Letter to Diego Ríos

20 12 2009

From Hommodolars Contrainformación via Culmine:

December 19, 2009

Dear Diego,

The complicity and affection awakened in me by your letters (communiqués) from underground are inspiring me to write these words. Not just your letters, but your rebellious attitude in a world/society that becomes more uniform and submissive every day . . .

The smell of the air in prison is nothing unusual; prison generally smells like cheap disinfectant, rancid tobacco, and the nauseating sweat of some “piglets” who are allergic to soap or showering.

The only ones here who “perfume” themselves are the guards, social workers, psychologists, and priests. We prisoners are forbidden to “perfume” ourselves, I imagine for reasons of “conformity” or “security.”

Fortunately, the fresh air and the rain (still) know nothing of prohibitions, and that’s why―for one hour each day―I can feel them enter my asthmatic lungs, causing a delicious tickling sensation . . .

Apart from the rain and the fresh air, prison is no more than an architectural construct designed to discipline and control the movements/existences of those taken captive by prison society . . .

The only pleasant smell in prison comes from the little brothers and sisters who come to see us, or when everything burns in the fire of a riot. How beautiful, comrade! The smell of the burning mattresses, the smoke filling the cell blocks, the “perfumed ones” terrified and “imprisoned” (what a paradox . . .), and the freed prisoners writing banners, securing positions, turning each tool into a weapon and each burning object into a “Molotov” . . .

Insurrection is beautiful when it breaks out. It is uncontrollable (like freedom) and subversive. In those moments, the prisoner is not a prisoner, and the consequences mean shit.

No matter how long it lasts, insurrection is something that remains etched in fire on the soul. The beatings, the torture, the isolation, the vindictive destruction of your things (photos, letters, books, clothing, etc.) will always be the bitter consequences of defeat, but the images, moments, sounds, and smells of insurrection will accompany you for life . . .

Their system of discipline and control, their administration of torture and slow death will stay on its feet as long they are able to divide us with “privileges and punishments” (like out there), but not when we are united and totally determined.

Other things we experience during insurrectional rebellion are the ties between rebels, the friendships that usually last all your life.

Cast those stereotypical images of prison out of your mind, compa, and―with subversive pleasure―discover freedom (which is nothing other than insurrection) . . .

By losing our fear (which has contaminated us since we were “little ones,” and especially as “adults”), we become great and free, and that is much more than any of them (jailers and politicians) are willing to “tolerate” from prisoners and “citizens” . . .

Let’s be insufferable and subversive!

From the dungeons of northern Europe, a freedom-filled embrace for you, Diego . . .

- Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, Aachen, 26.11.09


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From underground, Diego Ríos’ third communiqué

23 11 2009

A translation of Diego Ríos’ first communiqué can be found on page 22 of 325 #7. Our translation of his second communiqué is here.

From Hommodolars Contrainformación:

November 21, 2009

The following communiqué was sent to our e-mail address, and it comes from comrade Diego Ríos, who is making his presence known in order to mark the International Week of Agitation and Pressure in Solidarity with Comrades Captured by the Chilean State (not an anarchist summit, like those idiots are saying over there).

I do not know prison; I have never been in one, and I just cannot imagine the smell of the air there, or the unbearable walks through its corridors, or much less the loneliness of its cells. Today—on the open road, in secret, leaving no trace—I can enjoy the wind, the night, the rain (which is always a good reason to hide my face), the company of a stray dog, the knowledge that I am far away from the swine who are paid to hunt me. Today I run far from the city, but it is not only the generous oxygen from the trees that swells my chest, it is also the pride of knowing that I have more brothers and sisters than I can possibly be aware of. But knowing that they are there does not matter; their actions speak to me, they are their actions.

My footsteps no longer have the certainty of a fixed destination, but they are still heading toward the destruction of power, so they have become quicker and more unpredictable; I am carrying all my hatred and contempt for its laws, its authority, its society, and I have no room for guilt or fear of punishment. I have also thrown away the naive idea that freedom is the place that exists outside the prison walls. For me, freedom is neither place nor permission; it is action, it is the antiauthoritarian meaning that fills each act, it is the nervousness that precedes attack, it is the uncontrollable regard for a comrade, it is feeling alive because you know that your life no longer belongs to capital, but confronts it.

