Argentina/Chile: Have there been any Chilean paramilitary groups or representatives in Argentina, and vice-versa? 1980-1990
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 August 1990 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | CHL6517 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Argentina/Chile: Have there been any Chilean paramilitary groups or representatives in Argentina, and vice-versa? 1980-1990, 1 August 1990, CHL6517, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6abc568.html [accessed 8 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Please find attached sections of Revolutionary and Dissident Movements (London: Longman Publishing Group, 1988), pages 16-17 and 48, which report links between the Chilean MIR (Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria) and the Argentinean ERP (Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo), although not during the abovementioned decade. According to this source, the ERP set up in 1974 a "Revolutionary Co-ordinating Board" linking it with the Bolivian National Liberation Army (ELN), the Chilean Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) and the Uruguayan National Liberation Movement (MLN). In page 48 the source adds that the Chilean government reported arrests in 1975 in connection with a plan "designed to infiltrate 1,200 extremists into southern Chile from Argentina in collaboration with the Argentinean People's Revolutionary Army (ERP)".
Former members of the ERP were reported by various sources as being involved in the January 1989 rebel attack against the army barracks of La Tablada in Argentina. Different sources give contradicting accounts of the nationality of the attackers, some indicating that foreigners were among them while others reported that only Argentineans participated in the attack. However, no specific reference to Chileans could be found among the sources currently available to the IRBDC. Please find attached copies of articles from the Latin America Weekly Report (London, Latin America Newsletters), which discuss the accusations, denials and possibilities of foreign links of the La Tablada attackers. The referred articles are from the following issues of the Latin America Weekly Report: 9 February 1989, p. 3; 2 March 1989, p. 3; 20 April 1989, pp. 6-7.
Other than the references to links between Chilean and Argentinean rebel groups in the 1970's as indicated above, information on Argentinean paramilitary groups operating in or from Chile could not be found among the sources currently available to the IRBDC.
