Signalfire

SANTIAGO – Fourteen people were arrested Saturday on suspicion of taking part in at least 23 bomb attacks on various districts of Santiago, officials said.

The capture of the suspects, known to have ties to anarchist groups, took place in three simultaneous raids carried out in the wee hours of Saturday in Santiago and Valparaiso.

Most of the suspects were arrested in downtown Santiago, while others were nabbed in other districts of Santiago and in the nearby city of Valparaiso.

Besides detailing the number of arrests, the prosecutor of the case, Alejandro Peña, also said that another hideout was raided in the Santiago suburb of Pudahuel.

According to Gen. Bruno Villalobos of the intelligence agency of the Carabineros militarized police force, “scientific” evidence exists of the connection between those in custody and the succession of attacks that for several years have been perpetrated in Santiago and other cities.

Among the evidence pointing to their guilt were traces of TNT on the hands and clothing of three of those under arrest, according to the prosecutor, who added that there is other proof that implicates “six” of the suspects as perpetrators of the attacks.

The raids were carried out by Carabineros agents with helicopter support.

Only three of the detainees have been identified up to now: Pablo Morales, Rodolfo Retamales and Andrea Urzua.

The first two are former members of the Lautaro Group, a far-left organization that fought against the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, while the woman was caught several years ago trying to smuggle explosives into a jail in the Argentine city of Neuquen, where some of her friends were imprisoned.

“This culminates a long, wide-ranging work of investigation that allowed us to catch a significant number of those involved in assembling and installing explosive devices,” Gen. Villalobos told reporters.

For several years, Chile has been hit by attacks with low-power homemade bombs using fire extinguishers filled with explosives and claimed in many cases to have been the work of anarchist groups under different names.

The most recent bombs, which were defused by police before exploding, were planted in a restaurant on Aug. 6 in the affluent Santiago neighborhood of Vitacura and, the day before, in a plaza near the summer residence of Chile’s presidents in the city of Viña del Mar.

Some time ago a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate the attacks, which up to now have taken the life of a young anarchist, who was blown up and killed last year by a bomb he was carrying in his backpack while bicycling down a street in Santiago.

Those in custody were taken to a police station and are to appear before a court that will define the procedure for their trials.

According to Peña, the detainees will be accused “of the crime of illicit terrorist association and of planting explosive devices in order to spread fear among the population.”

Chilean Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter considered the operations “very good news for the government and principally for Chilean men and women.”

SANTA CRUZ — The Downtown Association today announced the establishment of a fund to help downtown business owners repair damage done during the May 1 anarchist riot.

Ever since rioters smashed windows, destroyed merchandise and spray-painted graffiti, shop owners and the Downtown Association, numerous residents have inquired about how to help, said Chip, the organization’s executive director. The association opened an account at Bay Federal on Monday to accept contributions to the relief effort, and the credit union has agreed to provide matching funds up to $5,000.

Chip, who goes by one name, said the Downtown Association likely will distribute the money equally between the 18 affected businesses rather than try to determine which ones suffered the most damage. The riot caused an estimated $100,000 in damages.

Emily Bernard, an owner of Dell Williams Jewelers, said news about the fund was heartwarming, especially on the day that crews finished replacing her store’s windows.

“I think it’s a really great reflection of our community coming together,” said Bernard, who is also a member of the Downtown Association board. “It shows how much good there is in the community despite the destruction.” Windows at Urban Outfitters, another of the hardest-hit businesses, were also replaced Monday. Some businesses worked with insurance companies to cover the cost, while others paid out of pocket to avoid increases in their premiums.
She said the damaged windows alone cost $3,000 total to repair, but the store is still adding up how much was lost in china, silver and other giftware that was scratched when shattered glass was sent flying. Since the riot, Bernard said customers have been streaming in, buying small gifts like pewter candle snuffers or crystal votive candle holders, just to help the generations-old business recover.

“This is a time when the community needs to pull together and support one another,” Carrie Birkhofer, president and chief executive officer of Bay Federal, said in a statement. “Businesses already struggling in this economy should not have to worry about how they are going to pay for damage caused by someone else’s violent acts.” Police and the FBI are still investigating the riot. Masked demonstrators threw rocks and other objects through storefront windows starting about 10:30 p.m. May 1 during what had been advertised around town and at UC Santa Cruz as a May Day dance party at the Town Clock. Authorities say they believe anarchist demonstrators used the event as a cover.