The destination to which the road I now travel leads me no longer matters; there I will find free and wild individuals with whom to attempt revolt, with whom to sharpen solidarity, with whom to support the unbreakable will to blow up the existing order, to destroy every jail and every cell. I do not need to enter a prison in order to feel the anguish of seclusion in my own skin, so I hope that each one of these words arrives loaded with all the force and affection with which they are written, to each one of the comrades captured by the state and by capital, anywhere in the world. Also know that many of us continue to fight the monster that holds your bodies, that we are defending you from oblivion, that no walls will be able to isolate you from all the warmth that we are sending your way—no matter how high or how thick, we will find something to burn.

I and many other comrades living the insurrectional life know that each act/action brings consequences—favorable or unfavorable, successes or mistakes—and we assume responsibility because we take pride in being as consistent as possible. For that reason, I accept and learn from my errors, and I look to share and multiply my experiences of attack, no matter that they look to terrorize us with their prisons and with the FBI after us; we will not be silenced, we will remain concerned and engaged so that our captured brothers and sisters can be with us, so that their struggle can spread and be known, so that we can keep sharing all our affection with them. We do not forget, and we live to urgently wield solidarity against this society of submission and apathy.

Each word of this communiqué looks to destroy the silence that attempts to isolate our captured brothers and sisters; behind the words are lives that insist on doing the same, with something more than words. For each prisoner—for Axel, Cristian, Matías, Pablo, Flora, Marco, Gabriel—for all those who do not submit and who remain ready to go to war: In every life and in every action, you are also alive and present; you, whose lives exceeded the limits of this world, all of you who died confronting power, we do not forget you, including Matías and Jaime, whose murderers did not even have the slightest courage to shoot face-to-face. I also especially want to remember Johnny Cariqueo and Mauri the punk, with whom I was fortunate to know the happiness of exchanging a few words and gestures, and today I have the pleasure of making sure that their lives continue to confront power. Thank you for teaching us that, against power, the only lost battle is the one not fought.

- Diego Ríos


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Johnny Cariqueo Autonomous Social Center and Anarchist Library, on Diego Ríos’ departure

29 10 2009

From Hommodolars Contrainformación:

October 23, 2009

Sent via e-mail

Four months have now passed since June 24, 2009, when our space was raided in search of Diego Ríos after explosive materials were seized from his mother’s house.

Diego lived here and took an active part in constructing the character of the space; together with him we learned to turn antiauthoritarian discourse into praxis, since we always foresaw prison and death as the consequences of our attitude of war against society. That day, our comrade chose to begin his escape in order to avoid prison as much as possible, and since that time he has released two communiqués in which he explains his position of war on capital. [The first communiqué: Spanish, English; the second communiqué: Spanish, English]

Our comrade’s departure has permeated deep within us, and to keep quiet about the situation would douse the flames he lit when he turned his escape into an explicit act of rebellion, breaking with the classic ways of understanding underground life, as the subject was practically taboo.

Circumstances show us that antiauthoritarian struggle should spread through action against the enemy. Standing by a critique that justifies passivity implies the isolation of our comrade’s power to spread his experience in order to actively contribute to the knowledge of those who do not accept leadership or structure.

For us, the best way to support our comrade is to not stop the struggle we took up together. He is present in each act of rebellion that we begin and sustain. Diego Ríos is not an idealized comrade; to us, he is a clear example of the consequences of this war to the death against capital. The pain we feel cannot remain private, but it should be channeled into courage and caution, into more assertive acts that overwhelm the enemy, as we try to do through the ideas we forge and practice together. Our brother has already demonstrated how he understands his situation; we vindicate his escape as a direct action against the dark designs that power has on his life. Prisons should be destroyed and avoided, and our comrade is a clear example of that negation.

We salute his decision, we respect it and support it from the deepest part of our insurrectionary hearts. We repeat our rejection of unfortunate decisions like those taken by Diego’s mother, who in her eagerness to get her son back is capable of tolerating the fact that it can only happen between torture and prison. We do not support the police investigation that has intensified since the death of our comrade Mauricio Morales, after which Cristian Cansino was imprisoned and the press began to focus its media circus on social centers and squats.

We know that Diego’s action speaks for itself, and we will not transform his name into an icon or view him as a martyr. Diego’s escape is the result of a serious error, and he had the capacity to undertake it, always thinking about the continuation of the struggle.

Together we gave meaning to life, which is, as Mauricio Morales said, “to try to live anarchy”; that is, the destruction of capital, its supporters, and its false critics.

