Letter from Eduardo Frei Montalva to Mariano Rumor, President of the World Union of Christian Democracy · 5:34am Jun 24th, 2020

This is a letter sent months after Pinochet took over Chile and got rid of Salvador Allende, while the letter is in Spanish, I decided to use Google translate so you could read it. This is a good read:

Source (Spanish)

Santiago, November 8, 1973
Very dear President and friend:
I have thought it is my duty to address you, and through you, to the leadership of the World Christian Democracy Union, so that you may know our thoughts regarding the events that have taken place in Chile and its external repercussions.
It also aims to point out how a very concerted and directed propaganda is intended to overshadow the name of the Chilean Christian Democracy and especially that of some of its representatives, without lacking those who have welcomed them, ignorant of the true reality.
The Christian Democracy was born in Chile precisely to defend freedom, law and democracy. In forty years of existence this Party has never had a hesitation in the defense of these principles and in its combat especially against all the fascist forces that in the decade from the 30 to the 40 enjoyed so much prestige and extended in our hemisphere. We thus fight against the Spanish Falange, Belgian Rexism, Italian Fascism and German Nazism.
I personally gave testimony of it, as did our entire Party, in books, articles and corresponding actions.
It was this Party that in 1957 contributed to the repeal of the Law of Defense of Democracy that existed in Chile and that put out of the law the Communist Party. Finally, having arrived at this Party to the Government which I had the honor of presiding, it directed the country in full respect for democratic norms. No political party suffered, let alone persecution, but not the slightest hassle, as in any European democracy. And it was our government that, in those years dragging many attacks, resumed relations with Russia and the other socialist countries.
The parties that have been led in this way cannot accept from anyone, nor from adversaries, nor much less from those who call themselves friends, the least blunders their clean democratic trajectory. And I say this, because to our astonishment we are now receiving lessons of democracy from the Communist Parties and even from those who in their country have held positions of Ministers in dictatorial governments in the past.
This smear campaign of the Chilean Christian Democracy has been accompanied by an incessant propaganda born in the means of the left Marxist and received by insignificant Christiandemocrat groups, in the sense that the Chilean Christian Democracy is divided or about to do, qualifying to some of "Rightists" and others of "leftists". If this criterion were judged on any of the European and Latin American CDPs, they would surely appear with much greater signs of division than those that can be assumed in Chile, where the Party has given an example of solidity and unity in extremely difficult situations. That there are in some points differences of opinion are natural in democratic parties, but that does not hurt their fundamental unity. This maneuver of progressive disqualification from one or the other, handled by the Marxist or extreme right-wing press, is considered one of the greatest dangers to the future of Christian Democracy in each country, if there is no minimum of solidarity and respect among the different parties and do not fall into the trap of echoing such maneuvers.
What happened in Chile?
This country has experienced more than 160 years of virtually uninterrupted democracy. It is to be wondered, then, what is the cause and who are responsible for its breakdown. In our view, the full responsibility for this situation - and we say it without any euphemism - corresponds to the regime of the Popular Unity established in the country.
On what do we base this statement?
a) This regime was always a minority and never wanted to recognize it. It obtained in the presidential election the 36 percent of the votes. It rose to fifty percent in the four months of election, in the municipal elections, following an old Chilean tradition in which the people give their support to the newly elected government. In the parliamentary elections of 73, it fell to 43 percent, despite having exerted an intervention not known in the history of Chile and having used all the machinery of the State, enormous financial resources and pressure on the people and organizations, that arrived at an unleashed violence that caused several deaths and numerous gunshot wounds. Finally, a fraud of at least 4 to 5 percent of the votes was verified, since public services, among other things, falsified thousands of identity cards.
b) But they were not only a minority in Parliament. They were a minority in the Municipalities; were in the neighborhood organizations, professionals, peasants and, progressively, were becoming a minority in the main industrial and mining unions, such as Steel, Oil, Copper, etc. Equally, except in a single case, they were defeated in all the university organizations in which they voted the academicians and students and what to say in specifically student organizations.
Instead of recognizing this fact and seeking consensus, they tried relentlessly to impose a model of society clearly inspired by Marxism-Leninism. To achieve this, they tortuously applied the laws or trampled them openly, ignoring the Courts of Justice. Whenever they lost an election in the trade union organizations and peasants or students did not know the fact and then created a parallel organization affectionatte to the government, which received the official protection while the organizations that responded to a legitimate election were persecuted. This happened to students, the worker class and farmers.
