14 years have passed since the morning of Wednesday, June 1 in 2011 when the comrade Luciano Pitronello, known as Tortu, was gravely wounded after attempting to place an explosive artifact in a branch of Santander Bank in Santiago de Chile. This action, though failed in its execution, turned into an inflection point, not only for his life, but also for the anarchist space that surrounded him and of which he was a part…
The Context of the Offensive and Repression
Luciano acted in a moment of high tension. Since the death in action of comrade Mauricio Morales in 2009, who tried to attack the nefarious Gendarmerie School, a repressive offensive was unleashed against anarchist spaces in Chile. The cruelest point of this persecution was on August 14, 2010, when the government of Sebastián Piñera executed a media and police frame up known as the Bombs Case. 14 comrades from different social spaces and squats were arrested, while another comrade went on the run to avoid prison.
Many spaces closed, and the anarchist environment suffered a retreat. All this was due to the fact that, for years, there had been various direct attacks against power claimed by anarchist groups.
In that context, Luciano’s act was not a desperate gesture, but a clear signal: the anarchist offensive against power was still alive. With his action, he not only sought to strike the symbols and structures of capital, but also to show solidarity with the comrades imprisoned in the bombs case, which was later dropped. Continue reading “$hile: We Remember the Courage and Decision of Comrade Tortuga for Attacking Power To the Very End”