We do not forget our comrade Mauricio Morales, who is no longer physically with us due to the detonation of an explosive device he was carrying; he, Gabriel Pombo da Silva, Marco Camenisch, Claudia López, Axel Osorio, Cristian Cansino, and many others are always present, and they give us the strength to continue this restless struggle against all forms of authority. Brotherly regards to all comrades who have been paying attention to recent events and have shown solidarity beyond words with this and other spaces that are being harassed by authority.

SINCE RESIGNATION MAKES THE BEATING ROUTINE

LET’S TURN OUR LIVES INTO PROPAGANDA BY THE DEED!!!

- Johnny Cariqueo Autonomous Social Center and Anarchist Library


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From underground, Diego Ríos’ second communiqué

27 10 2009

A translation of Diego Ríos’ first communiqué can be found on page 22 of 325 #7.

From Liberación Total:

October 3, 2009

This is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.1

Many are the feelings and reasons that have led me to sketch out some ideas and post them to the web. Above all, I want to give brotherly thanks and support for all the displays of affection and insurrectional solidarity actions that have taken place recently (and for those to come, why not?). For me and for all those who share the desire to destroy this society of passive slaves, it always pleases, excites, and boosts morale to know about the daring and constant attacks on power being carried out by groups and individuals who—despite the acutely repressive context, anywhere in the world—don’t bow their heads, and continue to put the dangerous force of liberty into practice without hiding under the bed in anticipation of better times.

One inevitably reflects—and many do as yet another act on the stage on which our lives/struggles (an indivisible formula for enemies of the existing order) unfold—that to share and learn about the experiences of others while cautiously intensifying one’s own becomes extremely necessary in order to avoid the errors and desertions that eagerly invite repression. As a result, imagination and historical knowledge become part of an arsenal that can give us a good start to never being stopped; thus, if we are faced with, among other things, a technological/military apparatus, we should fight the conformism and fear within ourselves in the same way that society (and all its moralist, reformist, intellectual, consumerist, etc., expressions) looks to submit us. Every day, all of us who confront all forms of authority and exploitation and refuse to be comfortable accomplices should reaffirm the difficult path we have selected and show ourselves that that we are worthy of our chosen objective.

For me, it has already been several months during which I have needed to act with the utmost secrecy, avoiding the investigations of the police apparatus moving behind me, since I am certainly the perfect media excuse with which the Capital-State intends to return false security to and absolute dominance over life, despite being thwarted by so many anonymous shadows, every day, everywhere. I’m sure that the police don’t have the naïve suspicion that capturing me would dismantle some terrorist organization, although it doesn’t surprise me that it figures in their reasoning. They know that no permanent or rigid structure exists behind me, but their attempt to theoretically understand affinity groups and informal organization is not in vain, and I believe that it would be an error to underestimate them. Today they pursue me because they want to immobilize me; with an exemplary punishment, they want to curb the spread of an insurrectional idea that necessarily leads to practice. They pursue me because I practice and promote a way of life that destroys the foundations of the established order, because I am part of a dynamic and diffuse force that grows and asserts that not all of us are resigned to surviving within the submissive routine of exploitation, that we do not accept life as an obligatory and monotonous process that stems from what we are permitted, that there are many who are not seeking dialogue with or concessions from authority, but who instead aim for its total destruction.

If today my will/escape is an expression of how avoidable or vulnerable the system’s control can be, of the various ways of opposing the manipulation of our wishes or the submission of society, then I want to express it openly. In the same way, I reaffirm my free choice to live underground, which does not at all mean that “I have been staying home,” as I continue to reject what life is under the dominance of economic, political, police, or any other form of power. I remain obstinately zealous about making the totality of life a war against the existing world, which represents a tremendous challenge to all those who decide to confront it. I believe in the necessity and consequences of being a living testament to the negation of this world. It thus follows that solidarity and propaganda by the deed have the same value to me, just like they drive me far from the bright lights of the capitalist spectacle. My mistakes and carelessness brought these circumstances—in which I choose to keep myself far away from everyone I love and everything that forms part of my daily life—upon me; therefore, they have sparked a process of self-examination and personal growth, and they ensure that I now take additional precautions to keep myself out of the clutches of our enemies. Everything has changed for me, but my feelings and potency have only become stronger.

From the distant road I travel, I hope that my words will in some way be a support and an expression of affection to all my comrades and all those inside and outside the prison walls, who are part of the force and energy of inexhaustible conflict.

Finally, I salute all actions that attack power, and with the hope that they continue, I say good-bye.

_____

1Or do you have any doubt, Sub-Inspector Ismael Andrade?


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