In this attempt of domination they came to propose the replacement of the Congress by a Popular Assembly and the creation of Popular Courts, some of which came to operate, as it was publicly denounced . They also sought to transform the entire educational system, based on a process of Marxist awareness. These attempts were vigorously rejected not only by democratic political parties, but by unions and grassroots organizations of all kinds, and in education, it signaled the protest of the Catholic Church and all Protestant denominations that publicly made their opposition. Faced with these facts, of course, the Christian Democracy could not remain silent. It was its duty - and we fulfilled it - to denounce this totalitarian attempt that was always presented with a democratic mask to gain time and cover up its true objectives. That was what the country resisted. These were the reasons why the Supreme Court, by the unanimity of its members, denounced before the country the fact that for the first time in the history of Chile the Tribunals were not respected, the laws were violated and their sentences weren't fulfilled. The Office of the General Comptroller of the Republic, which in Chile acquires a true constitutional character and which not only has accounting functions, but also qualifies the legality of executive decrees, rejected innumerable resolutions of the government to consider them illegal.
Parliament continuously claimed for three years the violation of the laws and the trampling of the Rule of Law, without being heard. This culminated when, approved two constitutional reforms, the President of the Republic refused to promulgate them. Seeking a pretext not to do so, he first appealed to the Constitutional Court, which gave the Congress reason. However, that was useless. He then tried to enact these reforms in a truncated way, that is, part of the text, which was rejected by the General Comptroller of the Republic. Finally, he flatly refused to respect the decision of the National Congress. This led the Chamber of Deputies to approve an agreement aimed at pointing out to the country that the Constitution and laws were being overtly broken and to show an overwhelming list of concrete cases of how this happened.
For having exercised these rights, the Christian Democracy is presented by communist propaganda as fascist or undemocratic. This pilgrim theory seems to have found acceptance on some.
But it is possible to ask: What would happen in any European country in which the Supreme Court of Justice declares that the government has run over the law and has not complied with the judicial sentences? What would happen if Congress approved constitutional reforms and the Executive refused to promulgate them and even to publish them?
The curious thing is that the Communist Party and the Socialist Party during all the previous governments in which they were in the opposition exerted it in extreme form. When the CD government triumphed with 57% of the national electorate's votes (not 36%), the Socialist Party officially and Mr. Allende, leader of that party, declared that they did not recognize the triumph of the Christian Democrats. They refused to attend the Plenary Congress, which in Chile is the corresponding procedure for the proclamation of the President of the Republic, and textually announced that they would deny the DC government "salt and water." The Communist Party was in constant and total opposition.
In order to do so they resorted to insult, to violence, and the Socialist Party again and again stated that it did not respect the legal and democratic order, which was only a bourgeois order. Whenever there was a strike or a conflict, Mr. Allende and the Socialist and Communist parties promoted or accentuated him to take the situation to the extreme. In their relentless criticism of the government of the Christian Democrats, they found it all wrong, and when inflation reached 20 percent, they called the country to a general strike to overthrow it.
How different was the attitude of the Christian Democratic Party, which concurred with its votes to elect President Allende when he obtained only 36 percent of the vote and that he did not ask for compensation or a single charge or influence but a Statute of Constitutional Guarantees that would fully guarantee democracy in Chile! Well, by the mouth of Renan Fuentealba first, and by Patricio Aylwin later, as presidents of the Christian Democratic Party, it was denounced that this Statute, which the President swore to respect, was constantly run over.
What was the bottom of the problem?
The bottom line is that this minority government, presenting itself as a legal and peaceful way to socialism - which was the slogan of its national and world propaganda - was absolutely determined to establish a totalitarian dictatorship in the country and the progressive steps were being taken to arrive at this situation, in such a way that already in the year 1973 there was no doubt that we were living an absolutely abnormal regime and that few steps were yet to be taken to fully establish a totalitarian dictatorship in Chile.
This was pointed out not only by the Supreme Court, the Comptroller's Office and the Parliament. Added the statement of the Bar Association, which in an extensive document indicated to the country that the legal system had been reiterated and manifestly ran over. On the other hand, the Left Radical Party, which supported Mr. Allende in the election and which was part of his government, withdrew from it, denouncing that it had come to the certainty that democracy was broken by the actions of government. Men who had always militated in the Chilean left, who led that party, pointed out with extreme harshness that the country was on the verge of chaos and that the executive's will was to establish the totalitarian dictatorship.
