Demands for Truth and Justice 40 Years after Chile’s Military Coup

October 1, 2013

I awoke suddenly to the sound of yelling and firecrackers. Peering out of my tenth story window, I saw a fire barricade in the street and a mob of people yelling “Justicia, verdad, no a la impunidad [Justice, truth, no to impunity].” It was 6:30 AM on September 11th, exactly 40 years since the military coup in which Pinochet came to power. Dismantling Allende from his presidency, Pinochet became dictator for 17 years, making drastic social, economic, and political changes and instilling fear in the nation. Minutes later, as I prepared to leave for classes at the university, a national news station announced, “The streets have been cleaned up in a short amount of time. Everything in Santiago is functioning normally.” Indicative of the overall trend, the Chilean 'democratic' government continues to silence marginalized voices and sweep demands for justice under the rug. Without justice and the development of a collective memory, Chilean society will continue to experience unrest and social fragmentation.

The political and economic policies of the dictatorship have resulted in a polarization of the society, but the greatest lasting effects stem from his regime of terror. Pinochet established a secret police called DINA and centers such as Parque Villa Grimaldi in which his government tortured and killed over 3,000 people, mostly for their leftist political views. According to Amnesty International and the U.N. Human Rights Commission, 250,000 people were detained during this period. Even though these facts have been verified, people such as the ex-general of DINA, Manuel Contreras, continue to deny that these abuses occurred—an unending injustice to those who were most deeply affected by the violence. Lorena Pizarro, the president of the Group of Families of Detained and Disappeared Persons (Agrupación de familiars de detenidos y desaparecidos), expressed this pain: “No solo detuvieron y asesinaron a las personas, te las negaban para siempre [they did not only detain and kill people, they denied them to you forever].” The stories and deaths of hundreds of thousands of people are still unknown. Lorena's own father disappeared during the dictatorship, and to this day, she lives with uncertainty of how his life came to an end.

As a form of protest against human rights abuses, thousands marched in solidarity with families of detained or disappeared persons the Sunday leading up to the 40th anniversary of the military coup I was moved to tears watching the crowd go by, each holding a picture of a missing person proudly above his or her head. An older gentleman watched from his balcony above; placing his hand over his heart, tears streamed down his face. His raw and genuine emotion signified to me that the dictatorship is very much alive in the aching hearts of the people. As Lorena emphasized, society cannot be healed without “verdad total y justicia plena a cada una de las víctimas [total truth and full justice for every one of the victims].” Rather than continuing to deny historical events and protect members of Pinochet’s dictatorship with impunity, history must be recognized and a diverse collective memory appreciated.

How can the Chilean government and society begin to heal after 40 years? As I see it, education is the most important step in order to build a more just society. The barriers to doing so are enormous. Chile still has the same constitution that was developed by Pinochet and the same neoliberal market philosophy that defines education as a product, not a human right. In history classes, students receive what a professor at Alberto Hurtado University calls “representación hegemónica del pasado [a hegemonic representation of the past].” Rather than critically engaging with history, students are discouraged from looking beyond the surface to recognize the diverse social fabric of the nation and the diverse experiences that accompany it. Not only will the fundamental understanding of education need to change, but also the way that Chilean society engages with marginalized history and voices.

The case of Chile provides a launching pad for other nations, communities, and individuals to examine their own histories and identities. How are marginalized voices being silenced What are the roles of justice and truth in a flourishing democracy? What are the consequences if we choose not to undertake this challenge?

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