translations from the spanish by gabriella segata antolini ij the prison letters of luciano “ tortuga ” pitronello and other selected writings ij
Nov 01, 2014
translations from the spanish by gabriella segata antolini
ij
the prison letters of luciano “tortuga” pitronelloand other selected writings
ij
negratortuguitalakalle.noblogs.orgwaronsociety.noblogs.org
updated news and pamphlets regarding
tortuga, his case, and his words
contentsLetters from Tortuga
Letters from Lovers & Friends
Solidarity
Trial
Support
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
I. Letters from Tortuga
1
Letter from Luciano Tortuga to the Indomitable Hearts – 7 months since the attack failed
January 1, 2012 Santiago $hile.
It is diffi cult to begin to write when I know that I have so much to
communicate and even more to keep quiet; silence has become a great
companion, and not in vain, since my enemies want me to communicate,
to explain myself with my ideas, to justify my illegal action, so that they can
to apply the anti-terrorist law and bury me even in the condition in which
I fi nd myself, they want that trophy of war, a youth with many wounds,
imprisoned for not having tricked himself with the comfort of a revolution
framed within political correctness. Power’s ambition with my trial is for
the señora of the house to tell her little rebel that this is how idealists meet
their end, those who dare to dream, to even think, that it begins with the
rebellion proper to youth and if it goes unchecked it can end in terrifying
consequences–to justify by means of my example the prison system, the
repression for the “good of our children and the future.”
I know that power wants that, or at the least hopes for it, that in one
way or another I will appear publicly, thus I preferred silence; I think that
in these moments it is much better that others speak for me—my comrades,
known or unknown, just like in endless events for animal liberation, one
knows to speak for those who cannot, I believe that now the same should
happen, because I sincerely think that other comrades, even from different
parts of the world have already done this and have had splendid results,
not only with everything that involves my morale, but also with everything
that involves solidarity, which I would dare to represent as the fi rst piece
of a great row of dominoes, in which one pushes the fi rst and the second
pushes the third and so on successively, where my morale comes to be one
more piece in the dominoes, in which there is also damage to the system in
breaking with its authoritarian logic, the esteem that the action generates
as much on the individual level as collectively, as well as representing
another seat in the confl ict with reality, and one could spend days like this
numbering the different effects that a solidarity action can have.
Nevertheless, as much as my enemies want me to communicate, I
know that many comrades also wanted me to, and you should know that I
know this and I’m sorry you had to spend several months of uncertainty
2
to receive any news, I profoundly regret not communicating myself in
these circumstances, it was I who always stressed that solidarity should be
reciprocal, and believe me that more than anyone I regretted not having
acted sooner, I felt that I was betraying myself in being silent. “Does it
make him uncomfortable that we act in solidarity with him?” I speculated
that you thought this in interpreting my silence, but I have a small and
beautiful daughter who needs her papa, and I cannot betray her either. She
moved me to silence, my ideals move me to dialogue and you my forever
comrades incite me to the point in between.
I do not like to write without thinking what I want to convey and to
be fully understood, to write something in my situation merits a profound
refl ection–is it worth it? Since in my case, unlike the majority of political
trials which are usually frame-ups, in my case it is proven, since I really did
transport a bomb the morning of June 1st with the destination of the bank
branch located on Av. Vicuña Mackenna and Victoria, downtown Santiago.
For my part, I wanted to tell everyone why the attack failed. How could
I try to communicate myself and ignore something so relevant? Or even,
Why that bank? To politicize an anti-capitalist attack is not only to advocate
for the violence, it is also to put the noose around my neck, and as for that,
Never!, because as long as I am alive I plan to continue fi ghting, it doesn’t
matter to me if I’m short some fi ngers, a hand, my hearing or sight, I will
continue forward at all costs, that is something that my enemies have to
know as much as my comrades.
Then you ask me to break with the isolation, with the hermitism around
me; I posit that I would be ashamed to communicate myself, to do so
simply, to which you respond with a blow to my conscience, “And your
comrades?” Do I think that communicating with you is something banal
and unimportant? It’s true, I don’t need to vomit out everything that
happened that night, I believe that in the future there will be time for that…
So, you want to know about me? Well, I will fi ght in order to live,
and live in order to fi ght until being free and wild, I do not trick myself
in thinking that I am less wild if I breathe artifi cially or not, because I
believe that it is in situations like that when the most wild human instinct
blossoms–the instinct of survival; I’m not trying to allude to anyone in
particular, because I know that many comrades desire my death with all
the best, but I want to from here deliver a lesson for everyone–one cannot
desire the death of a comrade to free them from their body, unless of course
the comrade manifests it, but if that were the case, the person would seek
the means to put an end to their life, without thus generating a judicial case
3
(homicide) for a third party. Because what would happen if to “do me a
favor” they had killed me? Who are they who call themselves my comrades
to judge whether or not it’s worth the pain for me to keep living? The
only one capable of taking such a decision is the individual, only he knows
what he really desires, and in particular I want to keep living, in order to
continue fi ghting.
On other other hand, I want you to know that I appreciate all and
every one of the solidarity actions that you have done with me, the banners
hung in different parts of the world or those messages that carry the same
solidarios reach my ears in one way or another, each leafl et, each counter-
information bulletin, each space of your lives that you dedicated to me
I keep as a treasure, know that I have been aware of everything, that in
this world there are not words for my feelings of gratitude, because each
bombing, each arson organized in my name is in my mind, I can never
forget the valiance of my Mexican comrades, the insubordinates who have
made themselves my comrades in Greece, I wish to embrace the savages of
Bolivia and the US, affectionately saluting the rebels of Spain and Italy,
the libertarixs of Argentina—take heart!, not to mention the iconoclasts
of Indonesia—strength, comrades! To the anonymous of the ALF and
ELF in Russia and in the world. To the imprisoned comrades across the
world, I send all my care in these humble letters, to the comrade Tamara,
prisoner in Mexico, to Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, prisoner in Spain, to Marco
Camenisch, prisoner in Switzerland, to the always dignifi ed comrades of
the Cells of Fire, how I envy your courage, and of course to my comrades
of the territory dominated by the state of $hile, to you who I knew in
person know that I carry you in my heart everywhere I go, I have never
been separated from you because I carry you in my smile; I know that in
a letter I could never thank everyone and each one of the actions I hope
that it is understood that I do not intend to exclude any one, the forms in
which you have been in solidarity with me are many and as diverse as the
same struggle, from illegal actions to activities to telephone calls, internet
messages, and libertarian songs; fi nally I want you to know, each and every
one of you solidarious rebels that this loco for freedom will Never, never
forget you, you were known to be as great as skyscrapers and to strike where
it hurts, and above all, you made the stars shine with your courage, and
that is something worth imitating.
I would like you to know what the solidarity created for me in those days
when nothing made sense, when learning to remake my life did not make a
bit of sense, because you know I was doing poorly, what happened to me I
would wish on very few people because it was horrible–and in the greatest
darkness there appeared small gestures that pushed me to not give up.
How could I betray those who risk their lives to give me encouragement?
4
And I learned to conquer life anew; I know that you will never know how
important you have been. Now I fi nd myself as strong as ever; prison,
far from intimidating me, has made me as strong as in those days; life is
paradoxical, because I always said that to have comrades in prison should
never motivate one to fear, entirely the opposite it should be the reason for
the wick in the bottle of gasoline, for the fuse in the explosive or incendiary
charge, for the smile in the insurgent hearts after each day of attack, this
I believed before and I still believe it, and now I am the one who fi nds
himself a prisoner, so if my enemies do not succeed in intimidating me
when I fi nd myself in their clutches I see it will be diffi cult for them to do
so with my comrades.
I plan to confront the prison in the same way that I confront society–
with dignity and happiness, never in a submissive way, to, as has been said
before, make the prison combative. I tell you that I am in the hospital
section of the Santiago 1 prison, here there is a regime similar to that of
the maximum security module of the high security prison, but without a
yard, without radio, without TV, with one weekly visit of at most 2 people
and with the risk of catching the illnesses of other prisoners; the room is
shared and is larger than a cell, around here they call it the crazy prison,
because to spend much time here is enough to drive you crazy, although I
am of the opinion that what does not kill you makes you stronger, also as
they say around here, “we crazy ones are those who have the most beautiful
dreams.” I tell you that I do a lot of exercise to recuperate the musculature
I lost, I sing a lot, especially the songs that nobody likes, I write letters to
my little baby girl every week, sometimes when I have a roommate I play
chess or we talk, generally the prisons have much care for me and help me a
lot. I rigorously follow my rehabilitation treatment and I try to give myself
encouragement when information from the outside is scarce; also I have
proposed many projects to myself, I am already working on some, others
are for when I have completed my sentence.
I think that a rebel becomes a warrior when one is able to get back up
stronger than one fell, who is able to see a reality even though one has
everything to lose, a warrior does not necessarily have to know how to
make a bomb or handle one, nor to have techniques of camoufl age, these
are things one learns by addition, warriors are dangerous for their ideas
and principles because they see all the way to the fi nal consequences, always
fi rm, steadfast, because they do not betray themselves nor their comrades,
because they are always aware, because they don’t let themselves be carried
by fuck-ups or rumor, because if they have problems they confront them, if
5
they feel pain they cry, and if they are happy they laugh; because they know
to live out a full life, though it will not therefore be peaceful–those are the
true warriors; now in this war there are many joyful occasions, but there
are also moments of bitterness, because it is a war, not a juvenile phase, and
to confront the system of domination utilizing these conclusions can carry
disastrous consequences and we should know that beforehand, because an
error, a small carelessness changes everything, I always say this and this
I had understood, therefore I acted according to the terms that I used.
Regarding my wounds, they have all healed, unfortunately the marks will
always remain but I carry them with the same pride as my tattoos, because
they are the best evidence that I am convinced in my ideals–how could I
not be? I carried that bomb with dreams and hopes and those remain intact.
On the other hand, I regret being unable to keep carrying on in
the projects that I participated in, understanding that for me there was
none that was more valuable than another, each and every one means
a contribution to the social war and I yearn that those projects do not
go adrift because I am not around, on the contrary I should be another
motivation to continue forward, I know that I am not absolved of criticism,
because if I formed part of those dreams I should have acted not at 100%
of caution, but at 150%.
I am sure that my example will close one more chapter and that the new
and not-so-new combatants will know to rescue the positive from all this,
because the struggle continues and there are too many hearts that do not
fi t in this authoritarian world and want to open a path, because we did it
in the past we know how to do so in the present, personally I make a good
balance of the anti-authoritarian struggles in the world, one or another
diminishes but generally the prognosis looks good.
But as much as the struggle advances, the repression will too, and my
case will be utilized to reopen the pathetic bombs case frame-up, therefore
I make the suggestion to be alert, never to inaction but rather to caution,
because my self-criticism can be applied by all, the idea is to share it, nor
do I say this as certain science, it is speculation, perhaps they do not intend
more frame-ups for fear of looking ridiculous again, or maybe they’ll fl ush
down the toilet everything in which which my deed is accredited, so the
call is to be well awake, with all 5 senses in the street.
To end I want to dedicate some fi nal lines to that person who traveled
with me in the early hours of June 1st. Hermanitx,* I know that my accident
must have marked you, perhaps you spend nights without sleeping, in the
uncertainty of daily life, “Will they fi nd out it was me? Will they notice
6
me? Will I wake up tomorrow or will I have died in my sleep? Will I be
betrayed?” I remember that once I told you that despite the deep hatred
I feel toward the wretch who stabbed his compañera, I also believed to
understand it one should be in a similar situation, to see if we are as strong
as we say, because I have always believed that betrayal is an internal enemy.
