Santiago de Chile, September 19 (Telesur-RHC) --- Chile was greeted a day after its independence celebrations with the reassuring news on Thursday that three suspects were detained in association with the terrorist attacks last week in the capital, Santiago de Chile.

Authorities announced that the three were arrested for possibly participating in the most serious bomb attack in Chile in 20 years, since the U.S.-backed military dictator Augusto Pinochet stepped down in 1989.

The suspects, Natalie Casanova Muñoz (26), Juan Flores Riquelme (22), and Guillermo Duran Mendez (25), are accused of detonating a bomb September 8th, near a Santiago subway station. The attack left 14 injured.

After concluding an extraordinary security conference, Chilean Minister of the Interior Rodrigo Peñailillo made an official announcement, but did not disclose further details as to the nature of the group that is suspected of the attack.

Peñailillo indicated that one of the male individuals arrested was responsible for detonating the devices that went off in the Los Dominicos subway station July 12 as well as in the shopping center at the Military School subway station on September 8.

The chief prosecutor of the southern district, Raul Guzman, explained that the suspects belong to "a quite compact and hermetic cell," and added that the authorities are continuing to gather evidence and search for additional suspects.

The President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, praised the law enforcement efforts in capturing the suspects.