Carlos the Jackal

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez was a Venezuelan man known as Carlos the Jackal. He was a notorious political terrorist active from 1973 to 1985. He followed a Marxist–Leninist ideology, which is a specific type of political belief. Throughout his career, he received support from powerful intelligence agencies. These included the Stasi in East Germany and the KGB in the Soviet Union. His actions caused significant political instability across Europe and the Middle East.

Sánchez was born on October 12, 1949, in Michelena, Venezuela. His father, José Altagracia Ramírez Navas, was a Marxist lawyer. His father named him Ilich after the leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. This was a common practice in his family, as his siblings were also named Lenin and Vladimir. After attending high school in Caracas, he joined the Venezuelan Communist Party youth movement in 1959. He later attended a guerrilla warfare school in Cuba near Havana. Eventually, he studied at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, a place known for recruiting foreign communists.

In 1970, Sánchez moved to Beirut, Lebanon. He volunteered for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also called the PFLP. During this time, a recruiting officer named Bassam Abu Sharif gave him the code name "Carlos." This name was chosen because of his South American roots. A journalist from The Guardian later called him "The Jackal." This nickname came after a correspondent saw the novel "The Day of the Jackal" in an apartment where Sánchez had hidden weapons. He received specialized training near the Syria-Iraq border at a school code-named H4.

Sánchez participated in many violent operations during the 1970s. In 1973, he attempted to assassinate a British businessman named Joseph Sieff in London. The attempt failed when his pistol jammed. In 1975, he was involved in a gunfight at Orly Airport near Paris. That same year, he led a famous raid on the OPEC headquarters in Vienna. OPEC is the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. During this raid, a six-person team took over 60 hostages. Three people were killed during the attack.

Following the OPEC raid, Sánchez and several others demanded a plane. They flew to Algiers and eventually to Tripoli, Libya. Some reports claim Sánchez kept a large amount of money from this event. These claims suggest he kept between US$20 million and US$50 million for himself. Because he did not follow all orders, his leader, Wadie Haddad, expelled him from the PFLP. Sánchez then tried to start his own group called the Organization of Armed Struggle. He operated with help from the Stasi, who provided him with an office and 75 staff members in East Berlin.

In the early 1980s, Sánchez carried out more attacks to pressure the French government. He wanted them to release his wife, Magdalena Kopp, from prison. In 1982, his group was linked to the bombing of the Radio Free Europe offices in Munich. He also used bombs against French targets. These included the Paris-Toulouse TGV train in 1982, which killed five people. He also targeted the Al-Watan al-Arabi newspaper and several other trains. These attacks caused many injuries, including over 150 people hurt in various French bombings.

After years as an international fugitive, Sánchez was captured in Sudan. He was transferred to France to face legal consequences. He was convicted of several crimes, including the 1975 murder of two French agents and an informant. In 2011, he received an additional life sentence for attacks in France that killed 11 people. In 2017, he was sentenced to a third life term. He is currently serving these multiple life sentences in prison. His life serves as a significant example of how political terrorism shaped international relations in the late 20th century.