Today’s Video: the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front

We continue this week’s video theme of Latin American guerilla and paramilitary groups with a look at Chile’s Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (Spanish initials FPMR). The group formed in 1983 with the aim of attacking the government led by one of the most divisive leaders in Latin American history- Augusto Pinochet. The FPMR nearly succeeded in snuffing out Pinochet in an assassination attempt in 1986 which killed five of his bodyguards.

The following video shows part of a 2001 Chilean TV report on that event including interviews with former FPMR members.

(Video link):

The FPMR split in the post-Pinochet transition to democracy with one faction participating in politics and another continuing armed struggle. According to Wikipedia, the FPMR ended the “armed struggle in December 1997.”

Previous videos this week focused on the Shining Path and the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (a.k.a. Triple A).

Sources- janes.com, Wikipedia, BBC News, tkb.org, globalsecurity.org, The Latin Americanist