Bolsonaro: Chile ‘is not Cuba’ thanks to Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro accused the former Chilean leader and current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, of “following Macron’s line in meddling in domestic affairs and Brazilian sovereignty.”
French President Emmanuel Macron had led international outrage over the Amazon forest fires and Bolsonaro’s handling of the mass destruction.
In attacking Bachelet, Bolsonaro praised the Chilean coup which brought Augusto Pinochet to power
After Bachelet voiced criticism of police brutality and an erosion of democracy in Brazil, the country’s president took to Facebook.
Bolsonaro posted on Wednesday that Bachelet is “attacking our brave civilian and military police officers,” and hinted hypocrisy surrounding Chile’s human rights record. He also appeared to show praise for the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
“While [Bachelet] says that Brazil is losing democratic space, she forgets that her country is not Cuba thanks only to those who had the courage to put a stop on the left-wing in 1973,” Bolsonaro wrote.
He attacked Bachelet by adding, “among the communists during that era was her brigadier father.”
Bachelet’s father Alberto had been an air force general loyal to the socialist president Salvador Allende after the 1973 coup and died in jail. Bachelet was tortured under the Pinochet regime.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
Chile’s September 11
September 11, 1973, changed the lives of many Chileans forever. General Augusto Pinochet, commander in chief of the Chilean army, overthrew the incumbent socialist president, Salvador Allende. The military bombarded the presidential palace “La Moneda” in the capital Santiago, arrested government supporters, leftists and Pinochet opponents.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
Salvador Allende, a people’s president
The socialist president had only been in office for three years before the coup. After having nationalized companies and dispossessed great land owners, his government faced massive opposition. The US didn’t approve of the socialist leader in South America either. With the help of the CIA, Washington boycotted Allende’s economic policies and incited Chile’s media against the government.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
The president’s death
President Allende committed suicide on the day of the coup, stating in his farewell speech that his commitment to Chile did not allow him to take an easy way out. The photo above shows soldiers and firefighters carrying his body from the presidential palace. Meanwhile, the Estadio Nacional stadium was used as a concentration camp: 40,000 people were detained there, thousands tortured and killed.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
A stadium as a concentration camp
Walter Ramirez, cameraman for DW’s “After the Escape” feature, was also arrested. A student at the time, he was walking with a friend when soldiers arrested the two of them on September 11, 1973. His friend not only had long hair, he also had Argentinian pesos on him, which he needed to travel to his wife and son in Argentina. For days, the alleged “traitors” were kept in the national stadium.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
Shots in the changing room
Walter Ramirez and his friend were locked into a changing room with nearly 100 other men. They all needed to share two bathrooms, while bored soldiers shot at the windows. After several days, Walter and his friend were released. To this day, he doesn’t know why. Could it be because his father worked for a US company? The topic is taboo in his family.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
General turned dictator: Augusto Pinochet
The head behind the coup was General Augusto Pinochet, supreme commander of the armed forces. He governed Chile from 1973 until 1990 in a dictatorial style. Political parties and leftist trade unions were forbidden. Freedom of opinion ceased to exist. Despite all this, the Pinochet regime continued to be supported by the US, as well as some politicians in Germany.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
Torture, assassinations and book burnings
Chilean artists, writers and intellectuals were also persecuted. Song writer Victor Jara was arrested, tortured and shot to death in a basketball stadium in Santiago. Books written by authors regarded as bothersome were burnt on the streets. Numerous opponents of the regime were to leave Chile over the next months and years.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
Antonio Skarmeta: exile in Berlin
Author and university professor Antonio Skarmeta also fled Chile in 1973. For 16 years, he lived in exile in Berlin where he wrote “Nixpassiert” (Nothing Happened) and “The Postman,” two highly successful books that were adapted into film several times. Exile was a theme that would dominate his life. His story is told in the DW special feature, “After the Escape.”
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
Isabel Allende’s flight from Chile
Another internationally acclaimed writer who left Chile is Isabel Allende, author of the bestseller “The House of the Spirits.” In 1975, the journalist and women’s rights activist fled to Venezuela. Incidentally, President Salvador Allende was not her uncle, as is often claimed, but the cousin of her father. In her novel “Paula,” she describes her years in exile. She now lives in the US.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
Numbered days for Pinochet
In August 1987, dictator Augusto Pinochet oversaw a military parade in honor of the 14th anniversary of his coup (picture). But his days were numbered. A national referendum on his political future was planned for October 1988. The opponents of his dictatorship mobilized all available forces. With a spectacular action, they initiated change for Chile.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
A successful No campaign
In October 1988, the Chilean population decided whether or not Augusto Pinochet should run as the sole candidate during the next elections. Yes or no? A colorful campaign mobilized the masses. A majority dared to say no. It was the beginning of the end of the dictatorship.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
Peaceful transition to democracy
In 1990, Pinochet handed over power to Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin (right). However, until 1998, Pinochet continued serving as supreme commander of the armed forces. Implicated in over 300 criminal charges, a final verdict wasn’t reached by the International Criminal Court before Augusto Pinochet’s death at the age of 91, on December 10, 2006.
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Artists After the Escape: Chile’s coup, dictatorship and the path to democracy
The dictatorship’s legacy in a divided society
It took a long time for Chile to deal with its former dictatorship. Democracy has by no means solved all problems. On this photo from March 2017, people demonstrate against the AFP pension system, which was privatized during the Pinochet era and still excludes many people from obtaining a pension. The dictatorship continues to haunt the country, but at least people can now demonstrate for change.
Read more: German government cagey on spy cooperation in Pinochet’s Chile
Bachelet criticizes Brazil
The human rights commissioner had expressed concerns in Geneva over a spike in police violence in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo states.
Bachelet criticized police violence in Brazil
She said that Bolsonaro’s discourse could “entrench impunity and reinforce the message that state agents are above the law and are effectively able to kill without being held to account.”
Along similar lines as Macron, Bachelet also criticized attacks on indigenous communities following the forest fires in the Amazon.
Read more: Brazil: Thousands protest against 1964 coup commemoration
Bolsonaro’s no mercy discourse
A former army captain himself, Bolsonaro has repeatedly praised Brazil’s own former military regime.
He was elected on a pledge to show no mercy to criminals at a time when the country experienced waves of violent crime and rising homicide rates.
Between January and July 2019,1,075 Brazilians died at the hands of police, 20% more than the same period last year.
mvb/se (AP, EFE, Reuters)
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