Lautaro Youth Movement #CR0002369 (Also... Some alternate names are aliases, other are names for specific subgroups or cells). Lautaro Faction of the United Popular Action Movement (MAPU/L) Lautaro Popular Rebel Forces (FRPL) Source: CIA Type: Political terrorist organization. Scope: Infrequent attacks on police officers, banks and Mormon Church outposts mainly in the Santiago region of Chile. Affiliations: Shared training and performed terrorist actions in collaboration with the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front [#CR0003125]. Believed to have received support from Bandera Roja [#CR001251] and Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army [#CR0000744]. Personnel: Less than 20 (believed) Operating Since: 1989 Structure: Operates in a gang-like structure. A loose hierarchy following under one leader. Leaders: Unknown Legitimate Connections: Unknown Resources: Smallarms, some explosives and very little military equipment. Funding, support and intelligence are at a low level, although training by the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front have given the group a good level of training. Suspected Criminal Activity: Has been linked to assassinations of policemen, bank robberies, and attacks on Mormon churches, all, as they claim, for human rights violations throughout Chile. MJL attacks on police often involve deceptive calls for help or diversionary attacks used to lure solitary policemen to ambushes. MJL members also have engaged in bank robberies and attacks on Mormon missionary posts. On 24 January 1991, MJL members shot dead two policemen in Santiago. Following the release of a Chilean government report on the state terror of the Pinochet era, detailing over 2,000 slayings committed by the Chilean secret police, three police stations were bombed and six banks robbed. The perpetrators claimed to be leftists protesting the unwillingness of the Christian Democrat administration of President Patricio Aylwin to prosecute General Pinochet, who retained command of the Chilean armed forces following the installation of the democratically elected government on 11 March 1989, or others also responsible for the state terror. Additional Commentary: The MJL, is a Chilean anti-government group that appeared following the Presidential election and transfer of power on 11 March 1989, ending the rule of General Augusto Pinochet. Although the MJL appears to have leftist leaders and uses leftist rhetoric, its following consists largely of alienated unemployed urban youth of slum areas and may represent more of an anarchist than leftist revolutionary group. On 15 March 1991, MJL members shot dead Hector Sarmiento Hidalgo, a chief investigator, who had not been involved in the human rights abuses of the Pinochet era. Certain Chilean government officials believe that some of these attacks were actually instigated by Chilean right-wing agents-provocateurs seeking to create an anti-leftist backlash in favor of a renewed authoritarian military regime and to forestall serious investigations of human rights abuses under Pinochet. Three days following the 1 April 1991 slaying by unidentified gunmen of Senator Jaime Guzman, a former Pinochet confidante and adviser, the Chilean government announced a 150 percent increase in spending for the national police force and a 400 percent increase in spending for the government Department of Investigations. Most of the MJL's activities have taken place in the Santiago area while little is known of their numerical strength or sponsorship by other domestic groups or foreign states.
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