Chile: the other 9/11 anniversary

[Judi Lynn]

Chile: the other 9/11 anniversary
The devastating legacy of Pinochet's coup of 11 September 1973 goes far beyond the economy and the armed forces

Raúl Zibechi guardian.co.uk, Saturday 11 September 2010 12.00 BST

http://static.guim.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/9/10/1284139880365/salvador-allende-suicide--006.jpg

The body of Salvador Allende is carried from the destroyed
presidential palace of La Moneda, Santiago on 11 September
1973. Allende committed suicide before he could be captured.
Photograph: El Mercurio/AP

Of the many military coups faced by the republics of Latin America, it is the coup of 11 September 1973 that has engraved itself most permanently on the collective memory. The images of the bombing of the Moneda Palace, of the despair on the face of Salvador Allende shortly before his suicide, of the defiant expression worn by Pinochet behind his dark glasses and of the public burning of books that circulated around the world and became the symbol of military brutality.

The dispersal into exile of 200,000 Chileans, most of them to Europe, added to the media images of men and women who had seen their lives destroyed by the death or disappearance of friends and relatives. The murder of thousands of political opponents and the detention and torture of people who were identified with the constitutional government isolated the military regime internationally.

The coup was supported by the US government of Richard Nixon. But after 1977, the Carter administration distanced itself from Pinochet because of his repeated violation of human rights. The regime remained in power for 16 years, becoming one of the longest lasting military dictatorships in Latin America, and it almost certainly introduced more changes than in any other country. Economic policy took a radical neoliberal turn under the influence of Milton Friedman. Allende's nationalisations were reversed and a programme of privatisations was introduced, together with the elimination of tariff barriers; this, alongside the banning of trade unions, produced a dramatic fall in real wages and an equally dramatic increase in business profits.

During Pinochet's time there was a massive influx of foreign capital, which produced both significant economic growth and widening inequalities, most notably during the crisis of 1983 when unemployment reached 30% and 55% of the population fell below the poverty line. Despite all this, it could be said that the dictatorship was successful in economic terms, reversing the balance of social forces in favour of a business sector that enjoyed the unequivocal support of the state, for example in the forestry sector.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/11/chile-coup-anniversary-pinochet

[abq e streeter]

1. Part of one of my posts about this last night....

Sun Sep-12-10 02:14 AM
Response to Reply #29
42. And all so the already rich could get richer, and as a nice little laboratory

for Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys and their "free market" economic theories. I hope every last one of them, from Friedman and Reagan and Pinochet, to the lowliest soldier/torturer/murderer, rots in hell for this...........and a little more of that post:

And most Americans do not know any of this, and don't care. I remember being at a band practice and were taking a break and watching TV when Pinochet was arrested in London. I made a comment to the effect of thank God, and the two other guys watching with me, educated citizens, started laughing , thinking this was amusing that I actually gave a damn that this monster was finally going to answer for his crimes. Of course, as it turned out, neither of them had the slightest idea who Pinochet was, yet laughed at me for knowing and caring. This is what we're up against. Sorry for the directionless rambling; I still get viscerally upset at the willful ignorance of most Americans about the crimes committed in their name.




I have been re-reading The Shock Doctrine, and have, only by coincidence, been on the chapter about Chile this Sept 11th...I can only read a page or two at a time; I get too angry to where I'm almost physically shaking.

And yet the author of this says:"Despite all this, it could be said that the dictatorship was successful in economic terms." Incredible...and sickening.

[Judi Lynn]

3. The more you learn about this long running nightmare, the angrier you get, it's true.

It's easy for people to laugh it off when they don't anything about it. They reveal they are foolish, and lazy, painfully ignorant.

People who DO know something and laugh it off are monsters.

Here's a story you may find interesting. I first saw it around 2000, and lost track of it until responding to a tremedous post on this subject in the Latin American forum and wanted to include it, and started searching for it. So glad I finally found it, as I never forgot it:

From the issue dated August 17, 2001
Justice, Memory, and a Professor's Accusation
One scholar charges another with participating in his torture in
Chile, and many academics feel the reverberations
By MICHAEL EASTERBROOK
Santiago, Chile

Felipe Aguero could not believe what he was seeing that day in 1988. Mr. Aguero, at the time
an instructor at Duke University, was once more in Chile, a country he had left six years
earlier with an overwhelming sense of relief.

