Ramona Wadi -- Chilean Military Violence – a Legacy at Home and Abroad

Chilean Military Violence – a Legacy at Home and Abroad

Ramona Wadi

January 16, 2020

Chilean human rights and memory organisations have long pointed out that the Chilean military is one main factor obstructing the course of justice with regard to dictatorship-era crimes. The pact of silence has provided impunity for the many officials, agents and soldiers involved in torturing, murdering and disappearing dictatorship opponents between 1973 and 1990.

The military’s crimes against humanity have not receded from Chile’s memory. As the country maintains its mobilisation against the dictatorship-era constitution and President Sebastian Pinera’s neoliberal politics, the violence meted out against protestors has reignited the importance of looking at history to define the present. Since the protests started, the UN has recorded at least 130 cases of abuse and 24 cases of sexual violence against women, men and children. As a result of the military shooting at protestors in the face, 350 people have lost an eye. In all, 28,000 Chileans have been detained since the start of the demonstrations. There is nothing to suggest that the Chilean government will be investigating the crimes committed against civilians rejecting the neoliberal model and calling for an inclusive society.

Allende’s niece: ‘The Saturday before the coup, Iasked my uncle for a gun’

Interview. Maria Inés Bussi was Salvador Allende’s favorite niece. She lived with him while he was president, and she fled Pinochet’s soldiers after his death. Here she tells her story in detail for the first time.

Allende’s niece: ‘The Saturday before the coup, I asked my uncle for a gun’

written by Elena Basso

• TopicLatin America
• September 14, 2019

On Sept. 11, 1973, the La Moneda Palace in Santiago de Chile was attacked: the military rebelled in a coup aimed at overthrowing the socialist government of Salvador Allende. Seventy men barricaded themselves inside the palace to protect the life of the President, and the images were broadcast around the world: tanks invaded the streets of Santiago, the National Stadium was transformed into a concentration camp and the refugees ran for their lives to reach the grounds of various embassies.

The assault was relentless, and in the end Allende shot himself. The fighters at La Moneda were captured, tortured and killed, and the darkest days of Chile’s history began, under the oppression of the ferocious military dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet.

But what happened on that day to those who were close to the president? What happened to his family? Inés, the president’s favorite niece, 26 years old at the time, was caught by events far from La Moneda. That young girl has now become an elegant lady: Maria Inés Bussi.

Tall, slender, with blond hair in a chignon haircut and big blue eyes, Inés looks proud: she has decided to tell her story to the world for the first time. “That morning, I was at home with my partner, who was a political leader. He got a phone call, turned around and told me: ‘The Navy has mutinied in Valparaiso. The coup has begun.’ And that was how it all started.”

You were the President’s niece, and your partner was an important leader of the MIR (Revolutionary Left Movement). You yourself were helping Miguel Enríquez—the head of the MIR—and you had lived in the house of your uncle, President Allende, for many years. You must have been high on the list of people to be captured on Sept. 11. What do you remember about that day?

O outro 11 de setembro: a tragédia chilena

O outro 11 de Setembro: a tragédia chilena

O golpe militar que derrubou Salvador Allende em 1973 vitimou milhares de pessoas, destruiu os partidos políticos e as organizações dos trabalhadores e impôs o modelo precursor do neoliberalismo. Não por acaso, os estudantes e o povo que se manifestam nestes dias às centenas de milhares pelas ruas de Santiago levantam a bandeira de “Se va caer, se va caer, la educación de Pinochet”. Assim como a educação, a saúde e a previdência são privadas em sua esmagadora maioria, assim como as empresas que exploram o cobre, sua principal riqueza. Tão profunda foi a derrota imposta em 73. A melhor homenagem aos caídos, aos centenas de milhares de exilados é essa demonstração de força das massas chilenas.

Mas como se chegou a um desfecho tão terrível? Havia outra possibilidade? Como tão poderoso movimento social foi derrotado praticamente sem combates?

O Chile em 1970

O Chile tinha cerca de 10 milhões de habitantes, uma alta taxa de urbanização (75%), uma trajetória de quase cem anos de organização do movimento operário, o mais antigo e poderoso partido comunista das Américas, ao lado de um também antigo e forte partido socialista, que tinha uma forte ala esquerda. A democracia burguesa era bastante antiga e estável para os padrões latino-americanos: desde 1932 não havia golpes militares. O movimento de massas contava com uma poderosa central sindical, a CUT, cujos filiados representavam cerca de 25% dos assalariados.

Na década de 60, o Chile conheceu um profundo processo de mobilizações operárias, populares e estudantis, devido ao estrangulamento do modelo econômico de substituição de importações à influência da revolução cubana. Não por acaso, a Democracia Cristã (DC), em 1964, foi às eleições para enfrentar a coalizão de esquerda com a bandeira de “Revolução em liberdade”. Seu programa focava a reforma agrária, a incorporação dos pobres da cidade à economia e a “chilenização” do cobre”. Esse partido contou com o forte apoio do imperialismo americano, que àquela época implementava seu programa da Aliança para o Progresso a fim de tentar deter a tremenda influência da revolução cubana.