Now I can tell you with certainty that that little guy has no balls! I also
remember that before going out to the street that night I told you that I
was going without my Kabbalah, a totally meaningless thing, something
that I felt gave me luck, you told me that I was crazy for believing in such
things, luckily I brought my other amulet, I am still alive and now we can
laugh about that nonsense. Hermanx, I want you to know that although I
could never imagine the horrible things that have played with your mind
or your heart, I continue to be the same little turtle who smells like feet
and sleeps on the fl oor and I am never going to have to reproach you for
anything, because that night it was my turn, just like in past times it had
been your turn, if something happens the second person fl ees, so we had
agreed and so it had to be, because although you might many times feel
like a traitor, you are not, in this war that we decided to take on there are
no words to understand us. I may never see you again, if so, good luck in
everything that comes.
I said it once and now I say it again with pride: Never defeated, never
repentant! From here I send a warm embrace to the people who walk in
clandestinity.
Luciano Pitronello Sch.Insurrectionalist Political Prisoner.
7
Words from Luciano in solidarity with Freddy, Marcelo and Juan
Making the stars shine with our solidarity.
February 29, 2012
The news spread fast and (as it has always had to be) the isolation was
not a problem. A call-out for direct solidarity with 3 political prisoners,
defendants in the security case.
With news that the compañeros were also on hunger strike my response
to this situation was immediate, “I too am going to go on strike,” with
astonishment and concern the compañeros who informed me of the
situation warned me not to be so crazy, to think things through, more
calmly, was I prepared for a hunger strike? In my condition a measure of
this nature could be lethal, because I could lose everything gained as far
as my health is concerned, and it’s true…
What could I do? Send encouraging words without real action of
solidarity has never been my style. What importance could a statement
have when it lacks the most important? And here I want to be emphatic,
the most important thing is to show the compañeros that we are with
them, that when they are hungry in prison it affects our lives, this reality,
this fake social peace, our everyday lives and the damn bourgeois normality
that keeps them prisoners, and that this cannot go unnoticed, because none
of this goes overlooked for our compañeros, nor prison, nor hunger, nor
the high security module, nor isolation, nor hunger, nor everyday torture
by their executioners, nor hunger, nor abuse, nor hunger, nor the extreme
vigilance, nor harassment, nor hunger, nor the humidity of those dark
corridors, nor violence, nor hunger, nor lack of privacy, nor shackles, nor
hunger, nor raids, nor threats, nor hunger, nor dirt, nor cruelty, nor hunger,
nor persecution, nor shit, nor hunger, nor hunger, nor hunger, nor hunger…
So what will we do my compañeros? We wait till the situation can’t
get worst? Because we think that such a situation can lead to worst? Are
we going to react only when the compañeros are at vital risk because one
just is not that important or can wait? Since when can a hunger strike in
prison wait? Independently of what we’ll know when its over and within
our small square heads we’ll consider deceiving ourselves into knowing that
8
the comrades will not starve to death on this occasion and therefore need
not be a priority, there is something called brotherhood that makes the
word compañero not sound as empty as often happens. We know this well,
fi rst the vacations, the beach, family, friends, partying, you have extra time?
Then I go to the march organized for the compañeros NO! That’s not the
social war of which I speak, the social war of which I speak is not present
once a week on a calendar or a schedule, because what if for example people
who go underground take that attitude? For sure they’d have caught them
quite some time ago already. Or if the people who assist the compañerxs
in prison would opt for similar positions? Surely in this case much would
choose death. Because this type of mediocre consciousness is nothing more
and nothing less than a rebel fashion that will come and go, that will be
temporary. The social war of which I speak, is present 24 hours a day, 7
days a week, without vacations, without truce, without stopping to recover,
and the compañeros on hunger strike today, are part of that small handful
of people who take on the social consequences of war on a daily basis. Is
it necessary to repeat this?
Therefore, we must know to rise to the occasion, and personally I would
be ashamed to look into the faces of compañerxs who decided to complicate
their lives to the point of having no return to “normal life” offered by
this reality and who sharpened their discourse and praxis under the same
considerations as me. For my part from today, Tuesday 21st of February
of this year and a year since the mobilization initiated by compañerxs of
the bombs case frame up in the form of a hunger strike, I will stop taking
1 of the 3 daily meals, choosing to eat lunch and dinner, depriving myself
of breakfast until the end of the mobilization. I know that solidarity fasts
are not at all a spectacular action, but I want to express that in the nearly
20 hours without eating from dinner (17:00 hrs) till lunch the next day
(12:00 hrs.), the compañeros on hunger strike are with me and I with
them. I invite Freddy to get together in an activity that takes place this
week, to Marcelo I sing from an extermination and isolation center and to
Juan I send one of those tight hugs that he sent me from his own physical
impossibility of jail. I also want you to know how easy it would be for
me not to stop eating, shielding myself behind my delicate health, always
excuses abound, but I want this to be a slap on the wrist of all combatants,
if I who am in a really extreme situation am able to show solidarity in a
way, our compañerxs across the wall don’t have any justifi cation for not
leaving even the last drop in the street.
9
Let the compañeros feel our affection, respect, love and solidarity
with all our courage, that these days serve the compañeros in recharging
their moral, to feel they are not alone, that when we shout “STRENGTH
COMPAÑEROS!” they are not empty words.
LET THE STARS SHINE WITH OUR SOLIDARITY!!
LET’S TALK THE SAME LANGUAGE!!
SOCIAL WAR!!
Luciano Pitronello Sch.
Insurrectionist Political Prisoner
10
The abyss does not stop us. Communique at one year after the Bombing that almost cost me my life
First days of June, 2012
To the conscious rebels; to my companions scattered across the
world:
A little more than a month has passed since everything changed for me
that cold predawn of June 1st last year, and I believe that to not declare
myself about it would be to play along with the game that has me here
prisoner in the hospital of the Santiago 1 prison, and it would be a dishonor
to myself, but above all to you my dear compañerxs who worry about me.
I should say: I wanted to make a balance one year from when all this
happened, but did not manifest it publicly for two reasons: the fi rst is
because that text was too compromising, and the second and more
important in my opinion is because nothing was really analyzed in it, it
was only a compilation of frustration, resentment and hatred that raged
against everyone, cursing those who ran off, but now I want to do it, I feel
the lucidity to be able to deliver some words that I am sure are so deserved.
But before beginning, I want to advise you of the reasons for my delay.
The days have not been easy, the permanent confi nement has begun to do
its work, and my mood has been terrible, which is why my fi rst draft of this
communique ended up being a compendium of rage and ire; arrogance,
aggressiveness and haughtiness began to fl ourish in my attitudes, and faced
with some situations I simply did not recognize myself, but I fi ght, I fi ght
to continue forward and not betray myself, trying to fi ght my own self in
daily life, reminding myself and not forgetting who I am and why I am here.
Well here I go…
As concerns my wounds and healing it has gone very well, the daily
exercises and practice in the manual labor of life have been done, I say
this with a great smile, that I have surpassed the disability of knowing
myself semi-mutilated; as for my vision it has improved greatly, but I should
continue with the ocular treatment for a good time; as for the burns, apart
from being all healed many have evolved positively, even so, I should keep
using the special compression suit for the burns and the rose hip oil. At
least for me, this chapter that has to do with my physical state is closed,
happily the bomb did not kill me.
11
My emotional state has been weakening over the past days, but this is
due to the permanent confi nement, I know that all prisoners have our highs
and lows, so I am optimistic about this situation, after all, the confi nement
cannot be forever, and if it was then they would only have my fl esh, because
my mind and spirit will carry on in the street next to each combatant,
smiling and conspiring, and I say this not as a poetic slogan I affi rm it as a
reality that is refl ected in the projection of insurgent dreaming where the
authoritarian values of domination are crushed in various ways.
Prison is hard, I will not deny it, but it is possible to confront it, and
we are witnesses of that, myself and each and every one of my companions
who have in different ways embraced me to make me know that I am not
alone. The exemplary punishment that power boasts so much about is
nothing of the sort, at least in my case, since my comrades as well as myself
do not have a clue why their media-spectacle is realized successfully, and
what’s more, the only example we follow here is the one we give ourselves,
wielding our best weapon: solidarity.
Self-critiques I make many, above all in this episode that is called prison,
where I have taken out the worst of myself, for which I humbly beg the
pardon of each and every one of the comrades who I have shown my teeth
to in one way or another, those I have attacked only for the desire to unload
my anger, those I did not want to see/write due to the rage and envy that
my condition created in me, and above all, I beg the pardon of everyone
who has had to swallow bad faces, disagreeable times and my poor character
for the sole fact of wanting to be in solidarity with me. So as I ought to
confess I have not been at the height of the circumstances, of your solidarity
which is enormous, but here we are ready to move forward, to fall and to
get back up again, to learn from the errors — this is the idea, right?
If I am to make a constructive criticism it would be only that perhaps
there is a lack of fi rst-hand information about what it is to live the
consequences of choosing a rebel life, what it means to live in prison and
isolation, what this brings with it, understanding more closely the stigma
of being considered a terrorist and what goes on with our lives when this
happens, familiarizing ourselves more with subjects like clandestinity and
exile that are recurrent places in the struggle for freedom in a way that
is more real and less imaginary, and fi nally starting to speak more about
torture, the methods the enemy applies, crime as base value for a State-
police, mutilation as a possibility in the war against authority, pain and
agony as part of the life of warriors, and thus each and every one of these
diffi cult possibilities that one can face, beyond speculation and charlatanry.
If I am to share my scant, but no less intense, experience in this sense,
I would say that the work of prison and isolation have to do more than
anything with a moral demotivation, the others start not to matter a bit,
12
likewise what is happening outside, you adhere yourself to the prison
reality, this is your world now, what do you get from knowing about what
is happening outside if you are inside? You start to worry always less about
yourself, you do not care about anything, you become contemptuous of
others and the environment, you begin to value others’ efforts to get a
smile out of you less and less, because they are not living your nightmare, it
follows that you lose the fear of anything because you know that you have
lost everything and you are at the bottom of the abyss, you have fucked
life, you turn hostile and aggressive, seeking in this way to end everything
soon, that the jailers crush you with their batons for the insults you hurl at
them every day, and that, if you are lucky, they’ll give you a hand and you’ll
end up dead, to fi nally rest from the psychosis you are carrying or, in the
worst case, that other prisoners do this task to show you who has the most
balls. When the psychosis of confi nement advances, gestures of solidarity
begin to matter little, you put to yourself emotional traps like “Why see
importance in a gesture of solidarity if I remain prisoner?” or even worse,
you articulate phrases like,”They are not suffering the consequences like
I am,” and you curse your luck; but some hard loving and caring slaps are
needed to warn us of the toxicity of these thoughts, that is to say, it is really
stupid to believe that only we live the consequences of confi nement, and it
is not that one wants for everyone to live these consequences, but the sense
of not being alone and helpless makes us strong, therefore, when a comrade
falls prisoner it doesn’t just have to do with their confi nement/punishment,
there are many noble hearts who decide to accompany the comrade in this
new situation, acting in solidarity with him/her, being present, writing,
spreading news of their situation, vindicating them in the street, with fl yers,
pamphlets, posters, shouting their name in the demonstration, breaking the
symbols of power in their honor, etc. Prison and isolation do their work,
you start to dig your own grave and alone you go deeper into it, until you
end up hearing phrases so absurd as that you are alone, and the worst of this
self-imposed trap is that we ourselves take care of driving off the tools that
can help us to not decline, and then, sickly, we complain and get depressed
from the forgetfulness we have buried ourselves in, because by now no
one remembers us, no one is in solidarity with us, the desperation eats us
up inside, and what we think would be our greatest weapon to confront
adversity was crushed by the walls of silence, our will shattered, and so your
projects become of little relevance, you get discouraged easily, the future
becomes uncertain, you start to lose interest in life, and one anguishing
night you end up hanging yourself in your cell.