Even though about 15 other people were in the room, he couldn't stop thinking about a man
on his right. They were sitting around a table at a Santiago hotel, participating in a conference
organized by the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences. Mr. Aguero tried to act normal
but felt nervous and self-conscious.

"I was staring in disbelief," he recalls. "I couldn't put together the fact that here, in an
academic workshop, was a man who I clearly remember as having been in my own personal
torture chamber." When the conference ended, he collected his things and hurried out.

Mr. Aguero, now an associate professor of international and comparative studies at the
University of Miami's School of International Studies, would run into the man more than once
over the next few years, and eventually would resolve to talk to him about the first time they had
met.

During another visit to Santiago, he went to the man's university office but found no one there. As
he waited, the fear and anxiety returned, and he crept out of the building before the man came
back. After that, he avoided conferences and other academic settings where he thought the man might be.
"I thought, if anyone should be feeling bad it should be him, not me."

More:
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/lawdem/additional_documents/Aguero%20Meneses%20story.pdf

~~~~~
Chile's National Stadium
As Monument, as Memorial
Katherine Hite

~snip~
You mean they actually use that place as a sports stadium today?" an American friend asked me incredulously. I was telling her about a piece I was researching for a book on the case of Chilean friend and colleague Felipe Aguero, a professor of political science at the University of Miami. In 1973, Aguero had been held and savagely tortured in the National Stadium. Three years ago, Aguero's case made international headlines when he "outted" his former torturer Emilio Meneses, now a retired air force officer who had also become a political science professor. Meneses teaches at Santiago's Catholic University.

~snip~
recently declassified US government documents reveal that the CIA closely followed what was taking place in the Stadium. The agency proved discerning in its assessment of the Chilean military's account of both the number of prisoners and the behavior of the interrogators. One document also reveals that in their efforts to "manage" the stadium's burgeoning number of prisoners, Chilean general Nicanor Díaz and Brigadier General Francisco Herrera specifically approached a US government agent to seek assistance, including a technical advisor that "must have knowledge in the establishment and operation of a detention center." The advisor would assist in surveying for a new detention site. The generals also "requested the possible loan of inflatable tentage or other portable structures and equipment for temporary housing until the detainees can construct their own housing and administrative buildings." US Ambassador Nathaniel Davis, who prepared the cable regarding the request, noted that while it might be ill-advised to provide an advisor for such an endeavor, the provision of tents and blankets might earn the US some credibility with the United Nations Human Rights Commission, who communicated to him that the prisoners needed blankets.

More:
http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/revista/articles/view/704

[groovedaddy]

4. What was the outcome of the civil suit brought by Meneses v. Aguero?

I did some google searching but most of the results were in Spanish. I hope Mr. Aguero received justice and Meneses lost this suit.

[Judi Lynn]

2. 13 injured, 251 detained on anniversary of Chile's 1973 military coup

13 injured, 251 detained on anniversary of Chile's 1973 military coup
13:52, September 13, 2010

Thirteen people were injured in protests across Chile on the 37th anniversary of a military coup in the country, official sources said here on Sunday.

Another 251 Chilean people, including 59 minors, were detained when they clashed with police on Saturday night and early Sunday, according to the Carabineros, Chile's military police.

It said nine of the 13 wounded were police officers.

On Saturday, Chile commemorated the 37th anniversary of the military coup against former president Salvador Allende in 1973, which ushered in the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.

Official figures show some 3,119 people were killed during the Pinochet regime from 1973 to 1990.

More:
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/7138605.html

[eyeofdelphi]

5. i am often astounded by what americans don't know

the first time i ever came across this tragedy was when reading "My Invented Country" by Isabelle Allende. if i remember correctly she's actually in some way related to Salvador Allende. anyway, as i was reading about all this i just kept thinking, where was this in my history class? i had to go research it for myself to learn more.

[Judi Lynn]

6. It hits you like a slow moving tidal wave when you start discovering how much has been concealed

about the Americas in which the U.S. government has been deeply, tragically involved while the U.S. American public has been deliberately led to believe something entirely different.

