Terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Carlos the Jackal - Sanchez Ilyich Ramirez. Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez: international terrorism

Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez(Spanish) Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known by the nickname Carlos Jackal(English) Carlos the Jackal); genus. October 12, 1949) is an international terrorist. Carried out terrorist operations in the interests of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Red Brigades, the Colombian organization M-19, the Japanese Red Army, ETA, the PLO, the NLF of Turkey. He is currently serving a life sentence in a French prison.

Biography

Fiction

A snub nose with a hump, thick lips, puffy cheeks of an angry child, a beret pulled down over his eyes. Thick and strong figure.

• Andrey Tamantsev - "Double trap" (from the series "Soldiers of Fortune"), 2001,. A special task force is pursuing international terrorist Carlos Pereira Gomez, nicknamed Pilgrim, Explosive and Jackal, who is trying to blow up the Northern Nuclear Power Plant on the Kola Peninsula. The terrorist has a great resemblance to the prototype - Carlos the Jackal, but his biography is noticeably different.

Cinema

• "True Lies"
• "Double" (English) The Assignment) is a spy thriller based on a plan to capture Carlos the Jackal.
• Carlos (mini-series), directed by Olivier Assayas, 2010 - multi-part biographical television film.
• Frederick Forsyth, The Day of the Jackal

Born Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (Ilich Ramírez Sánchez) in 1949 in Venezuela (Venezuelan). Oddly enough, Carlos received his strange name - Ilyich - in honor of the Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. So, his father, a lawyer and passionate communist José Altagarcia Ramírez-Navas (José Altagarcia Ramírez-Navas), named all his sons in honor of the Soviet revolutionary leader - the two brothers Ilyich are called respectively Vladimir (Vladimir) and Lenin (Lenin).

The boy grew up in an atmosphere of faith in the world revolution. Already by adolescence, he shared his father's political views and began to hate "world imperialism" with a passion. The boy dreamed of becoming, like his father, a lawyer, as well as a professional revolutionary.

In the mid-1960s, he joined a communist youth organization, and later his parents divorced, and the mother took the children to London (London). Ramirez studied at Stafford House College in Kensington (Kensington), and after graduation he went to study at the London School of Economics (London School of Economics). In 1968, Ilyich, together with a brother named Lenin, briefly studied at the University. Patrice Lumumba in Moscow (Patrice Lumumba University, Moscow), and in 1970 it was from Moscow that the young man went to Beirut, Lebanon (Beirut, Lebanon).

It was in Lebanon in 1970 that he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). By the way, he visited the camps for the training of young terrorists as a child - his father sent him more than once for the summer to such organizations. It was in Lebanon that Ilyich Ramirez received his nickname - Carlos, gave him this name Bassam Abu Sharif (Bassam Abu Sharif) for his Latin American origin. But the journalists later gave the nickname Jackal to the terrorist - during a search in his hotel room, the book "The Day of the Jackal" by Forsyth (Frederick Forsyth) was found.

Carlos the Jackal began his active terrorist activities in the early 1970s, but from the very beginning he did not succeed - an attempt to eliminate the Jewish businessman and Zionist Edward Shif (Joseph Edward Sieff) failed.

This was followed by several other attacks - the bombing of the Bank Hapoalim bank in London, the attack on three French newspapers, and the unsuccessful attempt to attack the Israeli air company "El Al" at Paris Orly Airport (Orly Airport) in 1975.

Participation in other terrorist acts was also attributed to the Jackal, but there is no exact evidence for this.

The most famous terrorist attack involving Carlos the Jackal is the attack on the headquarters of OPEC (OPEC) in Vienna (Vienna) in December 1975. Hostages were taken, and Carlos and his group of six subsequently managed to get a fueled plane, on which the terrorists, along with the hostages, flew away. Later, the hostages were released for money, and the terrorists fled to the Middle East. By the way, Carlos the Jackal himself considered this operation a failure.

