Venezuelan terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal , the world?s most notorious terrorist. He claimed to have killed 83 victims as a ruthless hit man and assassin over the ’70s and ’80s, using guns, knives, bombs, bazookas and grenades, as well as taking and torturing hostages. His reputation became legendary but those who knew his work said it was exaggerated and romanticized beyond reality and in truth, he got by on luck through some bad errors in judgment.
Ilich, the eldest of three sons, was the favorite son of Jos‚ Altagracia Ram¡rez Navas, a lawyer and wealthy Venezuelan Communist party leader and he was named after his father?s hero, Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov (aka Lenin). In January 1964, at 14, Ilich joined the Venezuelan Communist Youth and became embroiled in their revolutionary activities, which included violent demonstrations against the ruling government. Following his parent?s divorce, he followed his mother and emigrated to London. While in school, he was known as lazy and a cheat, though affable. Round-faced and portly, he always loved luxury and style.
In 1968, anxious for his son to gain a “suitable” education, his father contacted the cultural attach‚ of the Soviet embassy in London and made arrangements for the boy to attend Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, considered a training ground for the future leaders of the Soviet Union’s expansion into third world states.
Dr Eduardo Gallegos Mancera, a senior member of the party’s politburo, offered him a post as the party representative in Bucharest. He turned the offer down, a move that was seen as a blatant insult to the one organization that had supported him. The final insult came when Ilich openly supported a rebel faction that the party was attempting to dissolve which led to his expulsion from the party in 1969.
Without the support of the party that had sponsored his studies at Lumumba, his days in Moscow were numbered. Several attempts were made by the university authorities to convince Ilich to cease his extra-curricular activities and concentrate on his studies but their efforts fell on deaf ears. Ilich became even more brazen in his activities and verbally abused anyone who dared to criticize him. Finally in 1970, when Ilich took part in a demonstration organized by Arab students, he was officially accused of “anti-Soviet provocation and indiscipline” and expelled from the university.
In 1970, Ilich met Rifaat Abul Auon, a Popular Front representative in Moscow, who subsequently invited him and a select group of his fellow students to attend a terrorist training camp in Jordan. Intrigued by the offer, Ilich left Moscow in July to travel to the Middle East. After his training he was selected for appointment as the Popular Front’s representative in London. His task was to ingratiate himself into British society and draw up a list of “high profile” targets that would either be murdered or kidnapped. On his return from Jordan, Ilich was sent to another training camp to learn the “finer points” of terrorism. By February 1971, Ilich was considered ready for his appointment and traveled to London to be reunited with his family.
By December 1971, he had compiled a detailed list containing hundreds of names. It was during this time that his early career as an undercover terrorist was almost terminated. Acting on a tip-off, members of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch raided the house in Walpole Street, Chelsea, where he lived with his mother, but after searching the house, found nothing of an incriminating nature. They were led to believe that Ilich was linked to a cache of illegal weapons that had been seized in a previous raid at the house of one of his friends. Incredibly, a fake Italian passport bearing a picture of Ilich was found in the raid but the police considered it unimportant. Apart from being placed under surveillance for several days after the raid, the police left him alone.
Ilich is one of the best known “revolutionary terrorists” in the history of modern insurgent movements. He reportedly has worked for Mohamar Qaddaffi of Libya, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, President Assad of Syria, Fidel Castro of Cuba, George Habash and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Italian Red Brigade, Columbia’s M-19 Movement, the Baader-Meinholf Gang, and any number of other “Communist and Socialist” employers. His resume’ is almost unparalleled in the exploits of terrorists of the last three decades. In the late seventies and early eighties, “Carlos” as he became known, was blamed for any number of skyjackings, bombings, and machine gun/grenade attacks on British, French and Israeli targets. He became a master of disguises and was known to have obtained any number of false identities, complete with passports and credit cards.
He was married in 1985 to Magdalena Kopp. He was arrested in Sudan 8/15/1994 and extradited to France the following day for trial after a two-decade hunt. The trial began on 12 December 1997 and ended on 23 December, when he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. In a second trial for crimes committed in France 1982 and 1983, Carlos was sentenced again to life imprisonment, on 15 December 2011.
Link to Wikipedia biography