It's good to know you noticed the gulf between what we know, (been told) and what has really happened. Most people never look deeply enough to see it, and apparently there are many who know something about it but are compelled to believe it doesn't matter, since "me, first" is far more important to them, even at the cost to others in vast, long, mind boggling human suffering, brutality beyond comprehension.

I've been confused about Isabel, too, and looked it up a minute ago after seeing your post. This is from Wikipedia which we do know can often be completely manipulated for any reason at all, if someone doesn't step forward to correct it:

Isabel Allende was born in Lima, Peru, the daughter of Francisca Llona Barros and Tomás Allende; the Chilean ambassador to Peru. Her father was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 to 1973; so Salvador is her first cousin once removed.<7><8><9> Many sources cite Allende as being Salvador Allende's niece (without specifying that the relationship is that Tomas and Salvador are cousins);<10> the confusion stems from Allende herself often referring to Salvador as her "'uncle" (tío) in her private life and public interviews,<11> because in Spanish a "first cousin once removed" is translated as "second degree uncle" (tío en segundo grado).

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Allende

Welcome to D.U., eyeofdelphi. :hi:

[eyeofdelphi]

7. hi, thanks

i've been here forever, i just hardly ever post. i'm all shy.
my history professor recommended this book to me "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq" by Stephen Kinzer. it's really good. i make a mental list of books to keep around for when my son gets to high school american history, so he can know the other half of our history.
as for isabel saying he was her uncle. i've lived in tucson and studied spanish and have a few spanish speaking friends now. they say that basically any extended family member that's older than you is auntie or uncle as a sign of respect. even close family friends that aren't related in any way are auntie and uncle.

[VioletLake]

8. "Chile’s Ghosts: The Tyranny of Forgetting"

Excerpt:

Late in the afternoon on September 4th, 1970 a crowd gathered in central Santiago, Chile to celebrate the election of socialist president Salvador Allende. Among the participants in the celebration were the leftist folk singer Victor Jara and his wife Joan.

In her book, Victor: An Unfinished Song, Joan Jara recounts this scene "full of happiness, hugs and tears." People pushed through the crowd, eager to congratulate Allende. When Joan neared the president-elect she remembers embracing him in a cathartic, bear-like hug. Allende said to her, "Hug me harder, compañera! This is not a time for timidity!"

The hope of that day ended in bloodshed just three years later. On September 11th, 1973 Allende was overthrown in a US-backed coup. The military dictator Augusto Pinochet took power, and led the country in a reign of terror which left thousands dead, tortured and traumatized. Among the coup's victims were Victor Jara and Allende.

As part of the crackdown, armed forces searched the home of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Neruda told the soldiers, "Look around-there's only one thing of danger for you here-poetry." He died days later of heart failure, on September 23rd.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/13-5

[Judi Lynn]

9. 14 Military Members Convicted in 'Historic' Ruling

14 Military Members Convicted in 'Historic' Ruling
By Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Sep 13, 2010 (IPS) - Eleven members of the Chilean armed forces and three Uruguayan military officers were found guilty of the kidnap-murder of Chilean biochemist Eugenio Berríos, an intelligence agent of the 1973-1990 regime of Chilean Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Berríos was secretly taken to Uruguay in 1991, hidden or kidnapped for more than a year, and then killed. The 14 military men were sentenced Friday on charges of illicit association, kidnapping and homicide. The three retired Uruguayan officers have appealed the verdict.

"This is without a doubt a historic ruling, because in one way or another it closes a chapter in Chile's transition to democracy," journalist Jorge Molina Sanhueza, author of the 2002 book "Crimen Imperfecto. Historia del químico DINA Eugenio Berríos y la muerte de Eduardo Frei Montalva" (Imperfect Crime: The Story of DINA Chemist Eugenio Berríos and the Death of Eduardo Frei Montalva), told IPS.

"All the different aspects of an era come together somehow in the Berríos case," he said. "It's as if we had wanted to speak of a case par excellence of all of the military dictatorship's power in the shadows." "It entails all aspects: identity theft, clandestine payments, homicide, cover-ups, protection networks," he added.

Berríos was involved in research on lethal biochemical weapons like sarin nerve gas in the dictatorship's secret police, the DINA.

The verdict handed down by Judge Alejandro Madrid found that Berríos was kidnapped and killed by active duty members of the Chilean and Uruguayan armed forces in one of the last episodes of Operation Condor.

Operation Condor was a coordinated plan among the military governments that ruled Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay in the 1970s and 1980s, aimed at tracking down, capturing, torturing and eliminating left-wing opponents, with the tacit approval of the United States.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52812

On edit:
My emphasis.