Chris Burford wrote:
> ... I would like to hear comments, expecially with
>information, about the concrete balance of power in Chile at the moment.
The "Pinochet and bourgeois democratic right" thread has sadly had almost nothing to do with Chile. Though I feel a bit alone in this, I'd still like to talk about the Pinochet case. Why? It has everything to do with how the Latin American left is fighting over the meaning of the past and confronting the problems of the present.
[To get the "big picture" on this, see the very good Sept/Oct. 1998 NACLA issue entitled "Unearthing Memory: The Present Sturgle over the Past", which explores how Chilenas, Uruguayans, Guatemalans, and others are "attempting to challenge forgetting on its own terms by opening up the past to reinterpretations in order to expose distortions and amnesias of Latin America today."]
To answer Burford's request laterally: A while ago I posted a very powerful missive from a Chilean entiled "Pinochet Must Pay For His Crimes -- It's Something Personal". The author explained in detail his detention, torture, exile by Pinochet. Written originally in English, a month later he published it in Spanish in Chile. [If anyone would like a copy, let me know off list and I'll send it on.] He mentioned to me that it had caused something of a commotion in Chile. I asked Why? Aren't such stories common in Chile? Here is his response:
>[To call the response to my article a "commotion" is] a bit of an
overstatement,
>let's just say that it has moved a lot of people. You are right, there are
>many more cases like mine, a lot, lot worse in fact, the problem is that not
>everyone is prepared to go public to talk about it. If you read through any
>Human Rights organization's files you'll find thousands of horror stories.
>Unfortunately, not many of these are known by the public at large. There
>were 17 long years of dictatorship, of total silence and fear. If you then
>add another 8 years of civilian governments with their reconciliatory
>policies, you'll have 25 years of censorship. Nowadays, only Punto Final or
>El Siglo would publish stories like this.
>
>There are other reasons why this aricle has moved so many people. 1) Many
>victims of the repression want to forget about their ordeal, so they do not
>talk about their cases at all; 2) Not everyone is capable of putting into
>words their experiences; 3) A lot of people know us, but this is the first
>time that they have heard the whole story, so to speak; 4) This is a class
>based society (need I say that?) so that what happens to a professional like
>me is a lot more important/terrible to what happens to a peasant, a mapuche
>or a worker. It's disgusting, but that's the way it works.
>
>Anyway, the important thing is that people read about it, because this way
>they are learning about something they want to forget, because it forces
>them to look at themselves and ask: What did I do to prevent this from
>happening? What can I do to prevent this from happening again? The answer is
>simply : BRING PINOCHET AND ALL THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN
>RIGHTS TO JUSTICE.
Tom Kruse Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-4) 248242 Email: tkruse at albatros.cnb.net