Best of the day

Islam Carlos the Jackal accepted in the same 1975, on the eve of his 26th birthday. It happened in the training camp of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was hiding in the countries of the Middle East for many years, and no particularly high-profile cases involving him were revealed, which, however, did not mean at all that the terrorist was inactive.

The French authorities got hold of Carlos the Jackal in 1994, extradited him after long delays by the authorities of Sudan (Sudan). In 1997, he received a life sentence in La Santé Prison in Paris. He was later transferred to Clairvaux Prison.

In 2003, Carlos published his autobiographical book, Revolutionary Islam, in which he talks about religion in general and about Islam he adopted in particular.

At the end of 2011, the court issued new charges to the terrorist, and Carlos the Jackal received a second life sentence for organizing terrorist attacks in France, as a result of which a total of 11 people died.

"I am proud that among the members of the Palestinian resistance, I set a record for the number of successful operations," Carlos said in an interview.

The image of Carlos the Jackal is very widely replicated in modern cinema and literature. So, the terrorist became the hero of several books, as well as films (the spy thriller "The Assignment" / "Double"), and even got into the song of the group "Black Grape" and the video game "James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire".

"I don't regret anything I've done. But I do regret the evolution of the modern world, the collapse of the USSR, and the fact that we haven't managed to liberate Palestine yet."

An international terrorist who committed more than 100 terrorist attacks and worked for a variety of international organizations, including the Red Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Red Army of Japan and others. Carlos the Jackal is currently serving time in a French prison.

Born Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (Ilich Ramírez Sánchez) in 1949 in Venezuela (Venezuelan). Oddly enough, Carlos received his strange name - Ilyich - in honor of the Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. So, his father, a lawyer and passionate communist José Altagarcia Ramírez-Navas (José Altagarcia Ramírez-Navas), named all his sons in honor of the Soviet revolutionary leader - the two brothers Ilyich are called respectively Vladimir (Vladimir) and Lenin (Lenin).

The boy grew up in an atmosphere of faith in the world revolution. Already by adolescence, he shared his father's political views and began to hate "world imperialism" with a passion. The boy dreamed of becoming, like his father, a lawyer, as well as a professional revolutionary.

In the mid-1960s, he joined a communist youth organization, and later his parents divorced, and the mother took the children to London (London). Ramirez studied at Stafford House College in Kensington (Kensington), and after graduation he went to study at the London School of Economics (London School of Economics). In 1968, Ilyich, together with a brother named Lenin, briefly studied at the University. Patrice Lumumba in Moscow (Patrice Lumumba University, Moscow), and in 1970 it was from Moscow that the young man went to Beirut, Lebanon (Beirut, Lebanon).

It was in Lebanon in 1970 that he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). By the way, he visited the camps for training young terrorists as a child -

his father sent him more than once for the summer to such organizations. It was in Lebanon that Ilyich Ramirez received his nickname - Carlos, gave him this name Bassam Abu Sharif (Bassam Abu Sharif) for his Latin American origin. But the journalists later gave the nickname Jackal to the terrorist - during a search in his hotel room, the book "The Day of the Jackal" by Forsyth (Frederick Forsyth) was found.

Carlos the Jackal began his active terrorist activities in the early 1970s, but from the very beginning he did not succeed - an attempt to eliminate the Jewish businessman and Zionist Edward Shif (Joseph Edward Sieff) failed.

This was followed by several other attacks - the bombing of the Bank Hapoalim bank in London, the attack on three French newspapers, and the unsuccessful attempt to attack the Israeli air company "El Al" at Paris Orly Airport (Orly Airport) in 1975.

Participation in other terrorist acts was also attributed to the Jackal, but there is no exact evidence for this.

The most famous terrorist attack involving Carlos the Jackal is the attack on the headquarters of OPEC (OPEC) in Vienna (Vienna) in December 1975. Hostages were taken, and Carlos and his group of six subsequently managed to get a fueled plane, on which the terrorists, along with the hostages, flew away. Later, the hostages were released for money, and the terrorists fled to the Middle East. By the way, Carlos the Jackal himself considered this operation a failure.

