Michael Townley Started a Revolution For His Wife (2)
In part one we witnessed the rise of an American who moved abroad to save his family and stop a revolution for his wife, no one could have guessed how it ended.
Authors Note: If you’re just joining us, here’s Part 1 of the story about the American who fought a revolution for the love of a woman, and how he ended up changing history and the Cold War.
By 1972, Chilean media was reporting that the anti-fascist group, Movement of Leftist Revolutionaries (MIR), was being armed by the Soviets. The group followed the late Che Guevara and believed the only way to protect the working class and topple a capitalist government was guerrilla warfare.
Michael Townley, an American mechanic who had moved to Santiago for his wife, was a member of the right-wing paramilitary group, Patria y Libertad. He believed they too needed to prepare for a civil war. It was up to them, he believed, to neutralize the MIR and save the country from communism.
Mike learned how to tie and gag someone and how to mix Molotov cocktails. He trained others in his group to make hundreds of them. And in one predawn raid, Mike hurled a Molotov at a municipal lot to scare the pro-government bus drivers defying a transportation strike.
When they discovered that they could steal dynamite from nearby copper mines, Mike learned to build improvised explosives. His militia bombed high-voltage electrical towers, oil pipelines, railway tracks, left-wing media stations, and the private residences of government officials. All together, a hundred explosions terrorized the country and sowed chaos.
Conservative media began brazenly calling for a military coup to overthrow the government, and they were not alone. Polls showed many voters had had enough of President Allende. A loud minority wanted a coup—and now!
It was distasteful to overthrow a democracy, but at least there would be law and order again. People wanted to return to their normal lives. After a coup, they expected the military to hold elections and make things right again.
President Allende saw “misinformation” in the media as an existential threat and believed much of it was paid for by the Americans. He began to requisition radio stations, fought to control newsprint, and compelled independent and opposition media to merge into a single network. It all fed the flames that he was a liar and an autocrat out to destroy the long tradition of free speech and democracy in Chile.
Mike saw censorship as an opportunity. He had toyed with radios and transmitters since he was a kid in Waterloo. It was virtually impossible for the government to police every frequency, everywhere, all the time; so he built a small radio transmitter that could be strapped to the back seat of a car.
His wife loved the idea of their own pirate radio. So Mariana got busy writing programs, and a few folk songs, about the dire need for change in Chile.
Zigzagging around Santiago, careful not to linger, Mariana’s voice was broadcast on what they called, “Radio Liberación.” Mike estimated they might reach a hundred people from any location downtown. It was fun to do together, but the couple ultimately stopped broadcasting because the impact was too small.
Mike also built a surveillance rig that intercepted radio traffic from the government. He handed the tapes to his superiors at Patria y Libertad and to friends at the American embassy. Leaders of the ultra-right group finally recognized the gringo had talent and was genuinely crazy about Chile … plus his wife was a force of nature and full of ideas.
Mariana was motivated because, having escaped domestic hell in Miami, they were finally “doing something,” and being recognized for it.
At the time, a conservative priest had one of the last right-leaning talk shows on state-run television. But one night, Mike and Mariana noticed that the television program started to flicker to the point where it was hard to understand the priest. It wasn’t the antenna on their TV.
Mike was sure the signal was being jammed and that the device was located near the broadcast. If they eliminated it, they would be heroes to the cause and soldiers defending free speech. Should they find it, they’d also have hard evidence that the leftists were playing dirty.
Mike and a couple of guys drove several hours to a hotel in Concepción and checked in using their real names. They identified the location of the jamming device, broke into the building and found it, just as Mike had predicted. But in the process of disabling the device, a stranger unexpectedly walked into the room.
Some say the man was a painter, others a night watchman, but before he could escape, the saboteurs tied and gagged him with adhesive tape like Mike had taught them. To their dismay, they made the tape so tight that the man suffocated to death. His name was Carlos Henríquez Aguilera.
It was an accident, they agreed, an unfortunate result of what had to be done.
Considering what the government would do to murdering fascists plotting to overthrow the administration, who would believe it was an accident?
As they sped back to Santiago, a police officer stopped them on the highway. Maybe they considered killing the cop if they got wind he was wise to them, but they played it cool and only got a speeding ticket—in the driver’s name.
Mike rushed home and confessed to Mariana. She was a co-conspirator, after all, and getting caught could ensnare the entire militia—possibly end the movement. She said not to beat himself up: “You did it for Chile.” Whatever guilt he might have had dissolved in his wife’s absolution.
One thing was evident: Mike needed a way out the country—and fast. It was only a matter of time before his mug was on a front page: THE MURDERER OF CONCEPCIÓN
Anxious members of Patria y Libertad stuffed him in the trunk of a car and transported him as close as possible to the border with Argentina. It’s unclear how he actually crossed the Andes; some say they flew him on a private jet, others that he trekked the sierra on foot.
However it happened, Mike managed to reach Miami in time to celebrate his parents’ wedding anniversary. Surprise!
Michael Townley had left the United States to save his family and to stop a revolution, but ended up killing an innocent man and had helped to start one. He was on his way to becoming a cold-blooded technician, but his story was just beginning.
Post Note: I owe a debt to the Chileans who told me their firsthand experiences during these turbulent times and to the authors who wrote incredibly detailed books on these topics (more on them later).