So in order to not fall into these kinds of dynamics it is important to
observe oneself constantly and to be evaluating ourselves, clinging to the
things/people/circumstances that make us well, and distancing ourselves
13
from the harmful (as much as possible), because certainly to reach a state of
carceral psychosis is not a matter of one day or another, it is a monster that
goes on growing in of our minds and hearts with the passing of times, and
it is effectively a gradual process that we can become aware of and combat
before it is too late.
I should say that nobody ever told me what permanent confi nement
meant (much less how to confront it), my most real encounters were the
anecdotes of one book or another, and the rest was experienced through
my imagination, with this, I am never saying that today I was not ready
to assume the costs of the postures I had chosen in life, but it defi nitely
would have been a great help to me. Fine, but at least in my case I have
tried to face this arming myself with projects to contribute to, even from
my condition, it is important to fi nd sense in your days, they can be simple
things, reading a book and giving your opinion, writing with others who
are imprisoned or not, creating music/poetry, learning to draw, exercising
your body, etc; but here I make an note, our most important projects, at
least in permanent confi nement, should be those that are needed only from
our readiness and will, and therefore, I do not foreclose on the possibility
of contributing in projects that are beyond our physical limitations, but one
must keep in consideration that these can bring oceans of frustrations with
them: someone doesn’t come to visit, does not write me back, forgets to
bring this or that, that we organize ourselves around certain themes, and if
our senses of life are limited in turn to just projects in the street, with a few
trip-ups of this kind we will be taken down in terms of morale more or less
quickly; therefore I believe that one must maintain two kinds of projects,
one that makes us maintain contact with the other side of the wall, and the
other that must do more than anything with an individual labor, that can
generate itself even in conditions of maximum confi nement, something that
happens in unfortunate cases, be it loss of communication with the outside,
or the seizure only of the material we use for our individual projects, so
we do not decline in morale. It is important to create support networks
for oneself in order to not crumble along the way, to be observant and
analyze what the prison reality offers you and to take from it what you deem
convenient, which is to say that if the prison keeps you in total isolation
you can take advantage of the silence of this situation to read, write or
refl ect, alternatively if it offers you the courtyard you can take advantage of
it to exercise or talk with other prisoners (one can always learn something
useful), and thus in a substantial way the possibility of elaborating an escape
plan or a mutiny always exists independently of the regimen they submit
us to.
14
If I am to speak about another one of the possible consequences of
this war that some fi ll their mouths with so much, it would be to say that
to be recognized as an enemy of authority is not easy, less so when you
are labeled as a terrorist in the media, your social environment is affected
almost unanimously, family members, friends and comrades take off
running, turn their backs on you and often deny they ever knew you, few
are the brave who dare to remain with you, the public opinion does its work
and through all the possible methods the system tries to isolate you, they
don’t have to get their hands dirty with the death penalty anymore, these
days the methods are more sophisticated and democratic, they make your
life cease to have meaning because they distance you from everything that
you are a part of, and they don’t just do this physically by getting you in a
cage, but also psychologically to reduce your convictions, they demonize
you collectively, they erase the memory of what you once were and they
transform you into a television case, in a failed explosive attack, in a bank
robbery with a policeman killed, or into a member of a phantasmic terrorist
organization, you are that, you are your letter of presentation, to such an
extent that if you don’t become aware that you are much more than what
the press says, you end up believing it; and the best example can be given
by Mauri–why is he known for an unsuccessful May 22 and has anyone ever
heard of the times when he helped some elderly people in his neighborhood
with their heavy shopping bags? We ourselves are responsible for reducing
him to a date on the calendar. Society strikes you psychically, your days no
longer have the sense they did before, you are worth nothing and you are
ruining the lives of everyone around you — Why keep existing? Why cause
more pain? They no longer need to stain their hands with your blood;
please, we are civilized people, instead they incite you to fi nish yourself off,
because they have reduced you to a mere episode, you are that, a terrorist
who only knows how to create pain around him, and so the best thing you
can do is to do your loved ones a favor, that is if you still have anything of
a heart left, and end your life. This is the hidden discourse that reproduces
our shiny Chilean democracy, there are no longer any revolutionaries,
now they minimize us as mere terrorists, because clearly a revolutionary
is someone with feelings, with ideas, love of freedom and a companion of
the oppressed, that is, someone worth imitating, instead the terrorist is a
shadow with impunity who has no heart and is obsessed with the use of
violence due to past childhood traumas — so how to face this situation?
For my part I have learned to keep public opinion at bay, which is
usually the opinion of the bourgeois press, with the simple act of analyzing
their role one manages to halt much of their discourse, although I will
not deny that many times in their work they have hurt me deeply, above
15
all when you become aware of these opinions coming from the mouths of
people you love, when they are the ones who put you between the spade
and the wall: either kill yourself or keep hurting us, wow, how diffi cult,
how intense, then it is your turn to decide, you or they, you or those you
love most, and if you choose yourself what sense will life have without
them? Will you choose yourself? Do you love them so little? You? Them?
The instinct of survival or your love? Which is stronger? Apparently neither
is the correct alternative, but I choose my life, if I do not love myself,
it is impossible for me to love others. And I end up expelling various
persons from my life and from my heart for always, I keep going, alone and
wounded like that predawn, confused, with death stalking me and red in
fl ames of ire, life hit me again, but it is only another chapter and I get up
again, this time with the help of what was never missing: solidarity. Now
I refl ect on it, one year after the bombing that almost cost me my life, and
I do not repent these decisions, the pain was better, like the bomb, it was
momentary, but life continued and the suffering of these episodes went
diffused with the passing of time, life continues, struggle continues, and
what is insurmountable today will tomorrow be nothing more than a story,
another chapter in this existence of combat.
At this point I have spoken of two possible consequences in revolutionary
struggle, prison and being recognized as an enemy of society, but I have not
spoken of the consequence that is most noted in my case, the mutilation of
our bodies and how we can keep fi ghting in spite of this. If I am to speak of
healing and how the mutilation of our bodies becomes like a cross that one
must carry for life, I believe that it is important to point out that each case
is particular, having its windows and own diffi culties. But I suppose that in
the fi nal count there are enough similarities. At fi rst you are discouraged, it
is like a cataclysm that dusted your life away and all beautiful feelings fi nd
themselves under the rubble of mutilation, desires that what happened
to you had only been a bad dream that you will soon wake up from, you
become obstinate toward the obvious, this could not have happened to
you, there must be an explanation, but the only explanation is the one the
mirror gives you, the days pass, you get depressed, you think that you will
never get past it, you need to ask for help for some basic tasks and this
causes you an uncomfortable humiliation, you become hateful and this new
situation frustrates you, the people who try to encourage you notice your
resignation, life like this does not make sense, but they apply themselves to
support you in spite of your mood, you are irritated, you don’t want to do
exercises or rehabilitate yourself, you want to send everything to the shit,
16
take your life away, this seems to be an option, but you are afraid that in the
attempt you will end up worse off, you are confused, you cry in the nights
of solitude and you make yourself like a wild beast in front of others, you
are wounded you know, but you have to heal your heart to be able to start
to recover. If you manage to make it this far, you have taken a step forward
in the path toward victory, your victory, because this is a battle, now you
should arm yourself with patience, frustration is just around the corner,
one, two, three, one hundred falls, nobody said it would be easy, but look
at yourself, you don’t do it very well, but you do it, and alone, without
help, a pat on the back, the rest is practice they tell you, if you could do it
once, you can do it again, you look around you, physically you are alone,
and you accomplish it: you smile. How long has it been since you smiled?
You don’t need to show it to anyone, you have shown it to yourself, you
are a warrior giving one of your best fi ghts, you resign yourself not to die,
this is for the brave, a few more stumbles, ridicule from the usual suspects,
reality takes care of putting you on the uphill, you lay it on yourself, it is
diffi cult, but you already did not renounce yourself, that is a fact, you look
back, you’ve come a long way to collapse here, now you have reasons to
continue, you cannot fail all of them, the who you love and who want to
see you happy, but above all, you cannot fail yourself, you told yourself this
once when things were diffi cult, you are a warrior for life, and you clench
your teeth against the shame, sometimes you say horrible things, you are
implacable in front of yourself, other times you feel the proudest in the
world, you did not fall in spite of everything, the days move forward, you
start to take in the ritual of all this, you no longer turn sour before your
refl ection, you begin to accept it, you learn things that are new for this
context, but not so new for life itself, you relearn to learn, things now are
seen in a different nuance and one afternoon with the sun still as company
you set the ultimatum, if I do not remake my life by this date then I will
not go on with this madness…
Finally you persist, you manage to get past it, that date arrives when you
have to make the evaluation of your performance and the smile on your
face reveals that you have passed the text with success and excellence, then
you do not feel disabled nor incapacitated, nor anything, you are another
warrior, ready to face anything.
As for what concerns my case in particular, I suppose that what
happened to me was what happens in the majority of serious accidents,
I wanted to seek a rapid and simple solution (death), but some provoked
me, some very rudely, at least they tried to, and so, clinging to solidarity
17
I kept on until the recovery began to give its fi rst results, now with this
background I got it into my head that I could get myself up out of this fall,
I remember that the stubbornness and obstinacy played much in my favor,
since there were people who did not give a shit about my recovery (including
medical specialists), but in the end I would make the best judgment myself,
it would only a question of time, I also remember that I went through
many embarrassments that I would prefer not to disclose hahaha, and
these happened because I went against time in my recovery, I tried to do/
practice everything, even without having rehearsed things, and I say that
I went against time because I wanted to go into the prison as recovered
as possible, I did not want to even think of a prison guard assisting me, I
luckily that never happened. After going into the prison on November 22
with a tight stomach and high morale, I prepared to take advantage of this
new situation of total confi nement to fi nish with rehabilitating completely,
and there was no lack of times when they ridiculed me for my physical
condition, but in the face of these situations I bit my tongue and thought
that sooner or later they would regret their jokes, because I knew better
than anyone that they were spitting at the sky, soon I would be totally
recovered and they would not dare to speak to me that way; the time passed,
I took my time, I went as slow as a turtle, I exercised every day without a
break, whether it was cold or hot, I was disciplined with myself, and it was
a question of practice, patience and perseverance (the 3 “P”s like I told you)
to fi nd myself totally recovered, and well, here I am, look at me one year
after the bombing that almost killed me. Who said that I would bite the
mud of humiliation forever? Who said that I would be defeated for the rest
of my life? Who said that the struggle does not make us great? If my ideas
can bring me to lose my life, they can also bring me to recover it, that was
always my gamble, and so I have thrown myself with all my strength into
the fi ght, because I recognize in it the greatness to break the chains, and
it is a matter of observing me in the everyday to confi rm this assertion, if
with telling you that I can even thread a needle, like this, as I am, with 8
of the 10 fi ngers of my hands, I can tie my shoelaces, cook, wash, make
nice origami cubes and if it pleases me I can even carry out all the tasks
that I did before, clearly, the only small difference is that it takes me a little
longer, but that is such a small detail, so insignifi cant if you compare with
how close I was to death, with what passed over, because after everything
I always knew it, for revolutionaries impossibilities do not exist, and my
splendid recovery is proof of that.
18
What matters is to never lose the spirit of struggle, not ever, it does
not matter how terrible things look, but while your mind and your heart
do not betray you the rest becomes mere detail, our bodies can weaken, it
is true, but what makes us great has nothing to do with fl esh and bones,
what turns us into giants are our convictions, our spirit of knowing that
we do what is correct.
Now, I write these lines not only to warn of the awful consequences
that revolutionary struggle can bring with it, I also do it to contribute in
the creation of new and not so new methods for confronting the diffi cult
journeys that we can carry our decisions along. And And it is that on this
occasion I can contribute with some examples, through which I encourage
other comrades to share their experiences, since the possibilities of struggle
are infi nite, madness, rape, exile, mutilation, victory, torture, clandestinity,
laughter, imprisonment, pain, betrayal, amnesia, dependency, beatings,
humiliation, death, all of these, none, others, and so many more, and how
many of the warriors in the street today who fi ght against power and its
designs know this? That is, how prepared are we to assume the costs of
the social war if we do not know these kinds of things? Can we speak of
not repenting without having all this in consideration? Do we understand
the signifi cance of prison? What it brings with it? Or do we comprehend
what it carries when a comrade is mad? How far do we understand the
consequences of declaring ourselves enemies of the State/Capital?