To this was added the Medical College, which traditionally supported Mr. Allende, since he was President of it; the College of Engineers and all other professional colleges. It was also evident that there was a change in the various unions, which took the form of strikes, the longest of which was that of the copper workers. Everything, therefore, led to a critical situation.
The parties of government no longer concealed their intentions. The Secretary General of the Socialist Party openly called on the soldiers and sailors to disobey their officers and incite them to rebellion. In the same way, other parties of government were expressed in such a senseless way that even the Communist Party itself expressed its disagreement with them and especially with the Socialist Party, "which rejected all agreement with the Christian Democrats and joined more and more to the Movement of the Revolutionary Left in its thesis of the violent and immediate revolution ". This has been stated by many communist leaders.
The interview published in La Stampa, dated October 26, 1973, reveals that the Communist Party was seeking a political solution but that in the last few days they encountered the speech of the Secretary General of the Socialist Party against the Armed Forces and "with his obstinate maximalism like that of Enríquez, head of the MIR, and that is why we have found ourselves without preparation before the coup". The position of the Communist Party, according to the same interview, which coincides with innumerable other declarations and documents, did not differ in terms of objectives, but only in view of the tactics to be followed. "The weapons we had," he adds, "of which the generals have discovered a small part, unfortunately there were few who knew how to use them, because there had not been enough time to train the masses."
That is, it always returns the same thing: To gain time to obtain total power. The President of the Republic declared that he respected the law, the Constitution and democracy, but all his statements were immediately contradicted by the facts, since all the commitments were violated and all the statements denied later by his actions.
Countless documents of his advisors and of the leaders of the Political Parties that conformed the Popular Unity have demonstrated that all its objective was to gain time to consolidate in the power and to consolidate its totalitarian position, documents that culminated in the letter published of Mr. Fidel Castro , in which he advised Mr. Allende to deal with the Christian Democracy for the sole purpose of gaining time. The Christian Democratic Party, under the presidency of Mr. Renan Fuentealba, who covered part of the year 71, 72 and until after the parliamentary elections of 73, constantly denounced this dualism. The same happened with the current directive. I have some documents on this subject. To this political picture are added two facts that have been decisive in the Chilean process.
The first, established the government, converged towards Chile several thousand representatives of the extreme revolutionary left of America. Uruguayan elements arrived, members of guerrillas or movements of the extremes of Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela and all countries, as there are numerous cases, for serious crimes that cannot be released. The Cuban Embassy was transformed into a true ministry, with a staff so numerous that it was superior, the only Embassy of Cuba in Chile, to all the personnel that had our country in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the year 1970. This gives the measure . Besides them, we were invaded by North Koreans and other representatives of the socialist world.
Men known in the continent for their guerrilla activities were immediately occupied in Chile with positions in the Administration, but spent many of their time to paramilitary training and installed guerrilla schools that even occupied part of the national territory in which they could not even penetrate representatives of the Corps of Carabineros or of the Armed Forces.
The second was the accelerated import of weapons. The Christian Democrat Party continually denounced this fact. There are more than fifty documents published by the Party and made known in Parliament about the assertion. Out of concern, the CDP presented a bill that was approved and served as a basis for initiating actions that revealed the existence of large contingents of imported weapons.
After the pronouncement of September 11 these denunciations of the Christian Democrats have been fully confirmed. The weapons hitherto collected (and estimated to be, not yet, 40 percent) would allow more than 15 regiments to be equipped and that an overwhelming proportion has not yet been discovered. These weapons are all of Czech or Russian origin, weapons that the Chilean Army has never had. Otherwise, nobody ignores or excludes in Chile the existence of these weapons.
They are weapons of all kinds, not only automatic, but heavy, machine guns, bombs with high explosive power, mortars, antitank barrels of advanced models and a whole logistic apparatus of communications, telephony, medical clinics, etc., in order to this action. A true parallel army had thus been established. We ask, once again, and ask the leaders of the World Christian Democracy Union: What democracy can resist this situation? Could the Christian Democracy, without arms and consequently defenseless against this onslaught, be silent? Does it qualify as fascist or coup for having denounced this reality? Do they pretend that the democratic thing was to remain silent, sheltering the outward preparation of a dictatorship imposed by the force of arms?.