Carlos the Jackal accepted Islam in the same 1975, on the eve of St.

his 26th birthday. It happened in the training camp of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was hiding in the countries of the Middle East for many years, and no particularly high-profile cases involving him were revealed, which, however, did not mean at all that the terrorist was inactive.

The French authorities got hold of Carlos the Jackal in 1994, extradited him after long delays by the authorities of Sudan (Sudan). In 1997, he received a life sentence in La Santé Prison in Paris. He was later transferred to Clairvaux Prison.

In 2003, Carlos published his autobiographical book, Revolutionary Islam, in which he talks about religion in general and about Islam he adopted in particular.

At the end of 2011, the court issued new charges to the terrorist, and Carlos the Jackal received a second life sentence for organizing terrorist attacks in France, as a result of which a total of 11 people died.

"I am proud that among the members of the Palestinian resistance, I set a record for the number of successful operations," Carlos said in an interview.

The image of Carlos the Jackal is very widely replicated in modern cinema and literature. So, the terrorist became the hero of several books, as well as films (the spy thriller "The Assignment" / "Double"), and even got into the song of the group "Black Grape" and the video game "James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire".

"I do not regret anything that I did. But I regret the evolution of the modern world, the collapse of the USSR and the fact that we have not yet managed to liberate Palestine"

Ilyich Sanchez Ramirez

Long before the rise of the elusive Osama bin Laden, the “terrorist No. 1” who instilled fear and horror in the Western world was considered the “professional revolutionary”, the Venezuelan Carlos (Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez).
In addition to fighting for the "triumph of communist ideals", he also participated in the heroic actions of the Palestinian resistance fighters.

In 1994, Carlos was arrested and has been in a French prison ever since, where he is serving a life sentence.
A few years ago, his autobiographical book was published in France, in which, in particular, he talks about his conversion to Islam and shares his own thoughts about the religion he adopted.
This book was to be published in Russian by the publishing house Ultra. Culture”, the editor-in-chief of which was the famous poet Ilya Kormiltsev, who converted to Islam just before his death.
However, the publishing house was closed, and the Russian translation of the autobiography of the one whose name is still used to frighten politicians and intelligence officers around the world remained unpublished.

Excerpts from the autobiography of Carlos.

I made my political choice early.
Already in my youth I followed in the footsteps of my father, although in the end it is not the person himself who decides whether to be a revolutionary or not - the choice is made for us by the Revolution!
In January 1964, I joined the secret organization of the Venezuelan Communist Youth.
Conviction in the correctness of the chosen path grew stronger throughout my life, and the disappointment associated with the collapse of the Soviet system only strengthened my revolutionary faith.

In June 1970, I, along with sixteen other students, were expelled from the Patrice Lumumba University at the request of the Communist Party of Venezuela.
Leaving the Soviet Union, in July of the same year I arrived in Beirut, from where I moved to Jordan, where the active period of my life as a fighter for the cause of the liberation of the Palestinian people in the ranks of the National Front for the Liberation of Palestine began ...

I converted to Islam at the beginning of October 1975, at the Palestine Liberation Movement training camp in Yemen near Haar in the province of Abiyan.
I remember it so clearly, like it happened yesterday...
I was preparing for the rite among my fighting comrades - the Arabs, whom I was to command during a dangerous military operation in West Africa.
They were all Muslims and asked me to share their faith, so that - in case of death in battle - I would lead them to Paradise.
Brotherhood in arms became one of the main - deep - reasons for converting to Islam, which played a decisive role in my fate.
The inevitability of the eternal companion of a warrior - death - did not frighten me.
I perceived it as something natural, without melancholy and despair, because accidents are inevitable in a revolutionary war waged by any professional ideological fighter.

