Chile’s Coup and

Authoritarian Period

(Part Two: the Pinochet

Years)

After the coup

• Targeted immediately after September 1973 coup:– UP members, supporters of leftist parties,

anyone affiliated with Allende gov’t– Students, professors, university personnel– Military who opposed coup– Union members– Family and associates of the above groups

After the coup

Document 3: October 1, 1973. US Naval attache Patrick Ryan:

“Now that they are in fact again a ‘country in liberty,’ no obstacle is too high, no problem too difficult to solve. Their progress may be slow, but it will be as free men aspiring to goals which are for the benefit of Chile and not self-serving world Marxism.”

Repression

• Document 4: “The purpose of the executions is… to discourage by example those who seek to organize armed opposition to the Junta. …Also present is a puritanical, crusading spirit -- a determination to cleanse and rejuvenate Chile.”

• Over time, repression became more selective

Rubén Blades, “Despariciones”/ “Disappearances”

“Que alguien me diga si ha visto a mi esposo,” Preguntaba la Doña. “Se llama Ernesto X, tiene 40 años trabaja de celador en un negocio de carros llevaba camisa oscura y pantalón claro Salió anteanoche y no ha regresado y no se ya qué pensar pues esto antes no me había pasado…” ooo.....

“Can someone tell me if they’ve seen my husband,”The lady asked.“His name is Ernesto X, he’s 40 years old, he works as a guard in a car dealership. He was wearing a dark shirt and light-colored pants. He went out the night before last, and he hasn’t come back, and I don’t know what to think anymore. This has never happened to me before.”Ooo...

“Llevo tres días buscando a mi hermana.

Se llama Altagracia igual que la abuela. Salió del trabajo pa' la escuela, llevaba unos jeans y una camisa clara. No ha sido el novio, el tipo está en su casa.No saben de ella en la PSN ni en el hospital.” ooo.....

“I’ve been looking for my sister for three days.

Her name is Altagracia, the same as our grandmother.

She left work to go to school. She was wearing jeans and a light-colored shirt. She didn’t go off with her boyfriend; he’s at home. They don’t know anything about her at the police, nor at the hospital.”

Oooo…

“Que alguien me diga si ha visto a mi hijo…Es estudiante de pre-medicina, se llama Agustín y es un buen muchacho.A veces es terco cuando opina. Lo han detenido. No sé qué fuerza…pantalón claro, camisa a rayas pasó anteayer..”

“Can someone tell me if they’ve seen my son…

He’s a pre-med student, his name is Agustin and he’s a good kid.

Sometimes he’s stubborn about his opinions.

They detained him, I don’t know what force.

Light-colored pants and a striped shirt. It happened the day before yesterday…”

¿A dónde van los desaparecidos?Busca en el agua y en los matorrales y ¿por qué es que se desaparecen?Porque no todos somos iguales y ¿cuándo vuelve el desaparecido? Cada vez que lo trae el pensamiento ¿Cómo se se le habla al desaparecido? con la emoción apretando por dentro oooo...

Where do the “disappeared” go? Look for them in the water and in the weeds,And why do they “disappear”?Because we’re not all equal.And when does the “disappeared” come back? Every time that our thoughts bring him/her.How do you talk to the “disappeared”?With emotions bursting insideOoooo

Clara, Clara, Clara  Quiñones se llama mi madre Ella es , ella es un alma de Dios No se mete con nadie Y se la han llevado de testigo por un asunto que es nada más conmigo y fuí a entregarme hoy por la tarde y ahora dicen que no saben quién se la llevó del cuartel

Clara, Clara, Clara Quiñones Is my mother’s nameShe is, she is an angelShe doesn’t argue with anyone.But they’ve taken her as a witness,Because of something that only I did.So I went to turn myself in this afternoon, And now they say they don’t know who took her from the barracks.

Anoche escuché varias explosiones putún patá putún peté

Tiros de escopeta y de revolver

Carros acelerados, frenos, gritos Eco de botas en la calle Toque de puertas, “por dioses”, platos rotos

Estaban dando la telenovela por eso nadie miró pa' fuera

Last night I heard various explosionsputún patá putún petéShotgun fire, and revolvers,Cars accelerating, braking, ScreamsThe echo of boots on the pavementKnocking on doors, cries of “oh my God!” Shattering dishes

But the soap opera was on TV So no one looked outside

¿A dónde van los desaparecidos?Busca en el agua y en los matorrales y ¿por qué es que se desaparecen?Porque no todos somos iguales y ¿cuándo vuelve el desaparecido? Cada vez que lo trae el pensamiento ¿Cómo se se le habla al desaparecido? con la emoción apretando por dentro oooo...

Where do the “disappeared” go? Look for them in the water and in the weeds,And why do they “disappear”?Because we’re not all equal.And when does the “disappeared” come back? Every time that our thoughts bring him.How do you talk to the “disappeared”?With emotions bursting insideOoooo

Growing human rights movement

• 1974 Amnesty publishes first report on gross human rights violations in Chile

• Catholic Church, human rights groups, students’ groups, trade unions

• First national protest May 11, 1983: “The Time Has Come to Say Enough!”

Document 5

August 1975

NSC memo that Pinochet visit = “potential for embarrassment”

Secretary of State Kissinger told Gen. Pinochet, “In the United States, as you know, we are sympathetic to what you are trying to do here.”

The end of an era

• 1976: Carter elected US president

• 1988 plebiscite: 43% support for Pinochet

• Patricio Aylwin, first civilian president since Allende, took office 1990

Truth commissions• Truth Commission, created 1991 to investigate acts

ending in death/disappearance• Concluded in 1996 that:

• A total of 3,197 people died or went missing between September 11, 1973 and March 11, 1990.

• Of these, 1,102 classify as disappeared and 2,095 as deaths.

• Valech Report (2004): 27,000 were incarcerated without trials and subjected to torture– On eve of report’s publication, Chilean army released

unprecedented statement, “The army has taken the difficult but irreversible decision of admitting its responsibility as an institution for all the reprehensible and morally unacceptable acts of the past.”

The victims• Mostly urban and associated (rightly or wrongly)

with left– There was not an overt ethnic dimension to the killing

• Many from poor neighborhoods victims of raids by state forces (as in Machuca); more vulnerable to indiscriminate state violence

• However, many leading leftists were from relatively wealthy classes, from university settings; targeted violence affected prominent families

Broader effects

• Latin American Institute on Mental Health and Human Rights (ILAS) estimates 200,000 directly affected by repression

Absences

Absences

Absences

Absences

Absences

Justice?

• Amnesty law decreed 1978, cover all crimes between September 11, 1973 and March 10, 1978

• Inter-American Court of human rights ruled that amnesty law incompatible with Chile’s international HR obligations

• Court ruling that disappearances were “permanent kidnappings” not covered by the amnesty=> convictions of over 100 people

Pinochet’s fate

• After stepping down as president, remained “Senator for Life”

• Detained in 1998 when visiting Britain, on warrant from Spanish judge

• Eventually released on medical grounds in 1990, returned to Chile

• When died in 2006, 300 criminal charges pending against him in Chile

Lessons?

• Neither laws nor democratic values were enough to prevent descent into state terrorism

• Grassroots resistance, coupled with international advocacy, turned tide