In a struggle against the system in its totality, we have everything to
lose, and do we accept these conditions before we embark on the search
for our dreams? I am of the idea of knowing what one is involved in, so
as to also know to abide by the consequences, assuming them and coming
out gracefully through them, because otherwise what happens is what a
dear and close compañera warned of: we turn ourselves into the worst
propaganda of struggle.
If we think carefully, it should not surprise us that many comrades of
before have chosen self-exile as a response to some of these consequences,
and it really very diffi cult to continue the fi ght in an area where through
the media and socially the system cries for your annihilation, in the end
how can one confront the system when it is obsessed with confronting you,
having you individualized, located and pointed out? Now, I believe that if
it is indeed true that the exile of before served to hide behind the comfort
of a normal life, far from the criminalization of revolutionary ideas, today,
and with the validity of the proposal of the comrades of the Conspiracy of
Cells of Fire, of arming an International Revolutionary Front, it remains
19
clear that it does not matter whether we fi nd ourselves prisoners, exiles in
another region, or clandestine on another continent, the struggle is only one
and it surpasses the barriers of nations and borders, because independently
of the language we speak or the idiosyncrasies that differentiate us, the
struggle continues to be against structures of power, against the values of
authority and against the logic of exploitation and domination, bonding us
in this way with each and every one of the warriors who fi ght for the same
objective as ourselves: freedom. I recognize myself in the internationalist
struggle, since I know fi rst-hand its excellent results, which is why I take
advantage of this instance to unite myself to the proposal of the comrades
in Greece, embracing the initiative of the FAI/FRI as a project that appeals
to the same criteria as I, hoping that this communique can be a true and
real contribution, above all for the comrades who live in situations similar
to mine and/or to those who in an unwanted future will have to pass
through this.
If I am to make a balance of all this, one year after the bombing that
almost cost me my life, my result is positive, very positive, and I will not
deny that things were diffi cult, because there were days dark as the depths
of the sea, when everything was crumbling around me, my life as I had
constructed it went to shit, but this helped me, with the pain caused, to
learn that all this I had built I had not made suffi ciently solidly as to
endure the praxis of my discourse, if family, friends, comrades and lovers
took off fl ying away from my side, to speak much more profoundly than
just physically, to see myself in this situation where many thought that it
would be better for me to just sink alone before I would take more people
down with me, since they believe that I would never get back up from
this, if all these people underestimated me because in their smallness they
thought that they themselves wouldn’t be able to stand such a fall as mine,
today they are not at my side, it is only for their mediocrity, because know
this: I do not lack the affection to forgive them, after everything, not one
of us was prepared for this. But for all the rudeness of my words and life,
there was no lack of gestures of love and absolute dedication, making me
know that in spite of everything they were with me, in the good and in
the bad, until the end, reaffi rming bonds already forged, perhaps only with
incredulous gazes of companionship, with one or another conversation
walking around the block, sharing a snack or fraternally criticizing each
other on the bench of a plaza.
Power wanted me out of the fi ght, they wanted to suspend me eternally
in June 1st 2011, and they even try to do it today, it is something to observe
20
why I am known and where I fi nd myself, but for me none of this is over,
I will continue, I will get up, I will show my claws again and I will keep
fi ghting, confronting the enemy constantly, as in my best times, because
I am not a warrior who must be remembered with longing, I am another
companion, another one of the pack, only in the bowels of the prison beast,
all that differentiates me from the companions in the street is the situation
that we face, but if you are able to risk your freedom and even life in the
struggle that bonds us, why should it be different for me? One year after
the failed attack on the Santander bank branch, I have raised myself with
ferocity, I won, even though I sit on the bench of the accused, because I
knew to take the reigns of my life with my own hands, I triumphed in the
face of the life of commerce that they want to impose on us and in the face
of death as the only exit, but this victory is not only mine, what arrogance
it would be on my part to believe so, because if it were not for the bold
comrades who dared to send me their encouragement and care, know this
for certain that today I would not be writing these lines, and so, we, the
combatants of the new urban guerrilla, are their defeat.
To all those beautiful people who understand that the social war is
much more than bombs, bullets and benzine, and who know that solidarity
is much more than a hobby to invest your free time in, to all those who
cannot pacify their dreaming while they know that one of their own is
suffering, to those who if they did not have the free time kept looking for
it, skipping work or class because they know that it depended on them to
raise a comrade’s morale, to all those who took on the fun and exciting
adventure of conquering freedom, to the comrades of the FAI/FRI, to
my dear friend Reyhard Rumbayan (Eat), who with his noble gestures has
brought me strength when I was weak, to all those absolved of the bombs
case frame-up, whose freedom meant a smile for me when it seemed it would
be a torment, to the comrades of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, who with
their dignity motivate me to continue fi ghting, to Gabriel Pombo da Silva,
Marco Camenisch, and to all the comrades investigated and arrested in
the repressive raid against the anarchist movement in Italy, to Mauri who
taught me that a wolf clenches his jaw even after death, to the autonomous
collectives who attack with decisiveness, to the companions who are
clandestine, exiled or hostage, to the brave solidarians, to the conscious
rebels, to all of you I dedicate these lines, I send you a warm embrace and I
owe you the determination of keeping me alive, because you have to know,
you were oxygen when there was none.
21
Because when you shouted “strength compañero“ I felt stronger than
ever! Because neither prison nor agony nor death will detain us!
Long live the International Revolutionary Front!
Long live the Informal Anarchist Federation!
Death to the State!
The struggle continues!
Toward victory, always!
Luciano Pitronello Sch. Insurrectionalist Political Prisoner.
II. Letters from the Lovers & Friends of Tortuga
23
A letter, a drawing and a song for Tortuga
February 22, 2012
Today I write from indomitable moorings, referring not necessarily
to the physical and temporal place in which I fi nd myself, but rather to
places inside of me that intimately connect with someone else, in a space
where despite the distance you feel another living being palpating so close,
as if they breathe in your ear, so much so that the allusion to their image
becomes sensation, conscience and action, in subtle aspects that put me in
confl ict with the “reality” that I cohabit with my dear companions, aspects
that shelter me and inspire me in all the possible and beautiful forms.
From these moorings of active memory and living magic, it is primitive
and peculiar that I with my little cub give you a tiny bit of our experience
with you, materialized in letter and drawing. By experience, I do not only
refer to the distorted image that the cathode rays or the ink show of you,
but to the conjunction of perspectives and circumstances that surround
you: to the persons who watch over you and keep you alive in word and in
action, crossing all languages and realities, imitating the volcanoes of the
Pacifi c Ring of Fire, emanating ardent magma through all the places where
your name has been raised and your integrity uplifted, and of the rest who
hoist the words of the unshakable ones… to those who have esteemed and
embraced your sensibility. Also, it is the immense standardized majority
who seek to justify their unbearable normality by using the spectacular
image that the Department of Newspeak–in the Orwellian sense–has
convened to create around you, an image demanded and projected at the
command of those who use and enjoy the system and the collective misery
of the techno-productive society that we have arrived at. And as we say, we of
your pack, your friends and lovers, we would like to embrace you, to lick the
beautiful marks of your daring, your little raccoon eyes and play with your
curls, which my little one says make you look like the little prince Antoine
Saint-Exupery and with a smile I say that you are his distant cousin, and
that you probably have more than one thing in common. We also send
strength to those who maintain your space of information in particular,
and the rest of the spaces in which we are able to interact — I hope you
may know the fundamental and invaluable role that you have been playing!
— you have known to keep our sisters and brothers free! because there is
24
no defeat worse than forgetting, regret, letting fear bury us in inaction, in
guarding oneself and hoping the danger passes, my experience tells me that
they end by guarding themselves forever and awaiting with regret (such
good Christians) the sentences of our “poor comrades,” because if it’s this
way, we give to power what it has always sought: the ability to manage our
freedom in all its dimensions: physical, mental and spiritual, and for that,
as I see it, there is nothing to speak about. Because, Luciano, I feel myself a
prisoner when I see the images of the prison, when I see the feasting of the
beasts around you, when I see the acceptance and even the glorifi cation of
the prison-work, because you within the dungeons remind me that a great
part of me is also prisoner and conditioned, and so I see this work that
your brothers/sisters do as important: They keep you outside, in active
memory, not in that pitiful and passive memory of adjusting to reality,
of embracing hope in institutions; we do not want that reductionist and
conformist memory, nor do we need it, leading the regret that some persons
publicly show for your situation. Also we would like to embrace those who
are able to question (themselves) deeply and radically, from the inside to
the outside, the circumstances that have touched us to share.
With this idea of maintaining communication and interaction in order
to break with the isolation, I want to respond to a couple of ideas that
Luciano has put forward in his communiques:
“Power’s ambition with my trial is for the señora of the house to tell
her little rebel that this is how idealists meet their end, those who dare
to dream, to even think, that it begins with the rebellion proper to youth
and if it goes unchecked it can end in terrifying consequences–to justify by
means of my example the prison system, the repression for the “good of
our children and the future.”
For those of us who’ve had the opportunity of sharing constantly with
children, through sharing in an upbringing or directly by being fathers or
mothers, we see the means of standardized uniformation of our little ones
with their values in schools, nurseries, and very strongly in their spaces
of “leisure,” invading their bodies and minds with specifi c structures of
language and technocratic rationality, rejecting all the other approximations
of reality that some cultures know well: intuition, sensations, perception of
touch and smell…–instinct in its wild state–many times embracing silence
before one’s words; with this I do not mean to deny language as a medium,
but rather to understand it as one possibility among others, and clearly
with many limitations.
25
As for the making an example that Luciano speaks of, it only remains
for me to mention that my little sprout knows about you, knows your story
through a tale full of lessons and characters, knows about the “wild turtles,”
knows that to embrace certain bodies of light, even if only for milliseconds,
can be infi nitely more pleasurable than to embrace normality for eternity,
knows about adventure, wild joy and of course also the risks, risks that
are taken on without fear, with love and in freedom. This is my way of
breaking the silence, by seeking to share with a wild child the situations
and characters that can appear in one’s step from these moorings. It seems
to me a good way of not falling into things that seem so harmful for little
kids, like “formation” and alienation, the lifting up of heroes, martyrs or
images to follow. But it has happened that s/he already found out that one
of the characters from the stories has a correlation in reality, and to this I
responded with a complicit smile and from that came this gesture, magical
in itself, like the exquisite moments between Miguel of Unamuno and his
characters. I also feel (and then think) that I am not interested in forming
the child in your or my ideas or practices, nor anyone’s, but rather creating
developing his/her instinct and intuition, feeling and thinking, and if some
day our peculiarities channel us toward the same sea, I will embrace her/
him with the complicity and wild joy of those who meet on paths with
no turning back.
As this poem says: I have embraced eroticism and rejected pornography,
I have embraced the day and the not-waiting, incinerated the commercial representation of life and the religious notion of hope and deferral–
Making myself a lover of life and not of the opportunities of life, loving the here and the now, not the somewhere else or later. Because from now I have decided
to enjoy my life and that of others as the spontaneous combustion of millions of leaves guided by the winds of pleasure, as the dead feed the earth and the earth
feeds life…
I would end by crying out and demanding your freedom, but that would
be too proud and naive, because I know that you will never allow them
to take it from you, at least not in its most essential forms. That freedom,
as someone said, is like a call, a spirit… and that, my brother, you have
already snatched from society. And I also know that the rest of those who
are in this somewhat more ample prison will not allow you to ever feel
alone. You will feel our love, do not doubt that my dear friend, in all
26
the uncountable gestures that will come and which are already gestating
and materializing, for the liberation of your earthly body and that of all
living beings subjugated and domesticated by civilization, especially in the
prisons. The spontaneous action of those who do not wait for the objective
and subjective conditions of those who speak of them so much, will be
gestating exponentially, as you say it well, with solidarity as the fi rst link in
a domino effect, like the potenciating effect that chaos theory teaches us:
“the fl uttering of a butterfl y’s wings can change the entire conditions of
life.” Action that surges and will surge from the same instinct and intuition,
from the call of Miyazaki’s “Spirit of the forest” and Morales’ “Rayencita
and its Spirit of the River.”