SANTIAGO – A small bomb exploded early Tuesday outside a Catholic church in the southern Chilean city of Temuco, destroying the front door and shattering windows, police and press reports said.

The blast occurred at 3:05 a.m. outside the Iglesia del Buen Pastor in downtown Temuco, the capital of La Araucania region, some 672 kilometers (about 420 miles) south of Santiago.

The explosion also damaged some nearby houses, Radio Cooperativa said.

Some pamphlets from a group calling itself Kaos Nativo Orquestal were left outside the church, investigators said.

Initial indications are that bomb was fashioned from a fire extinguisher packed with explosives.

The bomb was similar to those used in previous attacks in Temuco and Santiago that were blamed on anarchist groups.

A bomb damaged a bank branch early Saturday in the capital.

More than two dozen bombings have been staged in Chile in the past few years.

Responsibility for the blasts is usually claimed by anarchists or anti-globalization groups, some of them linked to Chile’s disgruntled Mapuche Indians.

A member of one of the anarchist groups linked by authorities to the attacks died in mid-2009 in Santiago when the bomb he was carrying in a backpack exploded while he was riding a bicycle.

A special prosecutor is investigating the bombings, which occur periodically.

The detonator on a bomb planted at the Regional Justice Secretariat in Temuco failed on New Year’s Eve.

Asel Luzarraga, a Spanish writer and front man of an anarchist punk group, was arrested in connection with the failed bombing.

Luzarraga participated in protests supporting Mapuche land claims in the region. EFE

Terrorism arrest
A 22-year-old man was arrested in Volos, central Greece, yesterday after his fingerprint was found at a residence in Halandri, northeastern Athens, that was allegedly used by the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire group to construct time bombs, police said. The suspect was not named.

Spate of robberies
Burglars made off with 2,500 euros in cash and two cell phones after breaking into the surgery of a gynecologist in the district of Ambelokipi, near central Athens, on Wednesday night. There was no one at the surgery at the time. At around the same time an armed robber held up a branch of the Vassilopoulos supermarket chain in Halandri, northern Athens. The robber, who struck as the store was closing, made off with 50,000 euros. Another armed raid on a betting shop in Thessaloniki shortly after 3 p.m. on Wednesday netted around 3,000 euros for two robbers, according to the store owner.

Fiery encounter
Suspected anarchists early yesterday hurled firebombs at a riot police unit stationed outside the offices of ruling PASOK near the central district of Exarchia. The attack was carried out by a group of around 15 hooded youths who managed to elude arrest. There were no injuries as the firebombs did not hit their target.

Three identified over assault on union chief

Three men, aged 32, 33 and 37, are to be charged in connection with a brutal attack earlier this month on Yiannis Panagopoulos, the head of Greece’s largest private sector union GSEE, it was revealed yesterday.

Panagopoulos was beaten and his clothes torn as he prepared to address a crowd of striking workers in central Athens on March 5. There were accusations that members of unions affiliated to the Communist Party (KKE) and the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) had been involved in the attack but both parties denied this. The police suspect that at least two of the men have anarchist links.

The 32-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of arson in the past while the 33-year-old was arrested after violence at a soccer match. The 37-year-old had no criminal record but was arrested for fighting with police shortly after the attack on Panagopoulos. None of the suspects was named.

Ministry blast

A homemade explosive device planted outside an annex of the Culture Ministry in the central Athens district of Exarchia early yesterday caused minor damage and no injuries when it detonated. Bomb disposal experts gathered fragments of the device, which had comprised two gas canisters, and were examining them yesterday in a bid to find leads to the perpetrators.

Armed raid

Police in the Cretan port of Iraklio yesterday were seeking two armed robbers who netted 7,000 euros after holding up a supermarket late on Wednesday night. No one was injured in the raid.

It appears an anarchist was murdered by police this morning…

http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1141857

Greek police say they have arrested a suspected member of a radical anarchist group that has mounted a string of small bombings over the past year.

A police statement says the 21-year-old unemployed man was arrested Monday in a southern Athens suburb. Another six people have been arrested since September for alleged membership of in Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire group.

Police said the youth’s fingerprints were allegedly found on a plastic bag and a pamphlet seized in a suspected group safehouse.

The radical anarchists have claimed a series of bombings on politicians, using small devices that caused no injury, as well as a small bomb that exploded in front of Greece’s parliament building on Jan. 9.

