LIFE UNDER PINOCHET

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ACCORDING TO OPINIONS OF A LOCAL GUIDE AND FACTS FROM THE HUMAN RIGHTS MUSEUM

After Allende’s death Pinochet took over as General. Under Pinochet’s rule which lasted ten years, people had to be indoors by 9pm. If a person was found outside after 9pm the army had the right to shoot the person or they would be taken to football stadiums which under Pinochet were being used as torture chambers. All media was under Pinochet’s control and rife with propaganda, all books in the country were burned and the Chileans were buying everything on credit and enjoying a false economic boom. Nowadays, Chile doesn’t produce any books after this episode of history, books imported have a 19% tax on them (one novel would cost about 30 pounds and as a result illiteracy rates are very high in Chile and schools have a serious shortage of books. Also nowadays, Chileans still buy almost everything on credit and pay it back later. Most people can and do pay it back as unemployment rates are only at 5%, and generally if you don’t have a job in Chile it’s because you don’t want to work.

In 1980 Chile had an election which was rigged to make sure Pinochet won. Anybody who wasn’t deemed worthy to vote were not allowed to vote and many of the votes supporting Pinochet had the names of people who had already died. Pinochet continued in power and wrote a Constitution (which still exists now in the modern presidency) which protected his reign and he promoted himself to President instead of General. In 1988 many people came back from Europe and voted against Pinochet which gave democracy back to Chile in 1990. Through the Consitutional powers which Pinochet had written himself and which allowed Presidents to return, whilst he was no longer President he still lingered around with a degree of political power and was able to take on political roles for a long time afterwards.

It was this period in the 90s which divided people in Chile into pro-Pinochets or contra-Pinochets. Neighbours and families were divided. People still today are distrustful of others and still continue to be divided. Many of the war crimes were never solved and it is only within the last few months that people are now beginning to convict war criminals who worked under the Pinochet regime.



Now I’m starting to understand why people seem to trust each other less here than in the UK. I suppose when you have only had democracy for a short time and are holding onto it by a thread you would naturally be fearful. Chile still has a democracy today and in 2006 a woman was elected as President of Chile – the first woman to be elected as President in Latin America.

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