“The Legacy of Chile’s September 11th” (Salon on February 7th, 2004)

While modern Chile is a constitutional democracy, its political, economic, and social forms–including state policy, grassroots organizing, judicial activism, and electoral attitudes–remain influenced and often constrained by its recent experience of military dictatorship from 1973 to 1989.  I will speak about life in Chile during and since the ~18 years of Pinochet's military regime, including its prelude and its enduring consequences.  I will address some or all of the following:

-a brief history of Chile's geography, demographics, and economy

-the Chilean political environment before the election to power of Salvador Allende

-The government of Salvador Allende and the Unidad Popular Party

-The agrarian reform and nationalization of copper and their impacts

-Salvador Allende's final speech on Radio Agricultra, on the morning of September 11, 1973

-Pinochet's military coup and the role of CIA support, directed by Nixon and Kissinger.  (Much of the relevant documentation was declassified by the US government only in 1998)

-17 years of Pinochet's rule, including political and economic management.

-The economic transformation guided by the "Chicago Boys."  (Economic restructuring under Chile's military dictatorship followed guidelines set by Milton Friedman and Americans and Chileans trained under his influence at the University of Chicago.  In many respects, the democratic regime that succeeded Pinochet has maintained this course to the present day.)

-The transitional road to democracy

-How the political, economic, and social forms taken by the present-day democracy have been influenced by the 17 years of Pinochet's military rule

-My years growing up in Chile and my personal retrospective of the Pinochet regime and its enduring legacy.

PRESENTER BIO:

I'm an HR manager for a manufacturing company in the peninsula. I went to Law school in Chile and I received a business degree from a US university in 2000. I grew up and lived in Chile until 1998, through a politically charged and polarized phase of Chile's history. My father was an attorney with the Christian Democratic Party, and he led some of Salvador Allende's agrarian reforms in the early 1970's.  I witnessed what one might call the good and the bad (not least the terrors of physical repression) of the political regimen of Pinochet and its aftermath for 18 years. I will lead the discussion using the story, as I saw and see it, of the evolution of life in Chile under this political environment.