Santiago

Santiago is the capital of Chile, and one of the captals of Latin America. It’s probably the most modern city in South America. The subway is fast and clean and quiet, with beautiful (seriously) spacious stations–big art on the walls, restaurants, and stores. Compared to Santiago, Buenos Aires seems kind of crumbling and run-down, although both cities have their own personalities. Even though Santiago (and most of Chile) is in serious earthquake territory, it has the tallest skyscrapers in South America, and they are building more. The city has a magnificent background of snow-capped mountains, but the air pollution usually keeps them hidden.

We had a full day in Santiago before Monica went off to a five-day zen retreat on the outskirts of town. We went to “El museo de memoria y derechos humanos.”  The museum of rememberance and human rights. It´s a museum dedicated to documenting the seventeen years of madness–1973-1990–when the military dictatorship ruled the country. The museum was inaugurated during the presidency of Michele Bachelet. She and her family were imprisoned and tortured during “la dictadura,” and her election in 2006 helped Chile to move forward, much like Nelson Mandela´s did in South Africa.

The museum has a lot of first-hand accounts of the brutalities and atrocities committed by the government. Photographs, stories, interviews, and original recordings of events. The dictatorship is still fresh in people´s memories. Pinochet didn´t leave office until 1990. More than 40,000 people were either imprisoned, tortured, or killed during his stay.

One thing that the museum doesn´t mention is the USA´s involvement in toppling the government and the assassination of Salvador Allende, and the installation of Augusto Pinochet as dictator. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger (then the secretary of state) directed the CIA and orchestrated the military coup that brought down the government and assassinated Salvador Allende. They were afraid of Salvador Allende’s (democratically elected) socialist governmetnt. Kissinger is famous for (among other things) saying, “I don´t see why we have to stand by and let a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people.”

Allende was killed and the coup happened on the morning of September 11, 1973. The dictatorship immediately arrested anybody who they thought might not appreciate them, and they filled Santiago´s huge soccer stadium with prisoners. Severe oppression, torture, and death were the tools they used to control the population and keep their power. They justified their actions by saying that they were looking for stockpiles of weapons.

We are reading a novel as we travel. It´s Isabel Allende´s latest novel, El Cuaderno de Maya. It´s the story of a teenage girl from Berkeley who has to flee the country and she goes down to Chiloé, Chile. The novel talks a lot about Chiloé, and also the recent history of Chile. Isabel is the niece of Salvador. She has written a lot about the dictatorship. She says in this book that the dictatorship simply grew tired of what they were doing. The interrogators knew that there weren’t any weapons hidden, and they weren´t really looking for answers. They just wanted to intimidate the populace.

Incredibly, the people voted the dictatorship out, and the dictatorship allowed them to do so. The country held a vote in 1988. People could vote YES, for eight more years of the regime, or NO. The NO´s won, presidential elections were held, and the country had a new government.

It´s only been twenty three years. The scars are still here. But Chile is a hopeful, optimistic place.