It is effective that as a consequence of this armed extremism of the left and undoubtedly protected by the government, since it has been proved that many of the packages containing these weapons arrived consigned to the own Presidency of the Republic, was born a right extremism also armed. We do not refer to the National Party, but to right wing extremist groups, which the Christian Democrats never stopped condemning with the same clarity as those of the extreme left. The other element worthy of consideration was economic driving. The world knows the result of the economic management of the Popular Unity.
They received a flourishing country, in full development. Copper, the main export product, had been nationalized by 51 percent and an investment had already been completed that doubled its production capacity. A decisive impulse existed in agriculture, industry and other mining activities. The country was fully up to date on its international commitments and had been able to dispense with external credits in the last two years of the previous administration, except for some for the installation of new basic industries, cellulose, petrochemicals, etc. reserve that for the first time the country had amounted to 600 million dollars. The only negative was that inflation had reached 30 percent in the past year. In these conditions the Popular Unity assured that it would end with the inflation; that they would never again request external credits; which would increase production, make the country economically and improve the standard of living of the working class.
What was the result of his management?
The world knows it. The total of the liquid debts contracted by the CD during its 6 years of government did not reach 400 million dollars, after paying all its international commitments and having its credit absolutely clean.
In less than three years, the Popular Unity government, which stated that it would not indebt the country according to its program, raised those debts by nearly one billion dollars, destined not for investment, but exclusively to buy food to alleviate its failure in agricultur . In addition to that they stopped paying all external debts and in two years was consumed all the reservations that the previous regime had bequeathed to them. Therefore, instead of independence, they reached the largest dependence known in Chile.
Inflation in official figures the government reached 323 percent in the last twelve months, but the University Institutes, taking into consideration that practically the country lived on the black market, estimated that it exceeded 600 percent. The dollar in the free market was traded at the end of the Christian Democracy government at 20 escudos per dollar. In the last month of August, it reached 2,500 escudos per dollar, that is, a devaluation of more or less 12,000 percent.
All productivity rates had fallen: Industrially by more than 7 percent; in agriculture about 23 percent and in mining about 30 percent. Such basic crops as wheat lowered its production from an average of 14 million quintals in the previous six years to less than 8 million. Many research institutes claim less than 6 million. The bankruptcy was total. Now it may be asked: Was the Christian Democracy fascist or coup for denouncing this economic policy that led the country to unleashed inflation, the debasement of the currency, the productive paralysis, the black market, the scarcity and the hunger?
Those who speak so lightly about Chile should come and tour the outlying populations, fields and cities and ask how it took up to ten hours of queuing to get 1/4 liter of oil, when it was achieved, or a kilo of bread, when it was achieved, or half a kilo of sugar, when it was obtained.
Is there any democracy that will resist these inflation rates, scarcity and the black market? Is fascism and gossip to denounce it? Is it the duty of a political party to silence these facts? They were democratic when they attacked without cease a CD government that never made mistakes. On the other hand, was the Christian Democracy a fascist for the very fact of defending the right to live within our homeland and undemocratic because it was not an accomplice to the debacle, corruption, immorality and disaster witnessed by anyone who wanted to come to the country and to verify what was happening?
However, with the same falseness with which it was said abroad that political rehearsal was a legal route to socialism, there were excuses to justify this failure, which were repeated by some newspapers of universal renown. These were the main arguments that were used to justify the failure.
The first, that the American companies expelled from the country were making difficult the sales of the copper. Indeed a company committed the awkwardness of initiating an embargo judgment on a copper item, which the Christian Democracy of course condemned. But it is necessary to see reality. The embargo affected a $ 2 million worth of copper in an annual sale of $ 600 million or more. On the other hand, the embargo was not carried out because the French courts did not accept the company's lawsuit. Can this be said to be the reason for explaining failure? The second is the economic blockade, whose characteristics were not specified and could only result in the impossibility of selling products, which never happened or the impossibility of obtaining credits, which also did not happen, because with figures given by the previous government before the The Paris Club, the Monetary Fund and other agencies proves that the Popular Unity government disposed of more credits and indebted the country more than any other in the history of Chile in such a short time.
The other argument is that this was the cost of the revolution and of social progress. This would have been true had they received a stagnant country. It is not like this. They received a country in the process of social transformation and in full swing tax, educational, agrarian reforms, nationalization of basic wealth, as well as active health plans, construction of schools and housing.
