Raúl Alejandro Pellegrin Friedmann (28 October 1958 – 30 October 1988) was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an guerrilla leader. He was the founder and main leader of the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front, in which he was well known as "Comandante José Miguel", "Rodrigo" or "Benjamín".

Early life

He was born to Raúl Pellegrin Arias (of French descent) and Judith "Tita" Friedmann Volosky (of

Russian-Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

descent).

Career

In 1976, his family moved to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

where he pursued a career in medicine, but a few months later, he decided to leave college to take up a military career, joining the school Camilo Cienfuegos which is dependent on Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR). Over there, he lived with nearly one hundred Chilean military personnel under the support of the government of

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

. From that school, Pellegrin graduated in late 1978 with the rank of lieutenant. In early 1979, he decided to travel to

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

to support the struggle of the

Sandinista National Liberation Front The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a Socialism, socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after ...

(FSLN), which sought to overthrow President

Anastasio Somoza Debayle Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle (; 5 December 1925 – 17 September 1980) was the President of Nicaragua from 1 May 1967 to 1 May 1972 and from 1 December 1974 to 17 July 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was ''de facto'' ruler of ...

Death

Pellegrin was found dead on 30 October 1988, at age 30. His body was found floating in the

Tinguiririca River Tinguiririca River is a river of Chile located in the Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region. It rises in the Andes, at the confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join ...

References

1958 births 1988 deaths Chilean communists Chilean emigrants to Cuba Chilean people of French descent Chilean people of Russian-Jewish descent Chilean revolutionaries People from Santiago Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front {{Chile-politician-stub