BUENOS AIRES – A homemade bomb exploded on Wednesday in front of the office of Chile’s LAN Airlines in the southern Argentine city of Neuquen, causing damage but no injuries, police said.

The blast occurred in the early morning hours in downtown Neuquen, capital of the same-named province, when unknown assailants hurled the explosive device at the office and then fled the scene.

Police found some pamphlets from an unknown group that called itself the “Jacinto Araujo Internationalist Rebel Insurrectionist Brigade” and claimed responsibility for the attack, the press reported.

“On the eve of a double bicentennial and the complicity of the Argentine and Chilean states, we decided to launch a new attack on LAN,” the pamphlets said, referring to independence celebrations in those countries in 2010.

They cited the “intensification of coercive mechanisms such as schools and prisons” by these two “repressor states.”

Wednesday’s bomb attack was the second targeting LAN in Argentina, where the airline has operated domestic flights since 2005. The previous attack on Aug. 4 in Buenos Aires also caused no injuries.

Chilean President-elect Sebastian Piñera is the principal shareholder in LAN, but he has pledged to sell his stake in the company. EFE

ATHENS, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Greece’s socialist government must overcome its own fears of popular unrest and impose tough austerity measures quickly while public opinion is supportive to avoid a fiscal fiasco threatening the whole euro zone.

Prime Minister George Papandreou is trying to balance nervous markets and high borrowing costs against social justice, party ideology and a public prone to violent street protests as he grapples with a crisis he inherited from the conservatives.

But analysts say his government’s fears of mayhem may be exaggerated, with opinion polls showing 55-60 percent of people willing to support harsh measures if applied fairly.

“It’s the first time in many years that society is so positive towards such measures,” said ALCO pollster Costas Panagopoulos. “People may not be entirely convinced they will work but they think they are distributed evenly.”

EU peers, worried they may need to rush to Greece’s rescue, are pressing for tough, Ireland-style pay and pension cuts to shrink deficits and the euro zone’s biggest debt to GDP ratio.

But the socialists appear still committed to pledges to tax the rich and help the poor made ahead of October elections, before they discovered the 2009 budget deficit would reach 12.7 percent of GDP, twice as much as previously expected. Read more…

Associated Press
A bomb exploded late Friday outside Greece’s press and information ministry in central Athens, shattering glass and damaging the front of the building but causing no injuries, police said.

The blast occurred after two warning telephone calls were made to private television stations and a busy nearby road was cordoned off by police.

The attack follows a spike in attacks by far-left and radical anarchist militant groups.

On Jan. 9, a small bomb exploded in front of Greece’s parliament building, in an attack later claimed by a radical anarchist group calling itself Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire.

[ very interesting analysis reposted from a translation made available on Infoshop.org]
An account of the structuration of an autonomous and libertarian subversion and the opening of a new cycle of confrontation against state and capital.
Introduction:
The configuration generated since the end of 2009 threatens to raise the temperature and bring in a hot summer. This situation has been marked by recent events of broad repercussion such as the assault and raids on the squatted social centers carried out by the repressive forces under the orders of the “anti-bombs district attorney” Francisco Jacir, caving to the pressure from the Interior Ministry, specifically the bravado of subsecretary Patricio Rosende. This action, with a clear mediatic and political purpose, since it was carried out at election time, was recognized by the Interior Minister, Edmundo Pérez Yoma, when he declared that these raids against the young squatters “came at a very good moment.” Despite this, everything seems to indicate that the kangaroo court failed, principally for lack of real concrete evidence to back up serious accusations, which would confirm the lack of results in the investigation of the explosive attacks against institutions of State and Capital, and thus the success of the strategy of diffuse blows of autonomous, libertarian subversion based in groups without central direction, but coordinated along a common horizon. Proof of this is that the attacks have not only continued, they have expanded with growing force to other regions of the country, especially the city of Concepción where the existence of one or more operative cells has alarmed the political and police authorities. Read more…

Associated Press
Greek police say they have arrested a suspected member of a militant group that stepped up attacks last year and raised concerns of a resurgence of terrorist violence. Read more…

MEXICO CITY – No one was hurt when two small bombs were detonated early Thursday at bank branches in the central state of Mexico, authorities said.
The first explosion came at 3:20 a.m. in front of the automatic teller machines at a branch of Spanish-owned BBVA Bancomer in the city of Toluca, state officials said. Read more…