Finally, remember that the letters, drawings, responses and any type of
interaction with brothers/sisters is much more than a symbolic gesture, it
is a real and direct action that snatches the clutches of isolation and solitude
from our brothers/sisters, because power is going to think about memory
and active action, twice, three times, or a thousand times before it holds
the indomitables in the Dantesque dungeons, as a result of this beautiful
effect called solidarity, which expands chaotically like the roots of the trees
silently destroying plumbing and bringing down buildings.
I would like to share songs with you, and I hope that we will some day,
me on my guitar and the little one on the xylophone, while we kiss your
eyes, caressing your face and playing with your little curls, we will tuck you
in and put you to sleep with them under the stars…
after a beautiful day delighting in the nothing…
after a beautiful day of having enjoyed the fruits of the garden of
peculiarities.
For now I leave you the written form of a song on the little drawing that
we are sending you, and typed below in case you can’t read my handwriting.
A wild child and another who seeks to return to these.
27
f
They have cornered you, dear heart, they await your disavowal,the only defeated, dear heart, are the ones who do not fi ght
Do not surrender, free heart, do not surrenderdo not let them, dear heart, extinguish your joy,
mend with a dream, dear heart, your badly-wounded wingsDo not surrender, free heart, do not surrender,
And remember, dear heart, borderless youth,the touch of life, dear heart, the fl esh of springtime,
Do not surrender, free heart, do not surrenderthey are mistaken, dear heart, with fragile chains,
more wind than roots, dear heart, destroy them and fl yDo not surrender, free heart, do not surrender
Do not hear them, dear heart, nor let their voices overwhelm you,you will be complicit and slave, dear heart, if you heed them.
Forward, dear heart, without fear of defeat,to endure is not to live, dear heart, to live is something else.
f
28
III. Solidarity
29
Olympia, WA: Attack on Washington Loggers’ Association building; International call for libratory earth violence
On the night of June 11th in the sleepy town of Olympia, WA, we laid
waste to the Washington State Loggers’ Association building, breaking
out all 24 of their windows and leaving the painted message “YOU ARE
NEVER SAFE. GO LOG IN HELL (A).”
Roughly a decade after the fervent period of Earth Liberation activity
that occurred in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, we fi nd ourselves in a far
more hopeless situation, immersed in an ever-deepening desert.
Some cling to the idea of hope and others view this as nothing more than
a deceitful delusion. Neither narrative concerns us. What truly concerns
us is that the living world around us is dying, and that the strength of our
heart atrophies through inaction.
How many of us feel disgust being embedded in a concrete jungle, a
suburban wasteland, an ocean of meaninglessness?
How many of us mourn the yawning devastation of a clearcut?
While smashing out two dozen windows was only a humble act of
revenge in the face of the wholesale destruction of wild life, comrades, let
us cease to be eaten up inside by our unactualized rage!
This is an international call to wage war on all those who profi t from
the rape of the earth.
We greatly embrace and encourage those whose seeds of ferocious
intentions have lain dormant thus far to burst forth and raze the cities to the
ground. Those cities depend on an empire, a civilization that depends on
the ensnarement and suppression of a wild world of meaning and beauty.
“For every action there is a reaction. So as civilization abuses and
mistreats fi re, fi re will abuse civilization. Throughout modern history cities
have burned – Rome burned. The civilized order will come to know the
true purifying power of fi re soon enough. Like wildfi res whipping through
forests clearing out all the dead wood, making room for new growth to
emerge. Civilization will perish in a fi restorm, clearing the way for like to
sprout and grow unmolested.”
This was done in solidarity with Marie Mason and Eric McDavid,
Luciano “Tortuga,” the Kimki Forest Defenders, all ELF and ALF
30
prisoners and fi ghters, the Individuals Tending Towards the Wild, the
still imprisoned Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber), and all those who acted in
vengeance, in defi ance, and who got away.
May you forever run free.
FOR THE TERRIFYING FREEDOM!
LONG LIVE ALL EARTH WARRIORS!
f
Peru: Visual propagada for Mauri, Tortuga and the prisoners
June 13, 2012
“…And my song is not the song of mourning and my song is not the song of protest, this song that I sing is a song of combat;And this song of the street is a song of struggle that is sung in this land, and this song is a song of war.”
- Mauricio Morales.Somewhat belatedly, or for us not since there is no date to remember
Mauri and all the fallen warriors who kept themselves in the rejection and
permanent combat with this system of exploitation; we act in solidarity
with those who go on the offensive in accordance with their convictions,
and today fi nd themselves imprisoned, held hostage by power.
In the early hours of Sunday the 11th, taking advantage of the night’s
complicity and the spontaneity of our actions. We show our remembrance
of the comrade Mauricio Morales and our solidarity with the comrade
Tortuga who continues resisting the repression of the $hilean state and the
media spectacle that the bourgeois press wielded against him.
the banner reads: "A warrior fallen in combat is an eternal call to fi ght"Using memory as a weapon.
Multiplying anti-authoritarian propaganda.
31
Reproducing the gestures of solidarity with David Lamarte, Carla
Verdugo, Ivan Silva, Luciano Pitronello, the prisoners of the Security Case,
and all the prisoners of the world!
Freedom to the comrades taken hostage in Bolivia!
International Revolutionary Front – Informal Anarchist Federation
Cell of Iconoclastic ActionIn total rejection of the conditioning of our lives.
f
Chile: Solidarity graffi ti one year since Tortuga’s accident
June 7, 2012One year since the accident that still wrenches our chests, we went into
the streets to spread the name of our brother and with a minimal gesture
among many gestures, to again act in solidarity with the comrade Luciano
Pitronello.
For the multiplication of propaganda, attack and every form of offensive
agitation and diffusion against capital!
Freedom to the comrades held hostage in Bolivia!
Freedom to Carla Verdugo, Iván Silva, Luciano Pitronello, the compas
of the Security Case, David Lamarte and all the prisoners of the world!
Osvaldo Solís Soto Cell / FAI – FRI
f
32
Argentina: Claim of responsibility for bomb threat against Falabella branch
May 31, 2012
By means of this communique we claim responsibility for the bomb
threat made on May 22nd to a branch of the $hilean business Falabella
located within the disgusting center of mass consumption.
With this action we remember our brother Mauricio Morales, since we
do not cry for our dead nor make monuments to them, instead they live in
the fl ames of revolt, in each attack against the established order.
We also take this opportunity to send a fraternal-revolutionary greeting
to all the prisoners of the $hilean state: To the compas of the Security
Case, Marcel Villarroel, Freddy Fuentevilla and Juan Aliste. Embraces for
Carla and Ivan and much strength for Tortuga and for all those who are
in insurgent clandestinity.
Tremble, executioners! We will not let you sleep even a second! We will
be your nightmares! It will not always be a false alarm… you know this
very well.
Fire to the State!
Ensuring day after day that Anarchy lives!
Some Savages for Generalized Disorder / FAI
f
Ecuador: Bruno Fillipi Cell of Iconoclastic Individuals of FAI/IRF attacks Coca Cola bottling industry
May 23, 2012 I’d like to lay down in a soft bed, fragranced with roses…
“Watch out for thorns,” they tell me.
And what do I care? Given that thorns are not lacking in life,
I prefer those of roses that give so much joy along with the pain.
33
Today, Tuesday May 22nd 2012, at 3:00 AM we placed an explosive
device which contained 3 sticks of dynamite in the electric energy source of
one of the primary vertebrae of the capitalist system: the bottling industry
of “Coca-Cola” located on Av. Juan Tanca Marengo Km 4.5 in the city of
Guayaquil.
We have heard it and read it, that phrase resonating every time greater
in our heads, and in this opportunity as in the future ones, we neither
image nor want nor could remain paralyzed: This time upright, proud and
dignifi ed we furiously add our cry to the unison of the indomitable spirits:
“NO WARRIOR IS ALONE.”
That no warrior is alone, that solidarity between anarchists is more than
a written word, that memory is never lost!, we go due to the same sense
that those words draw out in us, because it is the voice of our brothers
and sisters who call to us, it is the blood that demands to be liberated, that
ferociously shouts and wildly revenges, and again we cannot nor want to
be deaf to that voice.
Since 2009, May 22 will never be a normal day, it cannot be a normal
day for those who declare themselves in permanent war on the system,
it will never be a normal day for those who feel close to one who gave
expression to his life with the same attack, to the indomitable contradiction:
to MAURICIO MORALES DUARTE, Punki Mauri; who — like each
one of those who delve into the attacks against power — knew the fate
that is latent in this, here there are only two certain ways: “DEATH OR
PRISON.” And he took it on as such, as the inevitable, without lowering
the gaze, without doubt, without casting lots. In the same way that we
carry the whole soul tattooed in our principles.
Beautiful and voracious is the way of this war, beautiful and voracious
in all its branches and in all its tactics, inaccessible to the bland in spirit and
idea. For them only remains the “elite critique,” the university reasoning,
the non-life of citizenry, the work with the enemy.
There are certain individuals or cells who loudly proclaim: “we do not
need dates,” “we are the negation of sense” or etc. Well who cares, regardless
of whether one believes each cell or individual, we do not remain calm on
this and other days when our brothers and sisters have fallen, when the
powder, the dynamite, the anfo, the books and bullets do not suffi ce us,
because they are part of us and because at the time we are all part of a legacy
of indomitable and implacable spirits who decisively confront authority.
On this occasion we also want to greet the compas of the CCF; Eat and
Billy; Rami Syrianos; compa Tortuga and the compas in Chile; the cells
34
that don’t give up in Chile, Greece, Bolivia, Peru and Italy; the prisoners
everywhere and those who have gone into clandestinity, strength for all
of you!
Punki Mauri, your desire for freedom is a bomb that is contagious!
We walk in the night
with a sun in our minds
and with two great stars of gold
at our burning eyes
Bruno Fillipi Cell of Iconoclastic IndividualsVery proud members of the FAI-FRI
f
Milwaukee, WI: Two banks attacked in solidarity with Tortuga
May 14, 2012 3 windows at the downtown M&I bank and 2 Windows at chase bank
in downtown, smashed in solidarity with Luciano Tortuga.
To our little turtle,
We take strength knowing you have reclaimed silence from the state,
and hope that our news reaches you in good spirit. It is too long that our
city sits in the stasis of melancholy. Some of us have lost our taste for the
hipster comforts, and others can no longer drown themselves in carlo rossi.
Our coping mechanisms no longer satisfy our taste for nothingness. we
risk our comfort for you. Our love with struggle stretches beyond space
and time little one.
Recover soon,
Network of Wisconsin Snapper Turtles.
35
Chile: Explosive device placed in police mausoleum in Temuco
May 3, 2012
WE FUCK ON YOUR DEATHS, FUCKING COPS
In the early hours of Tuesday May fi rst at around 4 AM we left an
explosive package between the wall of Carrera St and the police pantheon
in the Temuco cemetery located on Balmaceda St.
A fi re extinguisher with close to 400 grams of gunpowder and two cans
of propane gas was set by a watch mechanism so that it would activate some
minutes after being left, at around 4:30 AM since at this time the traffi c of
persons is low, and it was thought no one would end up hurt.
Apparently something failed and the package did not activate. It is still
there.
Because no prisoner is forgotten, nor will we stop.
