Pinochet’s coup d’état celebrates its 50th anniversary in a Chile that has not yet rid itself of its past

The rise of far-right positions adds to a citizen disinterest both in the acts of commemoration and in history itself.

On September 11, 1973, Chile saw the government of Salvador Allende overthrown militarily by a coup d’état led by a general, Augusto Pinochet, who would ultimately end up establishing a dictatorship from which the South American country could not free itself until 1990. Half a century later, Chile once again has a left-wing president, Gabriel Boric, but at street level citizens seem increasingly oblivious to dictatorial times from which there are still legacies, such as the Constitution.

Pinochet came to power under the pretext of “restoring the broken national institutional framework,” which ‘de facto’ allowed him to arrogate all powers at the head of the military junta. One of the longest-lasting dictatorships in the Southern Cone began 50 years ago, responsible for thousands of victims and with a political legacy that still underlies certain sectors.

The polls coincide in drawing a mixture of ignorance and disinterest in some of the darkest episodes in Chile’s recent history, especially when citizens are asked about what happened in the coup. Only 58% say they know a lot or something about the events that overthrew Allende, despite the fact that the figure is 78% if only those over 53 years of age are taken into account, according to a recent Cerc-Mori survey.

A certain taboo has also been broken regarding the public examination of what happened on September 11 and, in fact, one of the main political figures currently in Chile, with options even to become President, is José Antonio Kast, who has arrived to refer to the coup in this way: “On September 11, 1973, Chile chose freedom and the country we have today is thanks to the men and women who rose up to prevent the Marxist revolution in our land.”

Government campaign

The Boric Government has taken advantage of the anniversary to launch a battery of legislative proposals on Human Rights, with initiatives that, for example, seek to declassify the testimonies of the commission created in 2003 to document the abuses of the dictatorship. According to the latest updates to this report, the State officially recognizes nearly 40,000 victims including executions, arrests, torture and disappearances.

Boric, who also aspires to relaunch the search for the missing, has on several occasions attacked those who try to soften the figure of Pinochet, “whose government killed, tortured, exiled and made disappear those who thought differently.” “He was also corrupt and a thief. A coward to the end, he did everything within his power to evade justice,” he said in May in response to the statements of a right-wing leader who described Pinochet as a “statesman.” .

The dictator died in 2006 in a hospital in Santiago, with no official mourning in his memory nor any sentences behind him. The Chilean Justice has tried former officers (in August the Supreme Court convicted seven retired soldiers for the kidnapping and murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara), but in the case of Pinochet no attempt was successful, despite the fact that he was arrested in London in 2018 at the request of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón.

Boric also maintains his goal of reforming the Constitution that Chile still retains from the time of Pinochet, after citizens said ‘no’ to a first draft. A new Constitutional Convention now has it in its power to draft a second text and, on this occasion, it is the right (promoted among other leaders by Kast) who takes the lead, by virtue of the elections held in May.

Polarization

Polarization in Chile is therefore evident, in politics and also on the street. So much so, that seven out of ten people interviewed by Pulso Ciudadano believe that commemorating the coup d’état only serves to divide Chileans and less than 15 percent believe that it can be an opportunity to move towards unity.

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