Tuesday 11 September 2018

The other 9/11

 

 Repost with additional information

On September 11, 2001 the USA experienced a great tragedy,I join people all over the world in remembering the lives lost on that day, and the hundreds of thousands more killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the other wars that followed.
Today though I also remember another 9/11, when on this day on September 11 1973, the democratically elected Government of Chile's socialist President Allende was brutally overthrown in a bloody, military coup led by fascist General Augusto Pinochet, friend of Margaret Thatcher. An American sponsored coup  that crushed a democratically elected government, which would lead  to years of repression, torture, forced disappearance, false imprisonment, fear, death and for many Chileans exile. Democracy would not return for 17 years with the Chilean people having to endure years of autocratic military rule.
In Chile in 1970 Salvador Allende won 36.6% of the vote and established his Popular Unity government in power much to the alarm of the United States government who feared his leftist government would slide into one party rule like Fidel Castro's Cuba. Allende's political platform was populist and he promised the nationalization of many sectors of the Chilean economy and the distribution of wealth to the country's poor. These plans, however, were not accepted in Washington, which saw Chile as the new “red menace”, a cancer to be eradicated and in a way to make it an example to anyone who dared to follow in its footsteps.The involvement of the CIA is proved by documents and files decrypted that confirm what we already knew: the coup had its legitimation from  President Nixon and the National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, the future Nobel Peace Prize.
Today in 1973 the Chilean military, under Pinochet's command, announced a coup and  Air Force planes  attacked the presidential palace. Within a few hours, the military had seized control of the government, and Allende and many of his ministers were left dead  in the presidential palace as the military unleashed a wave of brutal repression against the population and  the people's movements, ushering in almost two decades of right wing military rule under Pinochet. 
The military and secret police began rounding up thousands of  people loyal to President Allende.Many disappeared" into army-run, CIA-supported torture centers, never to be heard from again.Over 20,000 people  are  established to have been killed during Pinochet's reign  of terror. and 60,000 tortured,  hundreds of Allendes supporters alone were gunned down in Santiago Soccer stadium, so  today in Chile  this event is still marked  with anger, people taking to the streets and displaying it, Chileans still having to deal  with the devastating legacy of life  under a fascist regime.
Today on  this tragic anniversary, it is time to remember again, a time in our  history that still holds daily reverence to most Chileans lives,and for much of Latin America, and for the  many democratic reformers and carriers of solidarity's message worldwide.
In Florida in June,2016 a jury  found a former Chilean army officer liable for the murder of folk singer and activist Víctor Jara in 1973. Jara was tortured and shot more than 40 times in the days after the U.S.-backed coup. The verdict against Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nuñez marked what The Guardian newspaper called "one of the biggest and most significant legal human rights victories against a foreign war criminal in a US courtroom." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/27/victor-jara-pedro-pablo-barrientos-nunez-killing-chile  Speaking on the steps of the Florida courthouse, on , Jara’s widow Joan Jara Turner said at  the time, "What we were trying to do for more than 40 years, for Víctor, has today come true."
Since then in a form of justice eight retired Chilean military officers have been sentenced to 15 years in prison for Victor's murder.This hero of the people whose life and music has been celebrated ever since. 
Yet  no US presidential apology, has ever been made for what was unleashed on the workers, students and ordinary people of Chile on this day. So today as America  remembers  their own  9/11 lets not forget the other injustice that they helped cause.
I am  sadly reminded that years after the world watched as planes hijacked by terrorists  crashed into the World Trade Center ( that caused a further millions deaths, also creating millions of refugees, malnutrition, birth defects and other health disasters on generations of children  in Iraq and other war zones), the harrowing  cycle of violence never ended. 
 My only hope now is that we continue to express true sorrow, whilst collectively recognising the terrible legacy of these two  9/11's. Let us chart a more just and peaceful path forward. Lets hope the forces of truth and reconciliation long continue to be fostered and that  all victims are  rightfully remembered. 