Marcelo Villarroel, Fredy Fuentevilla, Juan Aliste, Luciano, Carla
Verdugo, Iván Silva, Mauricio Hernandez Norambuena. Prisoners at war
of the world TO THE STREET!!!
DOWN WITH THE LAW
LONG LIVE FREEDOM
DESTRUCTIVE LUMPEN
f
Argentina: Claim for arson attacks on luxury vehicles
April 24, 2012 On April 14 at 3 PM, we left an incendiary device made of gasoline and
a retardant fuse that burned two luxury cars in Luis Vile and Cucha Cucha.
We continue giving fi re in the city of Buenos Aires, as we said we would,
after the social alarm that intends to make every citizen into a police hero
“at the service of the community.”
36
Today civilization is coming to be a society of control of sustainable
production. This means an adjustment of the screws that impose order
through force.
The police service promises to spread in society; our free and wild
instinct goes on the march at the same moment as well.
They cannot stop us, we do not fi ght so that the Earth will have its
freedom and nothing more, nor to improve our conditions in life.
We use money for the destruction of their materialization.
To comrade Tortuga imprisoned in Chile.
To comrade Billy imprisoned Indonesia.
To comrade Luca seriously wounded in Italy.
Health!
Friends of the Earth – FAI
f
Chile: Communique on the aftermath of the Banco Chile arson
April 17, 2012Comrades, we decided to write in response to a degree of uncertainty
we’ve noticed that expanded word-of-mouth following our last attack (on
March 20th, 2012) on a bank branch in Chillán, $hile, where we happily
turned a large part of the bank to ashes; we cannot forget to mention
that this was part of the day of solidarity with our brother Luciano
Pitronello, but we know what intrigued was the news that circulated in
the local mercenary Press, in which echoed how individuals of our cell were
reportedly injured in that action.
We don’t deny it happened, but to appease those anonymous in other
parts of the territory, pervaded by anguish and doubt: the comrades have
already recovered and learned from the particular act not to not repeat the
action, but to take precautions, since at the time the hatred and the decision
failed to complement the planning.
37
We now look forward to more experience of war, with our hearts
swollen like a stone calling upon the anarchic and wild fi re, which will
soon be spread as a bad weed throughout the civilization that gives life to
structures and authoritarians of Chillán and the world.
Freedom to Tortuga, Freddy, Marcelo, Juan
and the recently abductees Ivan Silva and Carla Verdugo!
Fire to authority and its prisons!
The words are nothing, action is everything!
We are everywhere, we will communicate soon!
From some place in the $hilean region
Informal Anarchist Federation / Efraín Plaza Olmedo Incendiary Cell
f
Mexico: Claim of responsibility for incendiary attack on ASE patrol
April 16, 2012
“Let us therefore trust the eternal Spirit which destroys and annihilates
only because it is the unfathomable and eternal source of all life. The
passion for destruction is a creative passion, too!”
M. BakuninLast night we went out to the streets with the clear intention of violating
their social peace, of breaking the order constituted by passivity, conformism
and the ambition for power of society’s fort. At around 11:30 PM we placed
two incendiary devices with retardant on a patrol car of the State Security
Agency (ASE) that we found parked in front of the command located in
the Juan Escutia neighborhood around Texcoco Av at the boundaries of
Netzahualcóyotl City and the Federal District [Mexico City]. In the area
we also left a graffi ti vindicating the FAI!
38
We attack with fi re the properties of the security forces of the State/
Capital just as we would attack with shootings and bombings those minions
of power. The confl ict against authority is also in the peripheral barrios of
the city, we do not pretend to take off the system’s head with an action,
this is the daily war for freedom and individual vindication. May they burn
wherever they are found! in Polanco or Santa Fe, in Netzahualcóyotl City or
Ecatapec! May the whole world destroy their own oppressions and set the
city on fi re! The confl ict is in the streets and comes along with incendiary
discourses which incite the breaking with the chains of thought and action
that incite, give, and impose pacifi sm and non-violence!
Solidarity with the compañero Tortuga!
Solidarity with Gabriel Pombo Da Silva!
Solidarity with Braulio Duran!
Solidarity with the compas recently repressed in Italy!
Against the police: incendiary attacks every day!
Against the State/Capital: Social war on all fronts!
Long live anarchy!
Cell for the Violent and Immoderate Attack against Power /
Informal Anarchist Federation
f
39
Paint Bomb Attack on Royal Bank of Canada (RBC): Guelph, ON, Kanada
Around March 15th, 2012 we paid a visit to the Willow West RBC
branch and attacked both drive-thru ATMs with paint bombs. We have
nothing but contempt for these capitalist institutions that uphold and
perpetuate the forced conditions and misery of this society. Let us not
forget, (nor forgive!) that it is largely the banks that act as fi nancial advisors
as well directly fi nance the State's projects and systems of social control.
For example, RBC currently has its' greasy paws in the Toronto South
Detention Centre in Mimico, ON acting as the fi nancial advisor to ITS
(EllisDon & Fengate Capital) who are constructing the prison.
This small gesture of revolt is dedicated to all of the G20 prisoners/
defendants & to ALL of the imprisoned international anti-authoritarians
- especially the dignifi ed Luciano "Tortuga" Pitronello.
Solidarity is our strength!
In Resistance to State & Capital!
Revolutionary Anarchists
f
Solidarity poster, and invitation to international week in support of Luciano
March 6, 2012If anyone is interested in making propaganda, please make it and send it.
And not only with Tortuga, there are the kids of the Security Case, Mono
and the other imprisoned kids of the street struggle, the kids of the 14A
Bombs Case, and Diego and Gabi.
We invite you to during the week in which the trial is prepared against
Luciano [the week of March 20], to make an international week in moral
support of our cub. We will receive notices for activities during that week.
To furiously roar for Luciano’s freedom.
We want you here and now, free and wild.
40
Peru: Solidarity action with Tortuga and the Security Case prisoners
March 30, 2012 “If the objective is to destroy domination, silence and forgetting, any
solidarity act that does not compromise with power is valid and necessary.”
Last Thursday. Using a tire and one of the area’s guard shacks, we
decided to take it as an item to blockade the street, and dousing it with liters
of gasoline, we set fi re and threw leafl ets in solidarity with the insurgent
comrade Tortuga, who is imprisoned for directly attacking the elements
of capital, risking his very life.
And even though his legal hearing was postponed, the insurgent cells
are not going to remain with our arms crossed and will continue spreading
solidarity action by means of attacks against power until seeing you wild
and free.
STRENGTH, COMRADE TORTUGA!
FREEDOM TO THE PRISONERS OF THE SECURITY CASE!
END TO THE BOMBS CASE FRAME-UP!
* We wish to make a clarifi cation with respect to Walter Bond (now
Abdul Haqq), for what was spread by some blogs (such as Culmine), that
our actions have a religious bias that they have maybe even shown us as
some religious radicals.
We do not show a position partial to any religious sect, because as
anti-authoritarians, we reject religion as such. The solidarity act in which
Walter Bond was mentioned was for someone who in that moment was
for us a solitary warrior of the ALF, who carried the ideas and actions of
the insurgent vision and not from the religious view that he now carries.
On the other hand, the solidarity shown came from another date, a date
on which he had not yet changed posture.
Receive our greetings.
Informal Anarchist Federation / International Revolutionary Front
Group of Revolutionary Cells of Informal Organization Cell of Iconoclastic-Insurrectional Action
f
41
Guelph, ON: Communique for attack on RBC bank branch
March 27, 2012 Around March 15th, 2012 we paid a visit to the Willow West RBC
branch and attacked both drive-thru ATMs with paint bombs. We have
nothing but contempt for these capitalist institutions that uphold and
perpetuate the forced conditions and misery of this society. Let us not
forget, (nor forgive!) that it is largely the banks that act as fi nancial advisors
as well directly fi nance the State’s projects and systems of social control.
For example, RBC currently has its’ greasy paws in the Toronto South
Detention Centre in Mimico, ON acting as the fi nancial advisor to ITS
(EllisDon & Fengate Capital) who are constructing the prison.
This small gesture of revolt is dedicated to all of the G20 prisoners/
defendants & to ALL of the imprisoned international anti-authoritarians
– especially the dignifi ed Luciano “Tortuga” Pitronello.
Solidarity is our strength!
In Resistance to State & Capital!
Revolutionary Anarchists
f
Chile: Noise bomb against the Center for Social Reinsertion in Puerto Montt
March 25, 2012On the night of Wednesday, March 21 in the city of Puerto Montt,
a noise device was installed in the Center for Social Reinsertion (CRS),
Special Unit of Gendarmería of $hile, and two slogans were left on the
walls: DOWN WITH THE PRISON WALLS / LUCIANO TORTUGA
TO THE STREET!
With this minimal gesture we wanted to disrupt the tranquility of the
gendarmes who were there at the time, as well as act in solidarity with the
comrade Luciano, who hopefully by means of this greeting feels the sound
of propaganda and action.
42
With this we also want to make a call to extend the bonds of affi nity
between those who do not conform themselves with the imposed normality,
bringing their will to the street, solidarity to practice and discourse to
action.
For the concretion of agitation against power in all its forms and from
all territories dominated by the States of the world!
STRENGTH TO THOSE PERSECUTED BY POWER AND
AUTHORITY!!!
LUCIANO PITRONELLO: TO THE STREET, COMRADE!!!
MAURICIO MORALES PRESENTE!!!
f
Chile: Claim of responsibility for incendiary attack against Banco de Chile in Chillán
March 22, 2012 In the early hours of this March 20, the date set for the hearing of our
brother Luciano Pitronello, we directed ourselves with hatred and rage
toward a Banco de Chile branch located on Av. Collin (Chillán), coming
there loaded with fl ammable material, two minutes were suffi cient for our
anarchic and wild fi re to illuminate the night.
The economic losses were surely in the millions, and right now the
ridiculous police must be pathetically searching for evidence, but we here
very close and very far away are laughing at how easily our fi re destroyed
the symbol of domination, of exploitation, of misery and inequality in
the world.
May this attack be a threat and a warning of the many that remain to be
executed; our fi re will continue to spread to any structure that gives life to
this authoritarian and oppressive system, and we will not delay in seeing
burn any individual who exercises disgusting authority or their lackeys,
who are the cops and rats–if anyone is going to die, it will be you. And let
it be clear that this attack is also in vengeance of those murdered in the San
Miguel prison and in the prison in Honduras.
43
We dedicate this attack to Freddy, Marcelo and Juan, imprisoned for
the Security Case, but especially to Luciano, who is today the object of the
State’s vengeance, its cops and its obedient citizens. Only with revolutionary
action will we take you back to the street, Tortuga!!
FOR THE MULTIPLICATION OF ATTACKS AGAINST
CAPITAL!!
AGAINST ALL AUTHORITY!!
LONG LIVE ANARCHY!!
Informal Anarchist Federation /Efraín Plaza Olmedo Incendiary Cell
f
An invitation to multiply the attacks against power in solidarity with our brother Tortuga
March 16, 2012
“Solidarity among anarchists is not just a written word”: this has remained
demonstrated for more than 80 years, and has to again resonate in the
bourgeois ears and thus create fear and the fi re in the authority that holds our
brother Tortuga captive. We are very close to March 20, the date accorded
for the hearing against the compa when the fi lthy Public Prosecutor will
seek a penalty of 15 years and thus turn this into the State’s vengeance
against those who are on the offensive against every form of domination
and who do not allow the oppressors to sleep. Sisters, brothers, comrades!
we cannot remain with crossed arms assuming that it will be others who
will place the bomb or raise the barricade, we cannot waste time… This is
an invitation to participate in the creation of an environment of tension and
of attacks on the structures of power before and after Luciano’s hearing,
and to thus to make manifest that in a war, no warrior will be alone, and if
someone is going to die, it will be they; our enemies, because our bombs
44
and our incendiary attacks will be very close to arriving at their homes and
we are the black plague that will not leave them alone nor even confi rm
their precarious security systems.
