Chilean Anarchists Escalate Arson Campaign Against Public Transit in Solidarity with Jailed Comrades
Executive Summary
A series of coordinated arson attacks on Chile’s RED public bus system have been carried out by anarchist groups between late May and June 2025. These attacks express solidarity with imprisoned comrades and commemorate radical figures like Mauricio Morales, reflecting a sustained campaign of symbolic violence targeting state infrastructure.
Analysis
Anarchist militants in Chile have reignited their campaign of sabotage, this time focusing on public buses as political targets. Over the course of several weeks, incendiary attacks were carried out in Santiago and Conchalí. The attackers claim these acts are in solidarity with imprisoned anarchists including Paolo Todde in Italy and Chileans Aldo and Lucas Hernández, and as tribute to Mauricio Morales, an anarchist who died while attempting to bomb a police academy in 2009.
The most recent incident occurred on June 24, when a RED transit bus was torched in Santiago. The perpetrators linked this act to Paolo Todde, currently detained in Sardinia and engaged in a prolonged hunger strike. Days earlier, on June 20, another RED bus was targeted in Conchalí to support Aldo and Lucas Hernández, arrested in 2022 and accused of attacking the Chilean Gendarmerie. These attacks are not isolated. On May 23, a RED bus in Santiago was destroyed in what was described as an homage to “Punky Mauri,” the deceased bomber whose legacy continues to inspire anarchist action across Latin America.
The repeated targeting of buses is tactically and symbolically deliberate. RED buses represent public investment, state presence, and social order—all of which anarchist cells view as tools of oppression. Through arson, these actors aim not only to disrupt public services but to assert a narrative of resistance grounded in anti-prison, anti-state, and anti-capitalist ideology.
These attacks form part of a broader tradition of insurrectionary anarchism in Chile, a current that romanticizes direct action and glorifies martyrdom. Figures like Morales have been canonized within this movement, with firebombings and sabotage presented not as criminal acts but as revolutionary rituals. Recent statements issued by these groups cite the failure of institutional responses, such as human rights ombudsmen and judicial processes, as justification for armed action.
State response has historically oscillated between repression and surveillance. However, each cycle of arrests and prosecutions appears to fuel further radicalization, with imprisoned anarchists often becoming symbols around which new actions are coordinated. The campaign to “free all long-term anarchist prisoners” is not merely rhetorical—it is operational, serving as both a cause and a call to arms.
While Chilean security forces have not reported casualties from the recent bus attacks, the risk to public safety is escalating. The convergence of ideological fervor, tactical consistency, and commemorative violence suggests these attacks will likely continue—particularly as trial dates approach and anniversaries of key events loom.
