Different Forms of Repression or Acts of Political Violence

A review of the literature reveals that political repression evolves in various forms, with diverse outcomes ranging from pain, terror and extreme trauma, to death. Thus we have the Chilean case, in which Lira and Castillo identify and document the following forms of repression: multiple executions, shootings and executions, fugitive laws, war tribunals and death sentences, assassinations committed outside the country, staged battles, death by torture, kidnapping and disappearance, threats, exile, and expulsions from the country (Lira et. Al.: 1991).

The Committee to Defend the Rights of the People (CODEPU) in Chile, categorizes repression as indirect or direct. The former refers to actions such as firing from employment, denial of housing, health, or education, censorship, distortion of facts, etc. Direct repression includes cases of "assassination, kidnapping, disappearance, detention, torture, exile, internal exile (enforced residence), house searches without a warrant, imprisonment, and intimidation (threats, surveillance, constant harassment)," (CODEPU: 1994).

Psychologists Gomis, Romillo and Rodríguez point out that "in general, terrorist groups engage in six basic types of actions: threats, attempted murder, kidnapping, torture, assassination, and dumping of corpses," (Gomis, et. al. 1983). They add that normally these actions are connected to each other in a logical sequence, although they can occur individually.

In the Guatemalan case, the Center for Central American Documentation and Research (CIDCA) lists the following types of violations: murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, torture, discovery of corpses, terrorist attacks, armed confrontations, and death threats (CIDCA: 1980).

Further, Figueroa Ibarra classifies acts of terror as massive or selective: the first include massacres, destruction of villages, and mass kidnapping, while selective terror includes murder, kidnapping, and disappearances (Figueroa: 1991).

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