I took the initiation ceremony that day almost lightly, driven more by camaraderie than by mature reflection.
But then in my life there was a meeting with a courageous seer, the Iranian mullah Abu Akram - he was close to the Iranian Mujahideen (later they had to hide in Iraq).
Today, these people are forced to exercise extreme caution - the Americans have written them down as terrorists. Abu Akram was in my subordination, which did not prevent him from reprimanding us for frivolity.
In rich and flowery Arabic - remember, he was an Iranian, that is, a non-Arab - Abu Akram gave us many theological explanations and comments, after which he made us read the Fatiha again - a vow of faith, this time with full awareness of the importance of what was happening.
Thus I performed the ritual of conversion twice, and it gave rise to a long journey of moral and spiritual maturation.
This path is not over, and I do not intend to turn off it ...

I am not a "warrior of Allah" in the truest sense of the word - my faith lacks mysticism.
I am Muslim but my struggle is more political than religious.
I note that, contrary to the Bolshevik tradition, I have never treated Marxism as a religion.
My connection with communism is of an intellectual, rational nature...
My relationship with Marxism has never been dogmatic or religious, and let no one think that I have mechanically replaced the materialistic "religion" with the Muslim faith.

The concept of "political religion" is not fully applicable to Marxism: if it gave rise to fanaticism of all stripes, initially there was nothing confessional or eschatological in it.
One can die or be killed for any cause - the most just and infinitely heinous - and in this there will be neither overcoming oneself, nor the tangible presence of God ...

... the loss of ideals and faith in a just future, the betrayal of the hopes of huge masses of people, frank, undisguised deceit became, in my opinion, those underwater reefs that communist regimes ran into.
Americans, of course, are much more pleased to think that the world owes the fall of the Berlin Wall to the superiority of their strategic vision, the Afghan trap and SDI, the notorious "Star Wars" plan.
All this taken together undermined the voluntaristic, artificial economy of the socialist camp, which was on its last legs, unable to withstand the costs of the war in Afghanistan, or competition with the latest American technologies.

But the "analysts", in my opinion, lost sight of the underlying causes of the collapse of the Soviet system - I'm talking about the rejection of the permanent revolution (as an idea and as a real action), which for many years fed the revolutionary impulse of the entire Soviet society.
The world of equality and justice is a world that needs to be creatively created and improved, avoiding patterns.

Modern man has convinced himself that he can do without God, considering Him to be a useless component of being!
He has incredible stupidity to declare that he controls his own destiny, and owes his own success only to himself!
All this, of course, is pure absurdity.
Faith is the supreme act of development, and not vice versa.
However, only here, in Europe, did atheism acquire such arrogantly militant forms.
Americans - at least they try to cover their low goals with the Bible ...

God is a living, concrete and even material experience.
God is not an abstraction, not a spirit; the believer is convinced of this daily.
The West, to its misfortune, has forgotten this truth, it does not remember that both orders - the natural and the Divine - are one and the same.
To break one is to break the other.
Is it possible to break physical laws with impunity?

My conversion to Islam did not have an immediate and immediate effect on my living habits, including my diet.
The idea of ​​sin for me is separated from the original understanding of evil, the knowledge of the latter goes hand in hand with the acquisition of human life experience.
Evil has an “ontological” side, it is present in the world, it acts, exerting a tangible material and spiritual influence on people.
Sin is another matter, it lacks the aspect of the absolute.
You very often discover it after the fact, experiencing an instant pang of conscience.

Passing the path of spiritual development, I became more and more aware of the transcendental nature of my own actions and acquired the habit of silently crying out to the Lord, saying thanksgiving prayers: I asked God to show me the way, to protect and enlighten.
While in prison, I am forced to abstain from alcohol, but this does not depress me at all.
I hate drinking.
The habit of drinking wine with meals was for me more of a “cultural” ritual rooted in Latin American countries.

