Popular Political Resistence in Chile: 1978-1984

Abstract

This article presents the different ways of political violence developed by the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) during the period of refoundation of Chilean capitalism, occurred under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. It distinguishes hetween high and low intensity political violence. It studies the participation of both the central force of the MIR and the Popular Resistance Militia in the exercise of this violence. Furthermore, it presents the political motivations behind the violence exerted by the Chilean left. Finally, it reviews the constituting elements of the different actions of political violence, in the framework of the reconstruction of the social movement that started during the early eighties.