Carlos the Jackal, born Ilich Ramírez Sánchez on October 12, 1949, is a Venezuelan militant who orchestrated some of the highest-profile terrorist attacks of the 1970s and ’80s. Born into an upper-class family, his father was a committed Marxist, and Carlos received an education that emphasized communist political theory. He later trained with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and was given the name “Carlos.” During a search of one of Carlos’s London safe houses, a journalist uncovered a copy of Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal, and Carlos was soon dubbed “Carlos the Jackal” by the media.
Carlos’s operations include the 1975 OPEC ministers hostage crisis in Vienna, attacks on an El Al airliner at Orly Airport in Paris, and the 1974 occupation of the French embassy in The Hague. After a long period on the run, he was captured in 1994 and was later sentenced to multiple life sentences for his acts of terrorism.