December 29th
ATHENS, Greece — A radical anarchist group claimed responsibility Monday (December 28th) for an explosion late Sunday near the buildings of the National Bank of Greece and a big private insurance company on a central boulevard in Athens. The group, calling itself the “Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire”, said in a statement on the internet that the attack was to protest “the Christmas consumer mood” and displays of wealth. According to it, the explosive device used in the attack had an “improved construction” intended to cause serious damage. The group threatened to use even more powerful bombs in the future and expressed solidarity with anarchists serving prison time in Greece, Chile and Germany. (Businessweek, Reuters, ANA-MPA – 28/12/09)

MILAN – A package containing a semi-detonated explosive device was found at the Bocconi university in Milan on Wednesday morning. The package contained two kilograms of dynamite, according to the accompanying flyer, and was connected to a timer. It was found in a cavity between a storage space and an underground corridor. The device exploded at 3 am on Wednesday morning but the explosion was only partial owing to an electronic defect. Responsibility was claimed at 1 pm on Wednesday, in an anonymous phone call and a flyer to Libero newspaper, by the Informal Anarchist Federation, which has in the past been responsible for other package bombs in demonstrative, non-life-endangering actions. The public prosecutor’s office has opened an inquiry and is waiting for the DIGOS special branch’s reconstruction of events, which should be on assistant public prosecutor Armando Spataro’s desk on Thursday morning. Read more…

22 December
Two more unexplained bombs exploded this weekend: one in Santiago and another in the Region VIII city of Coronel.
The Santiago bomb went off early Monday morning in the borough of Providencia in front of the Chilena Consolidada insurance company near Pedro de Valdivia Street. Read more…

ROME, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) — The Italian government announced on Thursday that tighter national security measures will be examined after two bombs were discovered in separate locations in northern Italy this week. Read more…

Associated Press
2009-12-17 03:53 AM
Greek police say a group of suspected anarchist youths has attacked bank branches in the northern town of Kavala with sledgehammers and petrol bombs. Read more…

(AP)
MEXICO CITY — Investigators have found evidence linking an animal rights group to homemade bombs that burned seven vehicles in Mexico City, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Read more…

Thursday, 10 December 2009 01:12
Chile’s police force (Carabineros) this week outlined plans to protect the eight million voters expected to participate in Sunday’s presidential election. Read more…

Friday, 11 December 2009 04:22
A late-night bomb shook the Region VIII city of Concepcíon Tuesday night, just days ahead of this Sunday’s election. The nine-pound device, detonated on Cerro Caracol, exploded near a communications tower and was heard throughout the city, creating panic among residents. Read more…

24 November
On Sunday afternoon yet another explosive device was set off in Santiago. A homemade bomb exploded at 3pm near the main entrance of a BBVA bank branch in Las Condes, an upper class Santiago borough. Read more…

November 05
Italian police have arrested an anarchist wanted for suspected involvement in “terrorist activities” near the border with France, police told AFP Thursday. Read more…

ATHENS, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Makeshift bombs were placed outside the party offices of a new Greek Socialist minister and a deputy minister in the northern city of Thessaloniki on Friday, police said. Read more…

The attack on the Homicidal Brigade of the Investigations Police (PDI) – Chile’s plainclothes detective force – was apparently launched in protest of the upcoming Sept. 11, 1973 coup anniversary that ousted President Salvador Allende. Read more…

Four young men arrested following clashes between police and suspected members of anarchist groups in the central district of Exarchia early yesterday were beaten by officers, the lawyers for the four defendants told Kathimerini, noting that one of the men had to be hospitalized for treatment. Read more…

A group of around 10 self-styled anarchists hurled Molotov cocktails and flares at a riot police unit in the central Athens district of Exarchia early on Saturday but caused no significant damage or injury. After the attack, on the unit posted on the junction of Zoodohou Pigis and Academias streets, the perpetrators fled in the direction of Exarchia’s main square. There were no arrests.

Arsonists used gas canister bombs to attack a local office of ruling New Democracy in Thessaloniki early yesterday, causing limited damage and no injuries. A similar device was used in an attack on a car belonging to the Cyprus Consulate, which also caused no injuries.

Greece to allow CCTV, DNA database (AP)

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s parliament has approved measures allowing police to use surveillance camera footage and create a DNA database, angering opposition parties that say the new powers will trample on people’s privacy. Read more…

The militant anarchist group “Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire” yesterday claimed responsibility for a bomb attack last Saturday on the Athens home of a former deputy minister and warned the newly appointed National Intelligence Service (EYP) chief that he could be the next target. Read more…