"Chile:
The Other September 11"
Review By Tristan
Ewins
23 September , 2003
Edited by Pilar
Aguilera and Ricardo Frede
Published by Ocean Press, 80 pp
With
the passing of September 11 for another year , there will be many who
will be experiencing a distinct sense of unease. No-one can forget the
horrific images of that day, in 2001. Like many others, no doubt, I
cried on that day: and remained in partial shock for some time afterwards.
For those who witnessed the atrocity, it is a date that will remain
indelibly imprinted upon their minds for the rest of their lives.
There is, however,
another reason to remember September 11. It is a date that also holds
special meaning for Chileans. It is the date chosen by General Augusto
Pinochet to launch a precisely calculated coup to overthrow that nation's
democratically-elected socialist President, Salvador Allende. It was
the date that marked the beginning of a 17 year reign of terror: a period
during which the Chilean Left was crushed under the weight of persecution,
torture, murders and 'disappearances'. 'Chile: the other September 11'
is a volume modest in size, but bold in its ambition. Those who have
compiled this collection of essays, speeches and historical representations
have set themselves the task of reclaiming a buried history: a history
lost in the triumphalist accounts of Cold War victory that have permeated
since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
As suggested already,
Chile: the other September 11 does not claim to be a comprehensive history
of those events leading up to and following that fateful day in 1973.
Rather, this volume comprises a series of essays, speeches and remembrances:
intended to bring home the full horror of these events, to explore the
lessons that are to be drawn from the 'twin September 11s', and to preserve
the memory of those who died, sometimes heroically, for a cause that
many today have relegated to 'the dustbin of history'. Its contents
include remembrances by Joan Jara - the widow of murdered song-writer
and poet, Victor Jara, the last words transmitted on Chilean radio by
Salvador Allende, and a speech by the fallen leader's daughter, Beatriz
Allende. Also included is an in-depth chronology.
The world in 1973
was a vastly different place than exists today, some thirty years later.
America was smarting from its defeat in Vietnam. Richard Nixon was in
the White House, while Henry Kissinger was his Secretary of State. Then,
as now, brutal geopolitics permeated below the surface-imagery of competing
ideologies. The Soviet Union's strategy, in no small part, rested upon
its support for a succession of national liberation and socialist struggles
throughout Central and South America, while the United States felt compelled
to resort to all means necessary to maintain control of what it perceived
to be its economic and geopolitical 'back yard'.
With the election
of the Allende socialist 'Popular Unity' government in 1970, fears were
immediately raised in Washington that Chile may provide a 'Soviet beach-head'
in South America.
US covert operations
against the Allende government, including a campaign of economic and
political destabilization and isolation, came to a head on September
11, 1973, with Pinochet leading a ruthlessly efficient coup to wrest
control of government, and 'de-capitate' the nation's Left.
The volume explores,
through eyewitness accounts, the events of these days, and the days
immediately following. Accounts vary, but it is widely accepted that
well over a thousand were murdered in the immediate aftermath of the
coup: methodically rounded up, taken to stadiums, tortured and often
executed. By the end of Pinochet's 17 year reign, over 3,000 had been
murdered in the ensuing Terror: many simply 'disappearing' - never to
be heard from again.
Joan Jara recalls
the scenes upon finally being called to identify her husband: poet and
songwriter, Victor Jara, after many nights of dread and anxiety,
"[Rows] and
rows of bodies [covered] the floor, stacked up into heaps in the corners,
most with gaping wounds, some with their hands still tied behind their
backs."
Finally, after searching
through the legions of the fallen, Joan Jara remembers finding her husband.
"His chest
[was] riddled with holes, [with] a gaping wound in his abdomen
Part of me died at that moment too."
For Pilar Aguilera
and Ricardo Fredes, the scenes of the Twin Towers aftermath created
a cruel and disturbing sense of 'Déjà vu'.
"[The] idea
of an 'other' September 11 must seem incredible to some. But when Chileans
saw the photos of New Yorkers holding up images of missing loved ones
after the September 11 attacks, the scene was frighteningly familiar."
Ariel Dorfman, meanwhile,
reflects upon how Americans and Chileans may well now have cause to
identify with one anothers' sufferings:
"In Chile people
muttered, 'This cannot be happening to us. This sort of
violence
happens to other people and not to us."
Chile's tragedy
demonstrated like no other event the potential fragility of democratic
institutions and processes where crude geopolitical objectives and concerns
intervened. In America today, as occurred in Chile, peoples' illusions
of security were shattered cruelly and violently.
The liberal democratic
hegemony of which Francis Fukuyama spoke during the aftermath of the
USSR's collapse was won, in many instances, through a violence and a
Terror of decidedly non-liberal democratic proportions. In Venezuela
today, as yet another democratically-elected leftist government is undermined
through US-sponsored destabilization, the parallels with Chile are deeply
disturbing.
As the world unites
to mourn the innocent victims of the Twin Towers atrocity, it is to
be hoped that 'Chile's September 11' will not be forgotten either. Never
again ought a democratic government be brought down through the intervention
of ostensibly democratic nations, in Terror and bloodshed, for the sake
of crude geopolitical objectives.
Chile: the other
September 11 is an excellent introduction to those interested in learning
more about this atrocity, and also provides vital historical representations
for those already aware of the events of the fateful day.
Chile: the other
September 11, can be ordered from 'Ocean Books' through the following
URL: http://www.oceanbooks.com.au
Otherwise, the book
can be ordered from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1876175508/shout0e-20/102-6382859-8384132
Ocean Press can
also be contacted at the following address and phone number:
Ph: 03-9326 4280,, PO Box 3279, Melbourne, Vic 3001, Australia