My vision of the world and the forces operating in it did not change much after the adoption of Islam, it has been simplified because I have found in the Qur'an and faith logical, sound answers to my own questions and those of other people.
Faith strengthened my conviction and fighting spirit.
I fight against active material and non-material forces, against people and ideas, against institutions, although my battle is of an intellectual nature.
I believe that pioneers should be able to pass on their experience to those who tomorrow life will send to the forefront ...
We must show them the way to Faith, justice and the struggle for truth, knowing how difficult the path to the Almighty.

... I have repeatedly noted for myself how important the role played in the national liberation and revolutionary battles by the clergy-soldiers.
In the context of Palestinian resistance, the role of religion is steadily increasing.
I was struck by the conviction of the fedayeen, and I was imbued with their faith.
I laugh at the absurd struggle against God, against the very idea that in this low world there can exist Something that surpasses our understanding and is inaccessible to our imagination.
The malicious and senseless prejudice, which many defenders of the proletarian revolution brandished like banners, was in those days in great fashion.
I was at an impasse - now I understand it, thanks to Heaven, I found a way out, and my new - no, updated! - Faith only confirmed the former commitments to the Revolution and the new human order, subject to the Divine plan.

Faith has given me invaluable help in understanding the combination of psychological and sociological factors in human relations and the importance of the religious factor in historical development in the past, present and future.
The purpose of history is to foresee; in retrospective analysis, perspective foresight is important.
This is a hackneyed truth, but it is useful to remember it from time to time.
It allows me to decipher the nature of internal and interstate clashes in the countries of the so-called South.

How to understand the conflicts and clashes of today exclusively from materialistic positions?
Now that the embargo has been lifted, journalistic scribblers have suddenly realized, as if by magic, how important the oil factor is in explaining the current crisis and American politics.

Control over energy resources is a defining, but not the only parameter, far from the only one.
It would be strange and unnatural to go in cycles in one aspect - certainly dominant, but which is only part of the whole, trying to explain the complexity of the situation to the public, which understands absolutely nothing in geopolitics.

They are either naive donkeys, or - and this version seems to me the most plausible - they repeat, like faithful dogs, what the voice of their master trumpets.
Pedaling the oil component of the conflict means obscuring other, no less - if not more - important aspects of the ongoing war.
The fate of Palestine is also at stake, but in the West only a few insiders understand this, all the rest - the media and their clients - do not even ask this question.

The conclusion did not change me one iota - I was and remain a revolutionary and a communist.
I will fight in every possible way to free the world from imperialist exploitation and Palestine from Zionist occupation.
Believe it or not, these are not the dreams of an idealist who has gone out of his mind and not bragging.

Anti-globalism today is stronger than any current and past political and ideological differences.
On the agenda is the question of the survival of the human species: if we continue to destroy the planet at the same pace as we are doing it now for the needs of the imperialist Moloch, then very soon we will return to primitive times and finally run wild.
To fight against imperialism means to fight for man and civilization, and not for one single religion.

I believe that the deep spiritual power of Islam helps us to return to a natural and at the same time sent down relationship with the human community and nature.
It seems that Malraux wrote that "the 21st century will be the century of religions, or it will not exist at all."
All reasonable people should realize how serious the challenge thrown to us is, since the future looks far from cloudless - despite all the boundless demagogy of the leaders who preach peace in the name of making it easier to wage wars.
Thunderclouds have already covered the sky over the heads of the “democracies”.
Great America, under the pretext of fighting terrorism, is robbing the entire planet.
"Big Sister America" ​​is already on the march, her war machine is debugged.
Do you think it can be stopped?
As for me, I know what my duty is, but I will not take up arms!
Years have passed, the conditions of the struggle have changed.
What remains is the political struggle, which I will not give up under any circumstances.

Islam strengthened my sense of solidarity, delivered from the tendency to individualism - this original sin is characteristic of all societies in the era of decline.
Islam constantly reminds us of belonging to a community and that the believer must always remember God.
This does not mean at all that a person completely loses his individuality, there is nothing totalitarian in Islam ...
This is the religion of free people, each of whom is personally responsible for the choice made in favor of good or evil ...
… my faith is too strong and deep, and, however paradoxical it may seem, it sets me free.