The Unidad Popular, with the unanimous vote of Congress, nationalized 49 percent of copper, since 51 had been nationalized in the government of the Christian Democrats. It began an accelerated process of nationalization of industries. The Christian Democracy was not against this process, it only demanded that it be done within the law, fixing the limits of the social and private area. None of this was obtained, because the process was followed bypassing the law and many times with outrages, assaults and violence.
But the most serious was the tremendous failure of the state area. It was said that the government would finance economic development with the profits of companies whose control would be taken by the state. In 1973 these companies lost more than 150 billion escudos. If the national budget were considered to be an equivalent figure, the magnitude of the failure would be measured. It is also effective that they accelerated to the extreme the agrarian reform initiated by the Christian Democracy, but they wanted to turn all the agriculture in state collective estates, which was resisted by the farmers. The technicians were eliminated, the entire infrastructure was disorganized, and instead of respecting the law, the properties were assaulted and occupied with people who were often not farmers. These were, among others, the causes of agricultural failure. The construction of homes and schools was remarkably reduced. Suffice it to say that in three years, 300 schools were not built, while the CD government built 3,600. These are facts. One last aspect that we need to emphasize, since we can not refer to everything, is the climate of hatred and violence that prevailed in the country. All criticism, all observation, was answered with the most violent insults towards those who had the audacity to point out the errors. The Socialist Party and the Communist Party created armed organizations. The Socialists called it "Elmo Catalán" and the Communists constituted the infamous "Ramona Parra" brigade. They also constituted the so-called "industrial cords", which surrounded the cities in a strategic way; and as a consequence of the shortage, rationing was organized on the basis of political bodies that registered the inhabitants to exercise control over the life of the population.
As a result of this, nearly one hundred people died and countless wounded. Thus died the former Vice President of the Republic and one of the founders of the CDP, Don Edmundo Pérez Zujovic, villied murdered when leaving his house by the members of an extremist organization. The three assassins had been arrested at the end of the government of the Christian Democracy for having carried out armed robberies and sentenced by the courts of justice to several years of prison.
The first act of the government of the Popular Unity was to release these detainees by illegal acts and among them the three that caused the death of that Christian Democratic leader. In pardoning them, President Allende justified his act by calling them "idealistic youths."
Several CD youth leaders also died of violence and hundreds were injured.
When striking copper workers sought refuge in the party's central headquarters, they were attacked and it was necessary to install an aid station that, according to official information from the CDP, was attended by more than 700 people with injuries of all kinds, including 120 of a serious nature. On that day President Aylwin and other leaders, including myself, were at the party's premises and we were able to witness what was happening.
These are the reasons why the Christian Democratic Party was in opposition, opposition that progressively became harder as a result of the increasingly serious abuses that were committed.
The position of the CDP in this matter is impeccable. Passing over his immediate political interest never shied away from seeking solutions for the country. This is so clear that even the party was sharply criticized for accepting the dialogue.
Every time the President of the Republic wished to talk to the board, despite repeated times that this was deceived, he did not refuse to do so would break the democratic regime. This is reflected in the statements of the Party presidents, Mr. Renan Fuentealba and Patricio Aylwin.
When the group of Chilean bishops made a call to save peace and avoid conflict and called for a dialogue between men of good will, the President of the CDP agreed to do so and publicly laid out some basis for this, which ultimately meant as a basic condition to return to respect for the Constitution and the law. All this that I affirm is in public documents appeared in the press and broadcast by radio and TV. The President of the Republic accepted our approach in principle, and then rejected it. At the end of August, despite the fact that these talks ended in a complete impossibility for the Government to accept the Party's views - which were extremely moderate, given the circumstances - there was again a meeting in which the President of the Republic, Mr. Aylwin has not established a single basis of understanding, an assertion never rebutted.
The Party leadership came to the conviction that it was exclusively gaining time to prepare the total control of power on the part of the Popular Unity and to accelerate its paramilitary apparatus and the distribution of arms.
No one can, therefore, say that the Christian Democracy did not exhaust the procedures to reach an agreement. He never made a serious proposition. The President never offered a form of government. On the contrary, he pointed out that it would be impossible for the Socialist opposition to enter the Cabinet by the Socialist parties belonging to the Popular Unity.
