11th of September, 1973: the night Chile died · 4:38pm Sep 11th, 2021
It's 11th of September once again, so it's my yearly attempt to preserve the memory of a tragedy that has haunted generations of my country for the last 48 years. This year, I have the documentary "La Battalla de Chile" (The Battle of Chile).
A president who did all he could, and the man who swore loyalty to him months before killing him.
This documentary was filmed between 1972 and 1973, covering the struggles of the last year of Allende's presidency and the early horrors if the dictatorship. What's interesting about this piece is that it's one of the most important documentaries to ever come out of Chile and Latin America. Widely regarded as a masterpiece in journalism, it's been awarded overseas and became kind of a milestone for reporters, historians and filmmakers who share an interest for that period in Latin America.
It also has never been publicly exhibited in Chile in 48 years.
Through the dictatorship, it's pretty obvious why. This documentary shows with no regards the many manipulations made by the right-wing parties of the time to destabilize Allende's government through the year of 1973. As well as the brutalities committed by the dictatorship during the coup in September and the rest of the year. It includes the shot of the journalist who inadvertently filmed his own dead on the streets.
However, once the dictatorship was officially over, there was no reason to hold that censorship. Except, of course, that many of the TV channels were still sympathizers with the right-wing parties, therefore had no motivations to expose the dictatorship those parties still supported (up to this day). So, the documentary remained without being exhibited until today.
This situation is a pretty good example of why I keep making these yearly posts (with some interruptions). The reach of the dictatorship hasn't stopped. We still live under Pinochet's constitution, the dictatorship's official party (UDI) is still operating with a visible representation in congress, and politicians who supported the military, even defending Pinochet when he was arrested in London, are still running for public offices, including the presidency.
So, overall, its not over. We're still sighting the ghost of the dictatorship. The fallout of the horrors they committed, the system the put in place to peek the power to themselves, and their will to repeat the brutality. As we saw two years ago with the Social Outburst protests, where our own police force (Carabineros) had no qualms in opening fire against the people they're meant to protect.
Until the oppression is over. Until the horrors stop happening. Until the people can walk free and united, we can't allow ourselves to forget.
Originally, I was going to post the documentary at the end of the post. But because the preamble got too long I decided to post it as a separate blogpost. Here: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/963149/documentary-la-batalla-de-chile