Mauri [Mauricio Morales] once said, “Let us transform our pain into rage
and our rage into gunpowder,” and it is now that our prisoners most need
insurrectional action, it is now that we must again carry the revolutionary
weapon in our backpacks, that which creates revolt that causes fear only for
the powerful. There are some small “efforts” such as dreaming, planning,
acquiring materials accessible even to a child, that we must carry out in
order to create an environment of real and effective solidarity.
Let us socialize the fall of society, let us converse about our brother and
let’s spread our ideas and feelings as a contagion, let’s multiply propaganda
through the poster, pamphlet and graffi ti but even more the attacks are
multipliable–the barricade, the bombing, the molotov, etc.
LUCIANO PITRONELLO, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Some Anti-social Savages.
f
Joint declaration of subversive and revolutionary prisoners in support of comrade Luciano Pitronello
January 11, 2012
This text was written before Luciano entered the health area of the Santiago 1 prison. Its delay in publication is due to the involvement of the different comrades imprisoned under the $hilean state, held in different prisons, so the dissemination and editing of this was made very diffi cult.
To the broad and widespread revolutionary/subversive spectrum:
We combatants of freedom have from within different centers of
extermination united our words in order to make from them a strong
gesture that passes through the isolation with which Power intends to
silence us, so that our united gestures arrive at those comrades who do not
45
give a step back before the enemy. This initiative aims to break the logics
with which they sustain democracy, those who with their moral citizenship
seek to isolate the comrades in order to relegate them to forgottenness, but
they do not frighten us and we raise our voice to send our strength and
care to the comrade Luciano Pitronello, who after the events of the early
hours of June 1st has been seriously injured.
We are not interested in the dilemma of guilt or innocence, our language
is not that of Power, since we do not recognize anyone who comes to judge
our decisions, beyond we ourselves. Our responsibility is not judicial, we
assume a political responsibility before our comrades of struggle, which
has nothing to do with their laws.
It is because of centuries of oppression and exploitation that across the
length of history various expressions of resistance and offensive have been
raised against the oppressors. In $hile since the beginning of the 20th
century, experiences of libertarian and autonomous struggle have been
developing, which continue to today.
Today under a democratic regime, heir to the dictatorship of the tyrant
Pinochet, the revolutionary/subversive struggle continues and takes new
forms. For years the multiform expressions such as days of dissemination,
meetings, shows, publications, etc were making themselves every time more
frequent, as well as other forms of struggle, which disrupted the false peace
of the oppressors. Anonymous hands began to attack material symbols
of Power continually, with explosives or homemade incendiary devices.
While these attacks indeed began to have notoriety since 2004, they are no
more than the continuation of the offensive and resistance that militants
of political-military organizations (MIR-FPMR-MJL) decided to continue
after the dictatorship-democracy transition, but the difference is that now
the sedition organizes itself in a horizontal form, an affi nity-based and
informal form.
Autonomous Mapuche, squatters, anarchists, former political prisoners
and now insurgent student youth are the internal enemy of Power, which
tries daily to annihilate them. Through the mass disinformation media
the oppressors have marked the path for repression, likewise they have
also sadistically made fun of the painful accident that Luciano faced. All
this under a supposed anti-terrorist campaign–it is here where we are not
deterred. For Power, every person who intends to subvert the imposed
order in individual or collective form is cataloged as terrorist, and not for
the violence with which people act, but rather for their conviction and
decision to fi ght. For us the only terrorist is Power, the State and Capital,
46
a long list of combatants who have fallen in the struggle against
oppression. And it is for this struggle also that now there is a comrade
wounded and held captive in similar circumstances, and so support becomes
indispensable.
We recognize our differences as individuals, but these are not limitations
for our recognition of each other as comrades in struggle, even without
some of us knowing each other, the love of freedom unites us and the
differences between us are what strengthen us. It is for this reason that we
make the call to solidarity with the comrade Luciano/Tortuga. To not fall
into the fear that Power wants to impose in order to isolate the comrade.
The fact that an anarchist comrade has been wounded, is a prisoner and
faces a judicial process is suffi cient reason to support him and not leave
him alone. We do not remain impassive while they make a tragedy into a
spectacle, showing itself as clear vengeance against one who they see as the
visible face after years of anti-authoritarian resistance and offensive.
Nor do we forget the support that old political prisoners received in
past years, those who were sentenced for assassinations, expropriations
or explosive attacks, which did not impede those consistent persons from
supporting the mobilizations that allowed the comrades to return to the
street, as a valuable example of struggle.
May these words of love and freedom pass through walls and bars in
order to reach Luciano and his close ones in this diffi cult time. Comrade
our thoughts are with you, we send you our strength so that you stay
strong against the enemy, because in the social war no one is alone, we
make solidarity our greatest weapon.
With all the comrades fallen in combat in memory, for them our greatest
homage is to continue fi ghting. Combatant youth, permanent insurrection.
May the historical memory bury those who condemn the path of the
offensive against Power!!
While there is misery there will be rebellion!
Until Total Liberation!!
Luciano – Tortuga to the street, now!
PS: The comrade was charged on November 22nd for a “placement of IED”
and for “falsifi cation of license plate,” also he is investigated for other attacks. In
this hearing he was ordered to preventive prison while the investigation continues
for 70 days.
IV. Trial
49
Chile: Luciano “Tortuga” sentenced to 6 years supervised release
August 15, 2012
Today August 15, at 1PM, in the Oral Penal Court of Santiago they
dictated the sentence against Luciano.
Room 901 of the court, made up of the judges Mauricio Olave
(president), Graciela Gómez (redactora) and Antonio Ulloa (integrante
and who voted to apply the anti-terrorist law), sentenced Luciano Pitronello
Schuffeneger for the crimes of “illegal transport of explosives,” “damages”
(to the bank)” and “use of false license plate.”
The imposed sentenced was:1. For the damages to the Santander Bank: 41 months
imprisonment in the highest degree, suspension of public offi ce
or employment for the duration of the sentence.
2. For the possession of explosive device: 3 years and 1 day
of imprisonment in the highest degree, and also complete
disqualifi cation from political rights and public offi ces and
employment for the duration of the sentence.
3. For driving a vehicle with another person’s license plate: 541
days of imprisonment in the highest degree, suspension of
public offi ce or employment for the duration of the sentence and
suspension of driver’s license for the duration of 3 years.
4. Since the sentences did not amount to more than 5 years and
due to not have prior criminal history, in the end the tribunal
granted “supervised freedom” for 6 years. Therefore Luciano will
not have to return to prison and will be under the supervision of
a delegate (whether psychologist or social worker) of the police,
who will make periodic evaluations of Luciano.
5. For their part, the Southern Prosecution of the Ministry of the
Interior immediately reacted with frustration after the reading
of the sentence, adding that they will examine the sentence in
order to request the nullifi cation of the trial before the Court of
Appeals, for which there is a period of 10 days. The Prosecution
will rely on the vote of the judge Antonio Ulloa, who was the
minority vote in the decision about the application of the anti-
terrorist law against Luciano.
50
Chile: Summary of days 3 to 5 of trial against Luciano Tortuga
July 29, 2012
The trial began with the testimony and questioning of the security
guard of the building where Luciano’s brother lives. While this witness
recognized Luciano as the brother of the apartment’s owner, he was not
able to recognize the motorcycle they showed him (the motorcycle that
Luciano supposedly took), recognizing the color but not the model. He
did not see the license plate, nor was he there at the time when Luciano
supposedly took the bike from the building. The defense made him
responsible for making this situation clear.
The next witness was the owner of the motorcycle from which the
plate was stolen. He only indicated that the plate on the motorcycle found
in the place corresponded to a plate that had been stolen from him in
downtown Santiago some time ago. It was notable how the press has
infl uenced people: to the prosecutor’s question, “When did you recognize
the plate?” the witness said that “they used the plate to put on a motorcycle
and then throw a bomb at the bank, in the bombs case.” The defense did
not ask questions.
Then came another witness of the prosecution: a merchant who had a
bazaar near to the squatted house when Luciano supposedly lived. This
witness fell into various contradictions between the statement that he gave
to the police and the one he made in the trial. For example, he began by
noting that he did not know his name or how they called Luciano, he only
saw him when he came to make purchases… but to the further question
from the prosecution: “Do you know what the accused’s nickname is?” the
witness responded, “Yes, Tortuga.” When the defense asked how he know
this if he had said the contrary, the witness was troubled and said, “I heard
it when he was with some friends”… nevertheless, in his written statement
he explicitly said that “the accused always came alone to make purchases,
never with other people.”
The witness also said that he did not know where he lived, but he knew
that he was “from that group, the ones they call squatters.” How? Because
they came “from those parts,” dressed in black, with jackets that said squat,
and that the house was painted on the outside and it also said squat.
51
The defense made him clarify that the cops never came, nor the
fi refi ghters, nor was the house clandestine, and that Luciano only bought
things to eat from the bazaar, he never bought cables or anything like that.
The problem arose that in the written statement the witness game the
names and surnames, but the witness said that they showed him some
photos and that the people were recognized that way. Therefore, the
defense questioned who made the statement, because there had already
been a witness who said that the statement was not his (see day 2).
Then came the person in charge of repairing and maintaining the
Santander Bank branch where the device exploded. The relevant thing
about this testimony is that the prosecution tried to make it seem that the
damaged caused was enormous, showing photos (pretty miserable ones)
in which windows were shown broken into a thousand pieces, a broken
door, and a pillar and the ceiling marked with soot. The defense was able
to make clear that the workers did not take more than one week, after
business hours, and that day public entry was delayed only by about half
an hour. He compared it to a smash-and-grab robbery, the witness saying
that there isn’t much defense between one and the other in the time it
takes to repair. Also, it was indicated that only one door was broken, the
other was only shattered.
Then the witness’s statement was discussed, since again there were
contradictions between what the witness said in the court and what the
police said earlier. Finally, the witness recognized that he did not read the
statement, since the police asked the questions while they were arranging
the bank so that people could enter, there had been a lot of people and a lot
of movement, and so he had just signed the statement without reading it.
In the afternoon, the trial continued with the testimony of a police
offi cer of the Police Intelligence Directorate of Carabineros (DIPOLCAR)
who was in charge of retrieving the banner hung outside of the clinic where
Luciano was, a banner that was also shown in the hearing as a piece of
evidence. He also spoke about how the chain of custody of some evidence
was broken (two helmets and a motorcycle license plate) to be sent to the
Carabineros Laboratory to be analyzed.
Then, the director of the INDISA Clinic, where Luciano was
hospitalized for almost three months. It was a rather technical statement,
since it only dealt with the medical consequences of the failed attack.
Another point that he touched on was the call that a woman made to the
hospital on June 2, 2011, threatening that “a group of people disguised
52
as paramedics would make an attempt against Luciano Pitronello.” Due
to this call, the police were able to get custody of the compa, while before
only the civil cops could do so.
The hearing ended with a long lecture from the medical reports
put out by the INDISA Clinic, in which they gave record of Tortuga’s
developments.
To close, they said that there were few witnesses left, so this stage (the
witness statements) would end perhaps on Thursday, to continue with the
evidence and experts.
fThe fi fth day of the hearing in which the compañero Luciano risks 15
years of prison for the crime of terrorist placement of explosive device began
with the statement of experts from GOPE (special operations group) and
LABOCAR (carabineros criminal laboratory). The fi rst spoke about the
report made on the motorcycle that Luciano and his companion supposedly
traveled on, this ruling out the possibility that the motorcycle had some
kind of device with it and/or attached to it. The second expert named
Rafael Cares referred to the report on the site of the incident, that is to say,
the outside of the bank and its entrance, in addition to the motorcycle and
the helmets. The expert report comprised the seizure of all the evidence
such as clothing, parts of the device, organic and/or biological remains,
etc. This evidence after being seized was taken to the laboratory and there
they carried out various tests such as DNA comparison and examination of
powders, etc. In the case of the motorcycle that was found, GOPE agents
took fi ngerprints, fi nding 3 papillary traces unsuitable for determining
their owner. This same offi cer took the DNA samples from Luciano and
his brother who voluntarily went to the laboratory. Luciano’s device was
compared with more than 150 planted devices with respect to activation
systems and types of powder, and they found signifi cant similarity to the
devices at the BBVA and BCI in the de Las Condes neighborhood in 2011
on February 10th and 11th respectively.