The Armed Forces, called by PU itself, accepted three times in these years to integrate ministerial cabinets. The Popular Unity parties, after professing for 40 years of antagonism to the armed institutions, were precisely those who tried to mix them in politics, despite their repeated will to not accept. His presence failed to change the lines of government action to avoid the catastrophe that was warned to come.
A few days before 11 September, warning the board of the DC the gravity of the situation called the provincial heads of the Party across the country, who unanimously recommended as supreme arbitration that the senators and deputies of the DC presented the resignations to their positions on the basis that the government called a plebiscite and submitted to its consequences to seek a democratic way out of power. This was accepted by the board and the parliamentarians, who made public their decision to resign. The proposal of a plebiscite was always rejected, because if they obtained 43 percent in March of the 73, then the situation degraded with great speed, especially since the economic and political chaos already became perceptible.
I ask: Can a Party do greater effort and greater sacrifice, being the majority in both branches of Congress in a recent election in which it had to endure the beating and violence of the government, to publicly and responsibly offer the resignation of their parliamentarians in order to seek a democratic way out for the country? This is the reality. That is why the Chilean Christian Democracy can say to the world that once again it gave an example of democratic honesty and loyalty to its principles. An objective analysis of the facts reveals that the fundamental reason that this old democracy has suffered this conflict was the Popular Unity government, because it took the country to a situation that no one can resist and the solidity of the Chilean democracy is still admirable that resisted so much. A basic reflection arises from all this. Why has what happened in Chile has had such a disproportionate impact on the country's importance, population, location and strength? Why has the Soviet Union's reaction been so violent and extreme? Why has world communism launched this campaign to judge what happened in Chile and to attack the Christian Democracy? The reason is very clear. Its fall has meant a serious blow to communism in the world. The combination of Cuba and Chile, with its 4,500 kms. of coast in the Pacific and with its intellectual and political influence in Latin America was a decisive step in the control of this hemisphere. That is why its reaction has been so violent and disproportionate. This country served as a base of operation for the entire continent. But it's not just this. This gigantic advertising campaign tends to hide a basic fact: The failure of a policy that had been presented as a model in the world. How can we explain that this experience which showed the way to other democratic parties and European socialism has led an organized and free country to such a terrible economic and political catastrophe has produced such desperation in the Armed Forces and the Chilean people - could never have acted without the acquiescence of the majority - have broken a tradition so long and so honorable that it was our pride? Tons of propaganda will not erase a fact: They led a country of exemplary democratic life to economic failure and the collapse of its institutions. Its doctrinal and practical scheme was erroneous and its conduct disastrous. Three days before September 11th, the President of the Republic told the country: "We have flour for three days". Even the bread ran out. It had never happened. That's what they don't want to analyze. Rather, they want to hide it. European socialists, democratic and pluralist, feel compelled to support a party that proclaimed its disregard for legality and, as an objective, the armed and violent revolution. If they do not want to see the facts or the documents, at least they could read with attention the criticisms that formulated to this party, for its extremism, the very Communist Party, that several times it called for sanity. The other fact that Christian Democracy must analyze is the problem of communications. There is no doubt that the Chilean case is a good example of how an intense propaganda apparatus is capable of presenting the greatest falsehoods and turning them into reality. That had been happening since the beginning of the regime, which like other similar ones, was not limited in terms of advertising expenses.
But what happened after September 11 is something implausible for Chileans. It was thousands who heard Moscow Radio say 700 thousand people had died in two days. Others talked about 30,000 killed and that rivers of blood ran in Santiago. For us a single human life is priceless. We do not say this to diminish the tragedy to which the country was taken, but according to our information, the dead would not reach two thousand, which is very different from such gross lies.
Among the thousands of falsehoods that were spread: 35 parliamentarians died. False. None. Neruda was killed. False and ridiculous. All the publicity organs paid homage to him like nobody in many years and in the building of the National Congress the flag was hoisted in half until in signal of duel.
It was destroyed Hospital Barros Luco, the greatest one of Chile. There is not a single hospital destroyed or damaged in the slightest part. At the Barros Luco Hospital there isn't even a broken glass. What to follow. There are hundreds of examples.
There hasn't been a lack of a television programs in Europe that presented, as signs of bombardment, seen from the previous earthquake.
We ask for one thing: Come and see what we say. We have the right to ask our friends. So it was done by Mr. Bruno Heck, leader of the UCD, who was able to verify the truth. Come and see if there is a house bombed in the population. In all Chile only two, unfortunately: La Moneda and the residential house of the Presidents, acquired in the government of Unidad Popular.