I was married three times: married to Isabelle Kutan, Magdalena Kopp, and also to Lana Harrar (with her - according to Sharia law).
My Palestinian wife took it upon herself to teach me how to pray, and watched with tender meekness as I performed the rites.
Her mother explained to me exactly how to abstain from food - this is not much different from fasting, forgotten by Catholics.
In Ramadan, Muslims must strictly observe all the rules, the law does not tolerate approximation.
Islam is demanding, but when a person goes to God, a lot is asked of him and he must give even more ...

By becoming a Muslim, I was able to overcome my hostility towards the Catholic Church.
Love for Jesus and His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, was born in my heart (People very often do not know that orthodox Muslims revere both the Son and the Mother).
There is a whole religious Islamic literature about the Virgin Mary and her house near Ephesus in Turkey: part of it has been turned into a mosque, and Muslim women come there to pray for the Blessed Virgin.

The theological disagreements that exist today between Islam and Christianity are certainly very serious, and it will not be possible to overcome them for a very long time.
The only undeniable fact is that we all believe in the One God.
For the Lord, each person is unique, and all true believers - be they Muslims, Christians or Jews - form a single community, of course, if they honor the Covenant!
Ultimately, I am absolutely convinced that all who are committed to the Scriptures are called to unite.
This is our destiny, this is our destiny.
Today we are going in different ways, but we have one goal.

I very strongly condemn the moral and spiritual decline of the so-called "democracies"- powerless, dying out, unable to control themselves, confused, vicious and corrupted by an excess of material wealth.
Slaves of base pleasures they shamelessly indulge in sexual excesses, feeding their brains with images of unthinkable cruelty, what Pope John Paul II calls "the culture of death."
You are so insane that you allow your children to absorb all these TV infamies every night.
Your society hasn't strayed too far from Aldous Huxley's 1930s "Brave New World," though you may be a little less inhuman.
The inevitable infantilism of dying socialism is best shown in public broadcasts competing with each other in stupidity.
I'm hardly overly pessimistic.
Many, without admitting it to themselves, gradually come to the same conclusions.

Let's dot all the i's: I am quite sure of the degeneration and decline of Western societies, but I have neither bitterness nor hatred.
Conversion to Islam helped me get rid of hasty judgments, made my feelings simple and clear.
I'm just stating and lamenting.
I am aware of the enormity of the task before me.
Faith made my view of the surrounding reality sharper, but also more principled and softer, which, however, has nothing to do with tolerance or connivance; the line that separates these phenomena from complicity - active or passive - is almost invisible.

Tolerance seems to me a suspicious concept, it has too much, on the one hand, indifference, and on the other hand, a tendency to introspection.
To be tolerant means to sympathize, to share the suffering and confusion generated by an unnatural and inhuman world.
Faith helped me understand, discover and feel the main thing: the monstrous rift that struck modern countries has a spiritual and moral origin, Societies are run by a corrupt minority with no shame or conscience.
But after all, without the guiding star of Faith and morality, any undertaking fails, any person goes astray.
Words about wandering in the dark are not an image or a figure of speech - this is a concrete and momentary reality that every person faces until he finds the path of light and truth in God.

The moral plague of the West has also struck the ruins of socialism.
I have already explained the collapse of the Soviet Union by the moral decay of the majority of its elites (the fish rots from the head!), Gradually losing all interest in the Revolution.
Over the years, the ideas of the Revolution and socialism have become for the bureaucratic caste, who value their power and privileges, simply ideological clichés that serve to deceive society. The collapse of the socialist camp, the transition of the economy of the former Soviet Union to a market economy, the subordination of all life to the interests of buying and selling completely and irrevocably changed the life of those countries that the Soviet Union had defended for a long time, while at the same time undermining their foundations.
The leadership of the countries of the so-called socialist camp did not have enough time to develop immunity against "wild" capitalism and its consequences - "ultra-liberalism".
In modern Western states, there are (or are being formed) pockets of resistance to the negative consequences of the post-Soviet development of Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe.