Victor Jara - Venceremos
 

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/40th-anniversary-of-chilean-coup.html

4 comments:

  1. It's telling when a screed that finishes with a plea to "the forces of truth" starts with one lie after another. That 1.6M Iraqi death figure has been repeatedly debunked and discredited. Were that the only lie in this propaganda piece about Chile under Allende then that would've been bad enough. Sadly, it's not.

    Odd how its author makes no mention of Allende's open support of the Communist insurgents in Chile who were murdering Chilean citizens even before he came to power.

    Once in power he began ruling by decree - just like the other Communist tyrants that he so praised and sought to emulate. This got so bad that Chile's supreme court declared that Allende actions were unconstitutional.

    Following this the Chamber of Deputies - Chile's equivalent to the US Senate - called upon Chile's army to depose Allende and thus save what little of Chile's democracy he'd yet to destroy.

    Allende and his followers fought this and that touched off the brief civil war in Chile. A war which consumed about 4,000 people - and not the 20,000 Jara's screed asserts.

    It's odd how that article doesn't mention any of Allende's ruling by decree or how his presidency was declared unconstitutional by Chile's own supreme court.

    It's also telling who the article doesn't mention how Pinochet stepped down from power after having lost that election in 1990. If the man were half the tyrant the propaganda makes him out to be then he'd have bitterly clung to power no matter what. This, just like Allende's hero, Fidel Castro, did to his dying breath.

    Yes, those years were at times dark ones for Chile. But spewing lie filled propaganda like this "The Other 9/11" piece does only makes things worse, not better.

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  2. Well what can I say, just that your version of history the complete opposite to mine,Allende was certainly no hero but the fact remains that he entered office in November 1970 with 37 percent of the popular vote, with Congress overwhelmingly electing him to the Preidency. He became the constitutional President, selected through a rigorously democratic process in which there was no charge of corruption, no hint of irregularities. but on many accounts Gen. Augusto Pinochet was a brutal dictator who repressed Chile for nearly two decades and became a notorious symbol of human rights abuse and corruption.
    The facts that I have read are that General Pinochet seized power on Sept. 11, 1973, in a bloody military coup that led during his rule, to more than 3,200 people being executed or disappeared, and scores of thousands more were detained and tortured or exiled.. Is this a history you are proud of? Do we simply forget. Think we just have to simply disagree.

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  3. Teifidancer,

    It's not "my version of history" but the actual historical facts.

    At 37% that means the overwhelming majority of Chileans wanted someone - anyone, actually - other than Allende. Yes, the guy was elected but as soon as he was in power he revealed himself as a tyrant - just like the other socialist and communist dictators he so admired and sought to emulate.

    That's why the Chilean supreme court ruled Allende's actions unconstitutional and the Council of Deputies called upon the Chilean army to save what was left of Chile's democracy by removing the tyrant Allende had revealed himself to be.

    As to Pinochet's "repression" that really doesn't square with the peace, the prosperity nor the freedoms Chileans came to enjoy during the years he was still in office and have enjoyed since. When Pinochet stepped down after losing his presidential bid, Chile had the best economy, the biggest middle class, and the most personal freedom of any country in South America. It certainly had more than Argentina or Venezuela and Chileans were far better off than peoples under just about any other socialist dictatorship.

    And when both the country's supreme court and its duly elected legislature call upon the military to save the country it's rather difficult to cal that action a "coup."

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  4. no now you've said your piece, your account is in complete variance to mine, your truth in my humble opinion distorted by an onvvious bias, that ignores most common narratives, the significance of his election has been disputed by some because he only had a plurality, not a majority, in the popular vote. This could be said of any modern government. Allende was no way a saint but your agenda,simply does not give evidence of him acting as a tyrant,on all accounts under the later dictatorship of Pinochet, this is how his tenure will be long remembered. In death Allende was mourned, Within a few minutes of the announcement that the hated tyrant Pinochet was dead, thousands of Chilean people took to the streets to celebrate. We are not going to agree on this issue, but I will at least bid you good night

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