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Primera Línea

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Shield-bearers hooded protesters
Group of protesters confronting Carabineros in 2019. The shield says "Brigada anti-yuta" (Chilean Spanish slang for "Anti-cop brigade").

Primera Línea (lit. First line or Frontline) is the name for a loose collective of protesters dedicated to physically confronting Chilean riot police, that is, through acts of civil disobedience, in the context of the 2019–2022 Chilean protests. In the words of a member "it's about contesting [state] power".[1] The Primera Línea is made up of an assortment of individual citizens and grassroots organizations called "clans", lacking central authority.[1] A wide range of sympathetic organizations support Primera Línea providing them with aid, food and legal advice.[2][3] Members are of diverse backgrounds, including laborers, immigrants, university students and sports fans. In addition, 16 hooded minors identified as part of this strike force have been detained. They have subsequently been placed at the disposal of the National Service for Minors (Sename).[2][3]

Description

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Members of Primera Línea tend to assume distinct roles, such as shield-bearers, stone-throwers, tear gas grenade extinguishers, slingers, laser pointers, and tear gas medics.[1] Among these the laser pointers are the most numerous, their role consisting in disrupting police sight,[1] yet there are cases where surveillance drones have been downed by the laser pointers.[4] Although they do not have a homogeneous political and ideological position, it can be determined that they are members of the opposition to the government of Sebastián Piñera and have acquired an increasingly violent rivalry against Carabineros de Chile.[5] They have frequently been associated with the anarchist movement of Chile and some of them recognize it explicitly.[6][7][8][9]

Investigative journalist Santiago Pavlovic described them as "frustrated youth, homeless people, anarchists with a tendency to pyromania, delinquents taking advantage of disorder, kids with unleashed adrenaline, and some who saw a revolutionary opportunity", in the TVN Informe Especial report about the Estallido social broadcast in October 2020.[10]

Primera Línea has been accused by authorities as a "member" of Antifa and some mass media of being behind many misdemeanor, yet other people recognize their contributions to shield ordinary protesters from police violence.[1]

Members of Primera Línea are mostly hooded or with partially covered faces,[11] being known in Chilean Spanish as "capuchas" (hooded men).[12]

Prosecution of its members

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Further information: Prisoners of the Revolt

On March 3, 2020, a group of Primera Línea was rounded up and detained by Carabineros enforcing a newly drafted law against barricades.[3] Subsequently, only one of the 44 detained was kept in preventive detention, the remaining people were set free but required to report and sign-in twice a month.[2][3] In this context, the president of the Supreme Court of Chile, Guillermo Silva and National Prosecutor Jorge Abbott, have both declared that being part of Primera Línea does not constitute a crime in itself.[13][14] Among the 44 detained, four had criminal records: two for theft, one for robbery and one with an extensive criminal record including previous sentences for drug dealing, domestic violence, carrying butterfly knives in public, street fighting and causing minor injuries.[3] Despite the fact that when incarcerated they are classified as "political prisoners" by the protesters, and some left wing politicians such as Camila Vallejo, Tomás Hirsch and Claudia Mix, both the Government of Chile and Human Rights Watch Director José Miguel Vivanco, dismissed these accusations, the latter asserting in December 2020 that "there are no political prisoners in Chile".[15][16] University of Chile's law professor Claudio Nash Rojas disagrees with this assessment. According to him some members of Primera Línea have been subject to political prison as they were put into preventive prison and declared "danger to society" (Spanish: peligro para la sociedad) without a case-by-case analysis.[17] Chilean court's indiscriminate use of the highest level of precautionary measure (Spanish: medida cautelar) to members of Primera Línea may be understood as a political measure.[17]

Criticism

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From different sectors, especially from the social-conservative sphere, this group has been criticized for its actions, as well as those who support or admire them, being considered as a "romanticization of violence", in addition to transgressing many social liberties such as freedom of expression, of movement, with the alteration of public order and social peace, creating a caricature of "superheroes" for their actions. On the other hand, for the Chilean columnist and constitutional conventionalist, Teresa Marinovic, has been publicly shown as skeptical of the "spontaneous" nature attributed to the formation of this group, alluding to its organizational capacity and "combat" tactics, which suggest a premeditation or prior organization to serve particular political interests.[18][19][20][21]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Claude, Magdalena (January 6, 2020). "Retrato de un clan de la Primera Línea". CIPER Chile (in Spanish). Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Ojeda, Juan Manuel; Rodríguez, Sebastián Labrín y Sergio (2020-03-04). "Los 44 "primera línea" detenidos en la "Zona Cero": 16 menores, 5 extranjeros y 4 con antecedentes penales". La Tercera. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  3. ^ a b c d e "13 de los 44 detenidos de la "primera línea" tienen antecedentes que incluyen homicidio, robos y desórdenes en la vía pública". El Líbero (in Spanish). March 7, 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  4. ^ White, Debbie (November 15, 2019). "Protesters in Chile use lasers to bring down police drone". New York Post. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  5. ^ "Retrato de un clan de la Primera Línea". CIPER Chile (in Spanish). 2020-01-06. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  6. ^ Líbero, El (10 February 2021). "Garra Blanca, simpatizante del anarquismo y primera línea: el candidato antivacunas del PC-FA". El Líbero (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  7. ^ Kurruf, Radio (8 April 2020). "Chile: Un análisis anarquista del estallido social desde Concepción". Radio Kurruf (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  8. ^ Líbero, El (28 September 2020). "El nexo anarquista entre las protestas anti policiales en Colombia y el estallido chileno". El Líbero (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  9. ^ pauta (17 November 2019). "El estallido social en la visión de Gabriel Salazar y Joaquín Fermandois". pauta (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  10. ^ Informe Especial: Estallido social, retrieved 2022-09-14
  11. ^ "Encapuchados de "primera línea" realizaron discurso en el ex Congreso Nacional". 24Horas.cl (in Spanish). 2020-01-26. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  12. ^ "Entrevista a un capucha: "En la primera línea damos la cara contra la yuta"". El Desconcierto - Prensa digital libre (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  13. ^ Forero-Ortiz, Daniela (March 5, 2020). "Presidente de la Corte Suprema: "Formar parte de la 'Primera Línea' no es un delito"". Radio Bío-Bío (in Spanish). Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  14. ^ Díaz Montero, Felipe (March 6, 2020). "Abbott por liberados de la 'primera línea': "No podemos abandonar nuestro principio de objetividad"". Radio Bío-Bío (in Spanish). Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  15. ^ Digitalproserver; Agricultura, Radio. "Director de Human Rights Watch: "No hay presos políticos en Chile"". Radio Agricultura (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2021-01-31. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  16. ^ "Aumenta presión por los "presos de la revuelta": parlamentarios presentan proyecto de indulto para detenidos tras estallido social « Diario y Radio U Chile" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2021-03-19.
  17. ^ a b Nash Rojas, Claudio (March 17, 2020). "La prisión preventiva como prisión política. El caso de la Primera Línea". Ciper (in Spanish). Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  18. ^ "Retrato de un clan de la Primera Línea". CIPER Chile (in Spanish). 2020-01-06. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  19. ^ "La Nación / La "primera línea", héroes o vándalos de la dura batalla urbana en Chile". www.lanacion.com.py (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  20. ^ Mostrador, El (2021-03-26). "El abismo de romantizar la violencia". El Mostrador (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  21. ^ "El rol de la familia en el estallido social". www.duna.cl (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-05-24.
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