The peoples of the former Soviet empire paid a heavy price for the "openness" of political and economic modernization.
How many young women from the newly formed states went to the Mediterranean West and the Gulf countries to become prostitutes there, to the great delight of the nabobs of the oil principalities?
Petrodollars for oil courtesans... and yet these hypocrites ecstatically punish their women according to the outdated and cruel Sharia law, and American humanitarian organizations rarely speak about it at the top of their voices - It's about their allies.
Such enforcement should be immediately abolished, as it gives a distorted picture of Islam.

When I was twenty, events took place that radically changed my life and determined my future fate: The world revolution and the struggle of the Palestinian people merged in my mind.
I confess that my political choice and close spiritual connection with Palestine was further strengthened after meeting with Lana Harrar.

Struggle for me is a synonym for self-sacrifice in the name of the chosen cause.
Having converted to Islam in October 1975, I did not become either a mystic or a saint.
I'm just trying to find the light of Faith and not falter in the harsh trials of life, communicating with God directly, without intermediaries.

My communist ideals have withstood all life's sorrows and torments; they do not in the least contradict faith in the One God.
Faith enriched and expanded my vision of the world, giving additional and very good reasons not to deviate from the chosen positions.
Faith not only confirmed me in the rightness of the cause to which I devoted my life, but also helped me correct many mistakes and abandon incorrect assessments and delusions.
Islam strengthened my revolutionary views, it cleansed them, giving at the same time a new - sublime - meaning.

I'm in prison, but my mind and soul are free.
Prison is the decisive test in the fulfillment of my destiny.
In a certain sense, I, a prisoner, am freer than many, many people living in freedom: these slaves of false needs are pumped up with tranquilizers every evening - otherwise they cannot bear a miserable existence without ideals, without perspective, without hope, or themselves ...

I remain an incorrigible optimist, because ideals and Faith, merged together, lead me through life.
Sooner or later I will come out of prison, I am convinced of this, even if, having become free, I will be silent forever.
I finished writing Memories in November 1992 in Amman.
If Allah wills, they will see the light in twenty years - in any case after my death.

I submit to the will of the Almighty.
Praise be to Allah!

Carlos Ilyich Ramirez "Jackal"

"The biggest terrorist is the USA"

Igor Gashkov, Andrey Veselov

Carlos Ilyich Ramirez, nicknamed "The Jackal", is a legend of the leftist underground of the 1970s. The fighter against capitalist orders gained worldwide fame after a terrorist attack: hostage-taking at the headquarters of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna. In the hands of a supporter of Marx and Lenin were 11 ministers, the police fulfilled all the conditions of the kidnapper. In an interview with RIA Novosti, Carlos Ilyich Ramirez, who is serving a life sentence in a French prison, spoke about the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Islamic terrorism, the Cuban Revolution and Vladimir Putin.

Ilyich is not a patronymic, but a given name. Carlos's father, a prosperous Venezuelan lawyer, was a great admirer of the "leader of the world proletariat" and named his three sons Vladimir, Ilyich and Lenin. Carlos studied in Moscow at the Peoples' Friendship University, but dropped out and went to Europe, where he met left-wing radicals.

Disillusioned with the Soviet version of communism, Jackal focused on national movements in developing countries. Gradually, the political ideals of the revolutionary changed. Having joined the Palestinian militants, Carlos abandoned the atheism inherent in the communists and converted to Islam. He got his nickname after a search in his hotel room found Frederick Forsyth's novel The Day of the Jackal in his belongings. In 1994, the French secret services arrested Carlos on charges of terrorist attacks committed in Paris.

