• Member Since 10th Jul, 2013
  • offline last seen Yesterday

Wave Blaster


I like writing. It's the thing that drives me. My goal is to reach others through my work and have a nice talk. He/Him.

More Blog Posts494

Sep
12th
2017

11 de Septiembre: Memoria · 12:46am Sep 12th, 2017

For those who have been following me from more than exactly one year, they know I'm not shy when it comes to politics. I won't ever shut up about them because they matter. People can be saved, or condemned if no one does something about it, and saying the truth is around the bare minimum one can do.

However, last year I gave my more passionate post over today's ephemeris. This year, I'll follow a lower-key approach and with a more clear reason for each intervention. For starters, I'll let an external perspective to explain the dictatorship. Bernie Sanders giving what I consider one of the best explanations of Allende's fall and the Military Dictatorship.

That was to show that the US intervention is not something made up and that it does matter to people from the outside. When the CIA declassified the archives proving their involvement, almost no one in Chile was surprised. The vide is also to discourage that horrible trend of people calling President Salvador Allende a dictator in order to make the Military Dictatorship as a necessary evil. No, he wasn't. Allende won a free election, never even tried to attack the democratic system, and never stepped beyond the Executive Power invested in him.

Second, I'll talk you guys about a book that got published recently (last Wednesday, 6th). It's called Mi Once de Septiembre (My Eleventh of September), and it recopiles the stories of 24 journalists during the military coup d'état. And here's one particular story I knew before hand, because the journalist from it was my teacher a couple of years ago. The very abridged version is as it follows:

I came to the radio station early in the morning, as usual. I was alone to start the audios, when suddenly someone came knocking on the door like crazy. I saw it was the military, heavy armed, so I decided to open. They almost throw me away by how they entered. They began to register the entire station, specially the archive. One by one, they began to throw out of the window discs, tapes, documents, even equipment. We were high in the building, so the military must have destroyed years worth of work and archives.
I was frozen in a corner, not that far away from the main door. They left, barely acknowledging me and slamming the door shut.

I was still frozen, held by the wall behind me. All I could do was mutter "I'm alive", and I slowly slide down the wall, sitting down in the floor.

That is what happened. That is the Military Dictatorship's first hour. It's often said that the first casualty of a war is the truth, but in this case, there never was a war. Another horrible trend from these days is to paint 1973 and on as a pseudo civil war in Chile, with the military fighting communists rebels and taking casualties as heavy as they caused. None of that is even close to the truth.

I'm aware that communism means and implies many things in other countries, some as bad as military meant here in Chile for 17 years. But Chile's communist party was never armed, they never took innocent lives. They never burned books, nor tortured people or made them disappear. That was all on the Military Dictatorship, on their hands soaked with the blood of thousands of innocents lives that died screaming.

Finally, to close, I want to answer a question that, like the previous two points, have been bugging me in the recent time: Why do you care, and why do you keep doing this? Both questions have similar, if not the same answers. Today, in a ceremony to the disappeared students of the University of Chile, Daniel Andrade, President of the Student's Council gave the best answer I could imagine. Answer to which I subscribe and will support.

First, I keep doing this, and I keep caring about this because it's needed. The ruling constitution in Chile is Pinochet's 80's Constitution. The dictatorship criminals are held in an special prison (Penal Punta Peuco), where they live better than most of us. Public education, healthcare and pensions are all in a decaying state in order to favor the private sector, a situation set by the Military Dictatorship. And of course, our 'brave' retired officers enjoy pensions that go from twice and more of what any other Chilean has, all paid by the State, by the people.

The Ghost of the Dictatorship still haunts Chile. Therefore, the memory of the people who fought and died for truth, justice and freedom must prevail too. Their opposition, still fighting for those same ideals, in courts and in human rights commissions must prevail. The Spirit of a Free Chile, unchained from the wardogs of another country must prevail.

And so, here I am and here I'll be. Shouting to the four winds. Por Chile.

Comments ( 5 )

I'm a believer in the saying, "Power does not corrupt; it reveals."

And with Allende, power revealed a man who wanted nothing more than to do good for the sake of other people. Did he institute some policies that were bad? Of course; what politician doesn't? But he was not malicious, and if he'd had more time, he would have led Chile to a pretty good place.

At least, that's what I think now.

4665948
And that was the biggest tragedy of it all. Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens wasn't out to create a "communist regime" (he was a socialist, not a communist), nor he wanted to "overthrow democracy in South America" (he never even tried to do anything against the democratic system).

For Christ's sake, he started as a medic attending people for free.

4666225
It was a bad place to be, for sure: The USA on one side, and the USSR in the other. Would you rather jump into the blast furnace, or the wood chipper?




That's war.

4666234
But we never wanted to be in that war. Neither Korea, nor Vietnam, nor Germany, nor Cuba, nor the Gulf. None of us wanted to fight for people who only used us.

Damn the Cold War, and dammed be those who made it happen.

Login or register to comment