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since 2005 more than 200 bombs have
either been found or gone off in Chile
and many of of those have happened here
in the capital city of Santiago most of
the bombs uncovered in Chile have been
relatively low impact they're usually
homemade and go off at night ensuring
that innocent people are not harmed that
changed on September 8th one of these
bombs went off inside a subway station
during the lunchtime period although
three people have been arrested in
connection to the subway bombing it is
not yet entirely clear who is carrying
out these attacks some blame Anarchist
groups While others suspect Ultra right
terrorists are to blame as a result of
these attacks Chile's government has
sought to invoke its controversial
anti-terrorist law which has its roots I
should say in the military regime
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period
the anti-terrorist Law changes the
entire judicial process for those
accused under it we met Rodrigo Roman an
attorney who has defended people accused
of planting bombs and tried before the
state under the anti-terrorist
law
the bomb at the shopping center at the
esa militar station marked a before and
an after it was the first bombing that
struck in daytime in a crowded public
space and left 14 civilians injured the
bomb was manufactured with a fire
extinguisher gunpowder and a clock
Detonator this uh station was a of chaos
and
panic after a bomb went off right as
lunch was starting here in a quite
affluent section of Santiago known as
Las
gondes the bombing also exposed the Deep
divisions that persist between the left
and the right in Chile the rightwing
blamed the attack on anarchists while
the left accused Ultra right terrorists
of planting the bomb in order to sow
fear right now we're on our way to meet
Senator Alberto espa this Senator is a
prominent figure in Chilean politics
he's also a member of the commission
that has been put together to find a
government level response to these
string of bombings and also gets the
bottom of who's behind
them
versions differ widely on who is
carrying out these attacks and what the
state should do in response to them in a
polarized country like Chile the right
and left always seem to have opposing
spins on the same
story we're here in a residential
neighborhood on the outskirts of
Santiago we're going to on our way now
to meet uh victoro Montoya uh this
24-year-old young man spent uh 16 months
behind bars accused of a bombing it
seems as though the Government of Chile
wanted to make an example of this guy
and of this case and sort of snatched
him out of nowhere and accused him of
planting a bomb uh at a police uh
checkpoint he was tried under the
anti-terrorist
law
after fighting his case for 16 months
Victor Ugo was freed and went home but
the recent climate of fear caused by the
subway station bombing LED an appeals
court to reconsider his case and ask for
a second oral
trial
fore
the bombing at the esit station happened
on September 8th 3 days before a very
important date for Chilean Society
September 11th to the dismay of many
people the atmosphere in Chile seem to
Echo once again the fear and tension
that dominated life for many years after
the 1973 coup we're right alongside L
Mona the presidential Palace where on
this day September 11th 41 years ago in
1973 the military of Chile lay Siege uh
to this structure and ended abruptly the
term of socialist president Salvador
aende that was the start of the military
dictatorship that lasted until 1990 and
resulted in thousands of people who were
killed or disappeared uh for their
alleged or proven links to socialists
and revolutionaries and and leftists
here in Chile we're here with Maya
Fernandez um a grandchild of Salvador
aende on this important
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day
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activities continued across the city in
remembrance of the victims of the
Military Coupe we're heading now to the
National Stadium eventually became the
largest Detention Center during the
dictatorship up to 7,000 people were
held there at once people there were
tortured massacred or or or disappeared
people gather there at this hour in the
evening and place candles for the
victims uh who were held at the National
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Stadium as night fell homes and
businesses boarded up in preparation for
disturbances each year on September 11th
Chile seems to revive its Old Wounds
people gather on the streets at Corners
as if the ghosts of the coup conjure a
sense of defiance against the
authorities and against the
state electricity shut offs left whole
chunks of the city entirely in the dark
at one point in one of these areas our
car was attacked with rocks W wo wo wo
go go go go go oh
we arrived at a neighborhood called
VI Francia police were on the
move it was mostly a cat and mouse game
with the police chasing off and
dispersing small groups of
people about half a mile that way and
about half a mile behind us there's a
fire barricade up there being put up uh
by residents of this community we
presume uh we're mostly been seeing uh
some young folks uh moving around again
it's difficult to get a sense and a hold
of what is happening right now in the
Francia in the distance we hear shots in
the distance we see fire barricades that
have been set up the police cleared out
the neighborhood with heavily armed
Vehicles residents however were taking
to the streets and other parts of
Santiago we're in a bario
called here behind the line of
kavos uh they're facing off against uh
some residents some demonstrators that
are farther down the road from here
they're clearing out uh this uh Rock
just the throne in our Direction they're
clearing out this final barricade in
this area and well it's well past
midnight it is now September 12th and
these are the scenes that are taking
place all across Metropolitan
Santiago the night ended in relative
calm the historical tension between left
and right remains alive in Chila today
everyone is either on one side or the
other either they despise the legacy of
the dictatorship and its abuses or they
supported for the economic stability
that was
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achieved
on September 18th Independence Day in
Chile three suspects were arrested in
connection to the esa milit bombing and
in connection to a separate incident
inside an empty subway car in July like
Victor ugo's case the three were charged
under Chile's anti-terrorist law
after the subway station bombing
Santiago was flooded with false alarms
of suspicious packages in the Metro
System the issue is not dying down on
September 25th another bomb went off in
Santiago killing a man under uncertain
circumstances authorities now believe
that this victim had nothing to do with
the planting of the bomb making him the
first civilian victim of a bomb attack
in Chile and meanwhile the bombings
continue
for now the ideological divisions that
these attacks expose remain
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Stark
for
now many questions remain unanswered who
is planting these bombs with what
purpose and who is benefiting from the
sense of fear and panic that they
produce and I think the most important
question of all is this will Chile's
government be able to guarantee and
protect the human and civil rights of
its citizens as it seeks to solve the
mystery of the bombings of
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Chile
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