Come to see if there is an industry or mining center where a single bomb has fallen. We're not part of the current government. We will not defend the mistakes that are made, some inevitable, in such a terribly difficult situation.
But we cannot accept that the lie becomes a system, while hiding the causes of a situation to cover up the responsibility of those who ruined and destroyed our democracy.
How do you explain that those who invaded Hungary and Czechoslovakia, who now silence or prosecute scientists, poets and writers, who do not admit any criticism, or the shadow of a freedom of information, try to teach democracy to Chile and to this Match? Besides scandalous, it's ridiculous. They praise and maintain relations with Cuba, with thousands dead, and after 12 years, even with thousands of political prisoners. It is not they who can teach us, Christian Democrats and Chile what democracy is!
And what is even worse. Sectors, in certain minorities, in the Christian Democracy itself or in the democratic world, let themselves be influenced by this propaganda or echo it to gain political positions and receive the title of "leftists". Poor destiny of those groups: They will be used, first, or serve as a bridge to weaken our parties.
The popular position, advanced and justice that supports the Christian Democracy is so strong that it cannot admit this true political blackmail. And no one can give us love lessons to freedom and democracy. We are genuinely pluralistic and we are willing to arrange actions with other political forces, but we cannot do so under a sign of permanent weakness or submission.
Every party in this is sovereign. We are the first to respect their decisions and understand that it is impossible to judge from the outside the conditions of each situation. We believe, yes, that in order to formulate an opinion, the first thing that must exist is respect and solidarity and the necessary confidence in the testimony of those who have been linked, during a life by common ideals and the evidence of having served them with unshakable loyalty.
Without a doubt, world communism gives us a permanent lesson. Mr President, this is in our view the process of what happened in Chile. Naturally, the great question of the future is now emerging. In this respect, it is the official leadership of the party that will give an authorized opinion.
However, I cannot fail to give my own, which I have confronted with a large number of Christian Democrats. In my opinion, Chile faces an extremely hard and difficult period. I would say perhaps the most difficult in history. The economic disaster was not known in its true magnitude. To reorganize all the productive apparatus, to revive agriculture, to renew machinery, to stop hyperinflation, etc. It'll be a task that will require enormous sacrifices.
Moreover, more than half of the weapons are not yet found whose transcendence is easy to appreciate.
Our party is not part of the government, as I have already said. The government is formed entirely by the Armed Forces and it was difficult, if not impossible, that it was not so.
All Chileans, or at least the vast majority, are vitally interested in the rapid restoration of democracy in Chile. And for this it is necessary that the country get out of the chaos and, consequently, that the current government is successful. The Armed Forces - we are convinced - did not act out of ambition. Moreover, they resisted at length. Their failure would be now the failure of the country and we would rush in a dead end. That is why the Chileans, in their vast majority, beyond any partisan consideration, want to help, because they believe that this is the condition for the restoration of peace and freedom in Chile. The sooner the hate is banished and the country recovers economically, the faster the exit.
The Christian Democracy is doing, in my opinion, what is in its hand in this perspective, without giving up any of its values and principles, being at this moment its most fundamental objectives:
- Full respect for human rights - Full respect for the legitimate achievements of workers and peasants. - Back to full democracy.
We know this is not easy. The whole situation is not easy. That's why we must act with greater responsibility.
Mr. President, excuse for me the length of this communication, but this is justified by the importance of the problem it is dealing with and by the way the truth has been distorted.
Unfortunately, the countless documents and performances of the Christian Democrats during these three years were not released in Europe. This justifies the extension of my letter.
I want to end by telling you on this occasion that I remember two facts from my trip to Europe in 1971. At that time a European ruler told me that our country was lost and added verbatim: "When communism grabs, they never let loose". Shortly after a high representative of the Christian Democracy in the government of his country said that the Chilean case was a lost case.
I told them both that they were wrong, because although Chile wanted an advanced process of social transformation, it would never accept a totalitarian regime. They both looked at me with that benevolence with which a naive visitor is treated.
With the same assurance with which I stated at that time that Chile would go forward, I can affirm today that, despite how hard and painful the effort may be, our country will rise and return to give a lesson of democracy and freedom. And in that task this country is engaged, and the Christian Democracy will once again play a role according to what has been its history and its future. Please pay the utmost attention to Mr. Presidente.
Eduardo Frei Montalva