
Rising crime and a stream of immigrants, mostly from Venezuela, lead some to conclude that a strong hand is more important than scrupulous respect for human rights.This policy was updated on 01 January 2016ġ.1 Unless the context otherwise admits words importing one gender shall include all other genders and words importing the singular shall include the plural and vice versa.ġ.2 Reference to any statutory provisions in this Agreement shall include any statutory provision that amends or replaces it.Ģ.1 These terms & conditions set out the terms between you the Weather2Umbrella Ltd Member, and us, Weather2Umbrella Ltd and owner of the website, 2.2 Your use of this website and any service contained within constitutes acceptance of these terms & conditions in full.Ģ.3 You must be a minimum age of 18 to register and make use of this website and any service contained within. Many Chileans, however, apparently believe that Marxist ideology still threatens their country and that honoring Allende is a roundabout way of promoting that ideology. “The result of this is that unfortunately there are many people who don’t recognize how serious was this rupture of democracy and what it means for the history of our country.” “Many people don’t know what happened because at home, parents didn’t want to discuss it,” a government spokesperson said. Part of the reason increasing numbers of Chileans believe the coup was necessary may be that younger generations are not taught much about it. That contrasts with the view held today in much of the world, including the United States.Īt the National Stadium, which served as a detention center in the early years of the Pinochet regime, people lit candles on Monday with the names of detainees who were executed by the dictatorship. That triggered an outpouring of sympathy and accusations that prosecuting former torturers deepens the split in Chilean society.Īt least a third of Chileans evidently agree that Allende, a Marxist, was leading the country toward chaos and Communism, and that Pinochet intervened to rescue it. Then one of the convicted officers, aged 86, committed suicide as police came to arrest him. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction of seven military officers who participated in the torture and murder of a leftist folk singer, Victor Jara, shortly after the coup. Another senator dismissed claims of sexual abuse in Pinochet’s prisons, which have been widely documented, as “urban legend.” Former president Sebastian Piñera said blame for the coup rested not with Pinochet, who carried it out, but with the victim, President Allende, “who with a minority tried to impose a Marxist model of society.”Ī judicial ruling days before Monday’s anniversary brought this political conflict into sharp relief. “We will not put ourselves at the service of an official truth,” one senator explained. Rightist parties boycotted Monday’s commemoration of the coup. A rightist senator replied that the reason leftists revile Pinochet is that “he prevented you from establishing a Cuban regime in Chile in 1973.”

Leftists sought to remove Pinochet’s name from the official list of former presidents. Rightist parties scorned it as a reopening of old wounds. Then he unveiled a National Search Plan aimed at finding the remains of more than 1,000 victims of the coup whose bodies have not been recovered. President Boric proposed that all political leaders sign a statement pledging to defend the Constitution against “authoritarian threats” and “to confront the challenges of democracy with more democracy.” Rightists refused.

Key organizers were forced to resign after critics charged that they were trying to turn the observance into a pro-government rally. The run-up to Monday’s anniversary was filled with rancor. A pair of glasses like the ones worn by President Salvador Allende was among the commemorative images projected on the facade of La Moneda Presidential Palace in Santiago on Monday.