The prison guards raised the compa’s punishment at the defense’s
request. It had been expected that the trial would last several more weeks,
but according to what the tribunal estimates it will not go beyond next
week.
In the courtroom the photographer of the daily el Mercurio continually
insisted on photographing Tortuga’s face in spite of the tribunal reiterating
that they could not do so, fi lthy scavengers.
53
About what happened a few days ago, and an update on Tortuga’s situation
April 20, 2012
What happened on April 12, 2012 came to us as a slap to our commitment
to keep informed about the situation of our brother, friend and lover, and
with this we do not intend to judge nor much less to detract from the
intention of the comrades from El Sol Ácrata, for keeping informed about
Tortu’s situation, as we said before it is a call to attention for us (with the
blog), but also we consider it necessary to critique our comrades to be more
cautious with the information that they send out.
This issue is fundamental for those of us who decided to support
Luciano in the judicial process that is happening now, many times we
have heard that the blog is not kept constantly updated or that it does not
present all the actions or claims of responsibility from comrades from all
part of the world who have decided to act in solidarity with our brother,
to all of you we beg your pardon if some communiques have not been
published, we do not want to censor any comrade, but we also know the
mediocre work of the prosecution in presenting absurd evidence, which
already happened in prior cases (which we all know and the judge even
accused the prosecution of presenting analysis and evidence proper to a
cheap sociology) for this very fact and because we know that this blog
remains under constant surveillance, this is why not all of the information
that reaches our hands is published.
It has been diffi cult for us to make this decision, but we do not want to
prejudice our brother in the trial that is happening right now.
Moving on, the preparation of the oral trial began on Wednesday April
11 as you may have heard from the comrades at Liberacion Total (here in
English); we will not repeat any more on this topic since the link covers
that information.
In response to LT’s request, we will address some things that were
presented in the preparation of the oral trial in the 7th Warranty Court of
Santiago, in Rondizzoni in the Justice Center.
Some of the evidence presented by the prosecution — represented by
Raúl Guzmán — was reviewed along with the witnesses’ testimony.
54
Primary in the evidence that Luciano’s defense (Carlos Mora) tried to
dismiss were the pieces that did not have direct relation with the accusation
presented by the prosecution, making the reminder that our brother is
accused of “placement of explosive device” and “tampering and theft of
license plate” risking between 16 and 20 years of prison (during preparation
they had only spoken of 16 years).
For their part, the prosecution in their attempt to persecute Tortu’s
ideas presented witnesses who confi rmed the visits he made to a squat
(neighbors directly across from the squat and next to it stated that they
constantly carried out “anarchist activities” there), claims of responsibility
of comrades published on different counter-information pages in solidarity
with Luciano and an attempt to relate these “anarchist”-tendency pages
with the comrade. The defense tried to dismiss these kinds of evidence
that do not relate with the charges against the compañero (according to
the defense, “the crime is the placement of the explosive device and the
theft and tampering with license plate; anarchist ideology is not classifi ed
as a crime, nor much less is relating with squatters’ groups.”)
Obviously the judge did not take the defense arguments into account
and continued saying that the witnesses were “relevant” for the case.
One of the few pieces of evidence that were declared “irrelevant” were
the documents that alluded to the comrades who are on trial for the
“Bombs Case;” the defense declared that any possible accusation of illicit
association had already been disallowed and that this evidence was not
relevant, since the crimes for which he is accused are others.
Another piece of evidence that was dismissed was the “Letter to the
Indomitable Hearts” (here in English), since they could not determine if
Luciano wrote the letter or not as was said in the preparation of the oral
trial, therefore, the letter is not in the evidence.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that the overabundance of evidence that
the defense objected to have to do with witnesses who (supposedly) saw the
brother take the motorcycle (caretaker, residents of the building, etc) which
are also have to do with a crime that he is not accused of, if there does exist
the proof of the “possible robbery” of the motorcycle carried out by the
one who is called Luciano’s “brother,” there is no report. The prosecution
in an attempt to keep that evidence eliminates some witnesses keeping only
the colonel of the cops and the recording of the report.
The other evidence were those that appeared in the info from the
comrades from LT (see link above) with respect to the workers and clients
of the bank, who according to the judge are “relevant” for the accusation.
55
At the end of the preparation of the oral trial they revised the cautionary
measures and maintained the comrade’s preventive prison in spite of his
incapacity and the prison guards’ clumsiness for which Luciano should be
in optimal conditions.
We would like to thank all the brothers and sisters who have tried
to communicate with us through different media (periodicals, websites,
publications, etc), to you a fraternal embrace and we tell you that we will
try to be informing you about Tortuga’s situation. As soon as we have news
we will publish it in brief.
Grupo de Amigxs y Amantes de Luciano PitronelloGroup of Luciano Pitronello’s Friends and Lovers
solidaridadactiva[a]riseup[punto]net
f
Chile: Preparation of the oral trial against Luciano Tortuga begins
April 13, 2012
In light of the information, we make a call to the comrades close to
Tortuga to inform us of how the judicial process against the comrade is
going. Perhaps it is not necessary to inform day by day, but rather by
weekly update.
The dates of the hearing is all that we could retrieve from the press,
due to all their vengeful morbidity and their support of the prosecution.
The past March 20, the hearing was postponed, this at the request of
Luciano’s defense, saying that some experts were missing. On that day, the
hearing was set for this April 11th.
Yesterday, Wednesday April 11, the hearing for the preparation of the
oral trial against the comrade happened in the 7th Warranty Court of
Santiago, located in the Justice Center.
56
The preparation of the oral trial, is the legal step where the Prosecution
presents the evidence and witnesses with which they intend to carry out the
trial. Which then afterwards the defense also does. It is at this time that the
judge determines which evidence and witnesses are omitted.
At around 10 AM, the hearing began with the Southern Prosecution,
represented by the prosecutor Raúl Guzman, reviewing the evidence and
witnesses’ testimony.
From the evidence presented by the Prosecution, the judge Darwin
Bratti excluded some documents alluding to the 5 comrades who are still
on trial in the “bombs case,” declaring them “impertinent” as they don’t
relate to the charges against Luciano. A clear example of how the prosecutor
Raul Guzman (who is presently in charge of all the investigations into
bombings) intends to unite and relate both judicial processes.
Luciano’s (designated) lawyer, Carlos Mora, presented a claim for
the “abundance of witnesses.” Those witnesses were presented by the
Prosecution, among them workers and clients of the bank.
Said by the same executioner, Raúl Guzmán: “witnesses who were going
to fi nd out about the commotion caused by the placement of this explosive
device in a bank branch.” Statements with which the prosecution intends
to affi rm the necessity of applying the Anti-terrorist Law.
Surely such witnesses would testify the “fear they felt” while sleeping in
their homes miles away from the bank, when it was 2:20 AM on Wednesday
June 1, 2011. A time at which the Santander bank was empty.
That is the reason why the majority of sabotage actions with bombs
occur in the early hours and the groups that carry out these attacks in
several of their communiques have made evident the means of ensuring
that passersby are not hurt.
Also the lawyer Carlos Mora indicated that the expert who was missing
before is now ready and with this expert he intends to demonstrate that
the attack did not constitute a terrorist crime because the explosive had
low capacity for doing damage.
The preparation of oral trial will go on continually these days, until all
of the evidence and witnesses and experts have been reviewed. Then the
date will be set for the beginning of the trial.
IN DEFENSE OF THE SAVAGE WARRIOR WHO STAYS FIRM!
ACTIVE SOLIDARITY WITH TORTUGA, NOW AND ALWAYS!
LONG LIVE ALL THE COMPAÑERXS OF WORD AND
ACTION!
Liberación Total
57
Chile: Report on Tortuga’s prison conditions
March 19, 2012
Three months ago we visited Luciano Pitronello, accused for the failed
placement of an explosive device on June 1, 2011 at a Santander Bank
branch located at Vicuña Mackenna 1347. Luciano was in this place with
multiple severe wounds on his body, loss of vision in one of his eyes, for
which he was submitted to a cornea transplant operation and mild hearing
loss, along with 33% of his body burned, and as a result of the burns they
had to amputate one of his hands. He was charged for two crimes: Terrorist
placement of an explosive device, punishable under Article 2, number 4
in relation to the 1st Article of the “Law On Terrorist Conduct” (18.314)
and use of false license plate or one corresponding to another vehicle,
punishable under Article 192, letter E of the “Transit Law” (18.290).
After a minor recovery, he was left in preventive prison for being
considered a danger to society. Due to his multiple wounds, he is in the
Hospital of Santiago 1 Prison: Luciano’s prison conditions are those of
constant harassment and isolation. His regimen consists of 24 hours of
confi nement in a room with 3 beds, moreover, he does not have access to
television or newspapers, he must use a suit that helps with the healing of
the burns 24 hours a day, he can only remove it in order to bathe, although
he can remove the suit alone, he requires help to put it on. This function,
which should be carried out by the medics, is unfulfi lled; therefore Luciano
must request the help of the prisoners when he’s in a room with company.
Other times, he simply must do without his suit (as has happened at least
5 times).
At this time, Luciano is without the suit, because the prison guards
burned it by putting it in the prison’s dryer, a situation that is still not
resolved nor indemnifi ed. Another part of his treatment is that every day
his entire body be moisturized with rose hip. Which really happens every
2 or 3 days at the discretion of the medics. Luciano uses a prosthesis on
his right arm, which should be washed carefully in order to not damage the
mechanical system within it. Nevertheless, the times that he has solicited
them to wash the prosthesis, they have done it by putting it entirely under
water, ruining the mechanical system; thus resulting in Luciano’s greater
dependency on the poor discretion of the medics, since now it needs to
be constantly oiled, a situation that is likewise not taken care of promptly.
58
Another problem that remains with Luciano in prison is that the prison
shower works with a switch which upon being pressed dispenses water
for an interval of a few seconds, making it necessary to constantly press it.
Since Luciano does not have one of his hands and some of his fi ngers were
amputated from the other, he is not able to carry out this activity alone,
nevertheless since there is not continual assistance from the medics, it
remains only on him to get them to be able to shower, some of the Santiago
1 Prison Hospital’s room have showers in better condition, so it depends
on which room Luciano is in.
While we know that these conditions repeat themselves in various cases
within the prisons, we denounce this situation because we have touched
it directly for long enough. Our idea is not to present a morbid story,
nor to cause grief, but rather to show that although the press and the
State say that prisoners have rights, that is a just an empty expression that
they use to degrade them more and more, and to validate the existence of
prisons in which the State ensures that thousands of people live in appalling
conditions.
It is not just overcrowding, as the television shows us when they
remember that prisoners exist. It is not just the restraining of a prisoner’s
freedom: the isolation, the constant humiliation of the family, the
irresponsibility in medical assistance, the denial of communication, the
physical and psychological violence on the part of the guards, are the
materials with which the Prison is constructed. At times it might seem
that the world’s prisoners are invisible, it is for this reason that those
who are outside the gates must make them visible, since each time that we
remember them with an action, a denunciation or a gesture of solidarity,
we demonstrate that they are not alone.
IN THE PRISONS THE TORTURE IS DAILY,
WITH YOUR SILENCE YOU ARE COMPLICIT!
FOR THE EXPANSION OF SOLIDARITY!