Massive mobilizations have taken over Chile in light of the 40th Anniversary commemorating the coup d’état that ousted Chilean socialist President Salvador Allende at the hands of his appointed Army Chief Augusto Pinochet. These gatherings have been mostly orchestrated by student movements that denounce the impunity shown to those responsible for violators of human rights. The ensuing governments have still not made information available related to the fates of various people who were taken by Pinochet’s thugs and never seen again. Hundreds of Chilean families still don’t know what happened to their loved ones, and some argue that their chance to get closure was forever lost when El General passed away in 2009 without ever being put to trial.
The memories of this catastrophe are still present in the minds of the Andean citizens. Even today, the population is polarized when it comes to talking about the subject. A recent survey conducted by a Chilean pollster determined that 10 percent of Chileans still think of the period as “good or very good” and 21 percent classify it as “regular.”
Perhaps the reason for the surprising approval of Pinochet is a result of his role in Chile’s subsequent economic prosperity. Under the guidance of University of Chicago academics, he implemented free-market, neoliberal policies for the country. Despite having inherited an inflation rate of over 300 percent in 1973, during the Pinochet years the country saw an economic boom and a drastic reduction in poverty from 40 percent to 14 percent.
While Chilean left-wing sympathizers argue that the country has enjoyed unprecedented economic prosperity ever since they got rid of the dictatorship, it seems that the aforementioned might only be true because the conditions for prosperity were built on the backbone of Pinochet’s economic dictums. As former finance minister Alejandro Foxley said in a 1991 interview, “We may not like the government that came before us. But they did many things right. We have inherited an economy that is an asset.”
It’s impossible to deny the revival of leftist government throughout Latin America. Under the self-proclaimed Socialist Revolution of the 21st Century, Hugo Chavez made Venezuela the beacon for the region’s leftist movement, promising to end the socio-economic disparities, problems of poverty, and class struggle that resulted from “imperialist, neo-liberalist intervention and influence.” However, while socialism might be similar in doctrine, we can see a clear distinction in its implementation between Chile and other countries such as Venezuela, Argentina, and Ecuador in terms of inclusion and tolerance.
For example, in Venezuela, Chavez, and later Maduro, shut down all opposition-associated free public TV stations, prevented those citizens who requested a referendum to call Chavez from power to be employed in the government sector, and even publicly threatened industrialists for being “bourgeois.”
Ecuador has seen how president Correa sued for “defamation” and won in court against critical newspapers, whose editors and executives were later handed crippling sanctions that shut down their publications. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has bullied Argentine newspapers into self-censorship by refusing to allow companies to publish advertisements in their printed pages.
Chile, on the other hand, boasts a relatively clean record of respect toward free speech and even displays a low level of corruption compared to its regional peers.
As of now, Chileans have the opportunity to vote for nine candidates in the presidential election this upcoming November. According to recent surveys, however, it seems that self-labeled socialist and former president Michelle Bachelet is destined for victory and can return Chile to where it was years ago. Based on Chile’s past in comparison with other Latin American countries, citizens should not fear the return of a socialist rule that could be an inspiration for these countries.
Latin America is predominantly socialist, but the governments that predicate it are different. The class struggle woes which remained as the legacy of economic liberalism are still very much present, but the best way to address this issue is not by dividing the people even further through ruling-party iron fists. Rather, the solution is to integrate the country under a common objective and equal access to representation and different sources of information.
Through Chile, hope for truly inclusive and respectful socialism in Latin America is returning. So keep your eyes open for future President Bachelet, for even the Scandinavians might learn a thing or two.
10%OF FASCISTS, 20% of HARD RIGHT-WINGERS, including, not doubt the criminals, their families and their active or passive accomplices, that leaves 70% who seems not to have fond memories of the period. Prosperity under Chicago boys experimental economy a la Milton Friedman? For whom? Besides Germans loved Hitler too, and for many years to come, a proponent of CDU/CSU/Liberalneo-nazi party member or sympathiser can always be asked, depending on his age, what s/he was doing during the war, or what her/his parents and grand-parents and relatives were doing to assist Hitler in his grandiose projects. They too found jobs, stable prices, security and… concentration camps, and then…war, capitulationm ruins and a stigma of barabrity for ever, just as you, Chilean right wingers whose army troops still have the German Wehrmacht helmet on their head.
First of all, I would like to emphasize your spectacular failure at recognizing the tone and thesis of this article. Secondly, I recommend that you see a mental health professional to cure you of your hate and irrationally radical opinion-making process.Also, I have no idea why you mention Hitler so much. It strikes me as worrisome. Finally, please keep your ridiculous trolling attempts elsewhere.