© AP Photo / Eliza Parmentier

The unraveling of the bonds of the radical dragged on for decades. Jackal was sentenced to several terms of life imprisonment. The last trial in one of his many cases was completed only at the end of 2017.

The prison has not changed Carlos: he still believes that the main cause of disasters on the planet is US policy.

US President Donald Trump has recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. What do you think about this?

“I am a Venezuelan by the blood of my parents and a Palestinian by the blood that I shed for the liberation of Palestine. I am both Venezuelan and Palestinian at the same time. I want to remind my brothers, my sisters, my Palestinian children that the fight is not over, that everything goes on, that the fight will end in victory. Because fear is not on our side. Look at the young Palestinian men, at the women, at those who take to the streets: how many of them, they are protesting, they are not giving up! And we must never forget that a million Palestinians were born outside of Palestine. Think of these refugees who will return, who are entitled to their land. I hope to live to see a Palestine free for all, Jews and Arabs alike.

How to counter Islamic terrorism?

War is terror, war is terrorism. The Western imperialist countries are fighting against the Muslims. Millions of Muslims are dying everywhere. So there is terrorism, but it is state terrorism, terrorism by Western states, and it kills millions.

The biggest terrorist is the United States. It's much more serious.

There is only one way to stop what you called Islamic terrorism - to recognize the rights of Muslims and, most importantly, to eliminate those hypocritical regimes, criminal and very rich on oil produced in the deserts of Arabia, to evacuate all the aggressive forces from the territory of the Arab countries. Then peace and happiness will come to these lands. The borders of most Arab countries were drawn by the imperialists, primarily by the British. And the Americans followed.

Muslims must be free and foreign presence in Islamic lands must be fought. Worst of all, these imperialist countries are invading, killing, massacring in the name of democracy and human rights. But where is it, democracy? In France, in the country where the French Revolution took place, people don't go to the polls. And the votes of the majority of citizens are not taken into account in parliamentary elections. What kind of democracy is this? France does not have a direct proportional system where every vote counts, and such a system is needed.

You were raised in a Christian culture but then converted to Islam. Why?

“I was raised in an atheistic environment. God? What is God? Is it like Stalin? But then I had doubts about the atheism that I was taught.

There is little good in the Catholic religion that dominates Venezuela. There are religions that are not even religions, but simply systems of oppression, lies and manipulation, and this is everywhere. Such elements can be found in all beliefs. See what's happening now. There are, for example, Buddhist fanatics. Buddhism is not a religion of love and peace at all! They attack poor Muslims. This is happening in Myanmar.

The difference between Christianity and Islam is that Islam is a logical consequence of Christianity.

Cuba is still building socialism. How do you rate their success?

— I have never been to Cuba for personal reasons. But who are we, all the people of the world, to give advice to Cubans? They have made mistakes, and they may still make them. But Cuba is an independent (he emphasizes this with his voice. - Approx. ed.) and a socialist country. And for that, she should be respected.

© AP Photo / Ramon Espinosa

Do you dream of freedom? What would you do if you were free?

— Yes, I dream of liberation. But I can't say what I would have done: France didn't free me. Only I am not a prisoner of France, but a prisoner of American imperialism. In my homeland, in Venezuela, in power, Maduro is a true Bolivarian, although there is corruption in the country. If I were free, I would offer my experience to cleanse my country of corruption.

Whom do you respect from modern politicians?

- This is a delicate issue. There are not many politicians in the world whom I would respect. But, of course, this is Comrade Putin.

In my part of the world, of course, Raul Castro. Cuba is an independent country.

Raul Castro was side by side with Fidel. I hope he continues the same line. And the Chinese leaders who brought the country out of poverty deserve respect, so that the PRC will soon become the first power in the world - politically, economically and even culturally.

And Hugo Chavez, who passed away, he was an extraordinary person. I've made mistakes too, but that's inevitable. However, he set an example for all Latin American countries. There is a thing that directly concerns my case: Chavez broke off diplomatic relations with Israel. No Arab country will dare to do this.