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

Editorials:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x559700

[struggle4progress]

1. I don't think Allende's "suicide" has ever been definitively confirmed

Chile Identifies Remains of Last to See Allende
11 Bodies of Supporters with President During 1973 Coup
Jan 27, 2010
... Researchers have identified the remains of 11 bodies of supporters found with Chilean President Salvador Allende after the September 11, 1973 military coup, led by General Augusto Pinochet. Forty supporters remained with President Allende during the attack on La Moneda, the Chilean president's palace, and were killed or captured in the initial stages of the coup. Those bodies had not been recovered, leaving questions unanswered for more than 37 years ... The recent identification of the remains of the 11 bodies of supporters who remained with Allende during the attacks began in 2001 when the bodies were discovered in an unmarked grave in a military facility. Although the exact events are unknown, many supporters were taken prisoner after the attacks and moved to a detention facility where researchers believe they were then killed and buried ... In 1978 Pinochet had hundreds of bodies unearthed and moved to new, secret locations, leaving the families of the dead without closure. The identification of these 11 bodies is part of the ongoing effort on the part of Chile's post-Pinochet government to reconcile its past ... http://www.suite101.com/content/chile-identifies-remains-of-last-to-see-allende-a181211

The murder of Allende
And the end of the Chilean way to socialism
Róbinson Rojas
Harper and Row, New York, 1975,1976
Fitzhenry&Whiteside Ltd., Toronto, Canada, 1975
Six or seven minutes past 2 P.M. on September 11, 1973, an infiltration patrol of the San Bemardo Infantry School commanded by Captain Roberto Garrido burst into the second floor of the Chilean Presidential Palace, Santiago's Palacio de La Moneda. Charging up the main staircase and covering themselves with spurts from their FAL machine guns, the patrol advanced to the entrance of the Salon Rojo, the state reception hall. Inside, through dense smoke coming from fires elsewhere in the building and from the explosion of tear gas bombs, grenades, and shells from Sherman tank cannons, the patrol captain saw a band of civilians braced to defend themselves with submachine guns. In a reflex action, Captain Garrido loosed a short burst from his weapon. One of his three bullets struck a civilian in the stomach. A soldier in Garrido's patrol imitated his commander, wounding the same man in the abdomen. As the man writhed on the floor in agony, Garrido suddenly realized who he was: Salvador Allende. "We shit on the President!" he shouted. There was more machine-gun fire from Garrido's patrol. Allende was riddled with bullets. As he slumped back dead, a second group of civilian defenders broke into the Salon Rojo from a side door. Their gunfire drove back Garrido and his patrol, who fled down the main staircase to the safety of the first floor, which the rebel troops had occupied. Some of the civilians returned to the Salon Rojo to see what could be done. Among them was Dr. Enrique Paris, a psychiatrist and President Allende's personal doctor. He leaned over the body, which showed the points of impact of at least six shots in the abdomen and lower stomach region. After taking Allende's pulse, he signaled that the President was dead. Someone, out of nowhere, appeared with a Chilean flag, and Enrique Paris covered the body with it ... http://www.rrojasdatabank.info/murder10.htm

[Judi Lynn]

4. So grateful to see these links. Have heard years ago a lot of real scepticism of the official story,

and the information furnished in the second link most clearly clears up a lot of obvious questions.

It DID take a very long time for them to get into La Moneda, even after bombing the bejesus out of the area.

Only got as far as page 9, and will put it aside for tonight, to finish tomorrow. Have already bookmarked it because it's a link I need to keep myself.

The stories I've heard have all seemed contrived, and downright insulting to normal intelligence.

Did you ever hear the one in which they claimed wnen they cleared out his desk they discovered cocaine, voodoo materials, and red silk pajamas? Oddly enough, in the documentary Panama Deception, Larry Birns states that they claimed they found cocaine, voodoo matrials, and pajamas in the office of Noriega of Panama after the invasion there! Now that's so probable, isn't it?

Sounds just like the crap invented by Operation Mongoose (made public through the Freedom of Information Act) headed by General Edward Lansdale when they made thousands of copies of a bogus photo of Fidel Castro, fat, sitting at a huge table overflowing with wonderful dishes, and surrounded by women. They printed some stupid caption on it pointing out what a pig he is, feasting while Cubans had nothing to eat. Apparently that one didn't work for them, just like the other obnoxious ideas they hatched, including all the blocked attempts on his ife.

You have probably heard that the gun Salvador Allende "committed suicide" with was a gun given to him by Fidel Castro. I've heard that one, too.

Thank you for providing this outstanding resource. It's a great bunch of information. So glad it's available.

On edit:
I did wince internally posting the caption under the photo, but it went with the photo.

Very glad your material addressed that deliberate disinformation.

[struggle4progress]

2. The Pinochet Affair: `I saw them herded to their death. I heard the gunfire as they died'

Adam Schesch, witness to Pinochet's worst atrocity, talking yesterday to `The Independent'
Andrew Buncombe
Wednesday, 21 October 1998

... No one knows how many ordinary citizens lost their lives after General Augusto Pinochet turned on his friend, President Salvador Allende, and ruthlessly seized power. But, in the 10 days he was held, Mr Schesch believes that between 400 and 600 people were executed by firing squads just yards from where he sat, hunched and terrified with his wife. Among the victims were fellow US citizens Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi.

"Just before they led the one line out into the stadium, they would start the extractor fans in the changing rooms just to make some noise," he said. "They did not want people to know what was happening. Then they would lead the line of people out of the changing rooms into the stadium."

Moments later, Mr Schesch would hear the unmistakable sound of machine- gun fire.

"There was a concrete wall between where I was being held and the stadium but I could hear everything, said Mr Schesch. "On one occasion my wife heard the people in the stadium singing `the Internationale'. Then the machine-guns started ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-pinochet-affair-i-saw-them-herded-to-their-death-i-heard-the-gunfire-as-they-died-1179543.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. Two people who came OUT of the stadium. They were lucky, weren't they?

Don't blame them one bit for NEVER returning to Chile again.

I hope their savage wounds, nightmares may fade away somehow, but it doesn't seem too likely.

[Judi Lynn]

3. 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

[Judi Lynn]

6. After reading S4P's information, I remembered a stunning story I discovered around 10 years ago.

I never forgot it although I lost the link. I just found it, after searching and searching after reading the two links by struggle4progress:

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

[VioletLake]

7. "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