“Never again, never again.” The cry accompanied the emphasis given by the Chilean president Gabriel Boric to that same desire not to repeat the aftermath of death and pain of September 11, 1973. 50 years after the overthrow of Salvador Allende, and within the framework of a ceremony alluding to the tragedy that included numerous international guests, and the right decided not to accompany, Boric expressed “with great conviction” that Violence should not, under any circumstances, replace the search for democratic solutions to a crisis.. “The problems of democracy are achieved with more democracy and a coup d’état is never justified. We rebel when they tell us that there was no alternative (half a century ago). Democracy today and always.”
The commemoration of 9/11 has renewed historical divisions in that country. A march held the day before ended with incidents. The tribute to Allende in Congress was also a source of tension in the afternoon. The cultural evening at dusk revived the idea of two countries with conflicting emotions. Nothing that Chileans have not been experiencing. Boric himself had said days ago that the atmosphere was “electrified” by the controversies related to the nature of the conspiracy that enthroned the dictator Augusto Pinochet, the role of the then opposition parties, the business community and the media in the fall of Allende. “The right-wing political parties have not been up to the task,” lamented the former president Michelle Bachelet. He recalled in that sense that two decades ago there was “more consensus in condemning what had happened.”
In this context, Boric spoke to the country. Previously, at 11:52, the exact time the bombs fell from the Air Force planes against the La Moneda Palace, the participants of the ceremony made a minute of silence. “Unity and reconciliation are not achieved with neutrality or distance but unquestionably siding with those who were victims of horror. It’s not about pretending equalize responsibilities between victims and perpetrators but to do everything possible for him never again.”
Among those who listened to him were the presidents Luis Lacalle Pou (Uruguay), Gustavo Petro (Colombia), Luis Arce (Bolivia), Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Mexico) and the Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa (Portugal), among others. In the first rows, along with social leaders and human rights defenders, sat the former head of the Spanish Government. Felipe González and the former judge Baltasar Garzónwhose request for Pinochet’s arrest in London had a strong political impact in Chile, accelerating the departure of the then Army chief from the scene.
Praise of Allende
In front of them, Boric highlighted, when speaking about Allende, “the impeccable democratic trajectory of a man who pledged his word.” That appearance is what especially irritates the opposition. Very close to where the ceremony was taking place, the rubble of the bombed Moneda arrived in September 1973. A fact that, the president said, “shocked” “millions of men in the world who had seen in Chile a hope for change.” The transition to socialism in legality “was a path of change respecting the rights of minorities.”
That 9/11 “profoundly” disrupted the lives of all Chileans, “not only those who believed in the project that the Popular Unity (UP) represented.” The young president rescued “those who defended the constitution and the laws when the rule of law fell by force of planes and weapons and the insolence of treason and sedition.” Many Chileans “carry in our hearts those who were persecuted, died, went to prison or exile.” The right does not stop justifying the riot, although it condemns the crimes perpetrated. Boric did not overlook what he considers a contradiction. “The coup cannot be separated from what came after. From the moment of the coup, human rights were violated.”
Santiago Commitment
Half a century later, 9/11 is “a day of learning.” One of the great lessons it leaves behind is the need to “strengthen our coexistence.” Boric appreciated that his living ancestors, Eduardo Frei, Ricardo Lagos, Bachelet and even the right-wing Sebastián Piñera, absent from the event so as not to snub their allies and booed by those in attendance, would have signed a “manifesto for democracy.” Among those who think differently “we can build a better society.” That document, known as the Santiago Commitment, was also signed by foreign leaders. In the evening Lula da Silva (Brazil) joined, Pedro Sánchez (Spain), Michael D. Higgins (Ireland) and Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Germany), among others. ““The threats to democracy are not limited to our borders,” it is marked.
His speech also included some critical comments regarding the past, when sectors of the left considered that institutions were just one scale of the revolution. “Democracy is the only way to advance in a more just society, an end in itself, not merely instrumental. There is no room for violence. Structural changes must be accompanied by broad majorities. Don’t blame them for our own failures. “We must be able to learn from the lights and shadows of our predecessors.”
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The long speech oscillated between the need for political parties of all stripes to find basic agreements and the need to acknowledge past traumas. “The stories that stop being worth it are forgotten. We must transmit to new generations what our ancestors experienced.” And so that the flame does not go out, he pointed out that memory is crucial. But, in addition, we must advance in the knowledge of what happened to 1,162 missing persons. “The State made them disappear and the State must take charge of knowing where they are”, he said about the National Search Plan launched last week. “Only assuming debts from the past and healing the wounds will it be possible to coexist in harmony and build a society that projects into the future.”
The problem of human rights is not a thing of the past in the region or the world. And that is why Boric, in line with previous statements, which earned him the discontent of his coalition partners, particularly the Communist Party, said he feels the pain of what is happening in other countries. ““It does not matter the color of the regime that violates human rights, be it red, blue or black.” Their violations “must be condemned without any nuance.” Many thought of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba. The veiled criticism of the present did not spare its gratitude to Havana for having received numerous exiles after the coup, among them Beatriz Allende, daughter of the late president.