace of the most conservative sectors of this country. I am emphatic in pointing out that my intention was not to harm people, but rather to alter the normality of that neighbourhood. Proof of this is that at first I thought of placing the explosive devices inside the toilets of Café Kant, located inside the Tanica building, but due to the risk of injuring people I finally discarded this plan, deciding instead to place an explosive device in the park sector of the Tánica real estate company, specifically under a cement bench that would cushion the explosion.
I also contemplated another target for the attack, which was to place another explosive device at the police GOPE [Grupo de Operaciones Policiales Especiales, Special Police Operations Group] which would be set to explode half an hour after the first one (….) at a time when the GOPE would be carrying out a search in the vicinity, with the sole objective of giving them a good scare.
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I decided to attack the carabineros because apart from being historical enemies of we anarchists, at that time they had already mutilated hundreds of eyeballs (…) I also decided to attack the carabineros because they had carried out torture, beatings, the creation of torture centres like the one in the Baquedano subway, which although the justice system has denied it, we all know was so.
From the beginning of the revolt I was part of the different mobilizations that took place every day and I could see, metres away from me, how the young people fell bloodied by bullets and tear gas canisters fired by the carabineros. It was for this reason that the revolt identified the carabineros as one of its main enemies, therefore, an attack against them was essential and completely justified”.
SOURCE: ACT FOR FREEDOM NOW!