40 years!

In a few days more, on September the 11th, 40 years since the military coup that overthrew the government of Salvador Allende will have been completed. Therefore in the last days almost all communication media in Chile have exhibited all kind of programs regarding this painful topic. In Chile there are two main opinions with respect to the military coup of 1973. The socialistic perspective emphatically rejects the coup based on the belief that Allende was trying to achieve a Marxists revolution in a pacific way. On the other hand, people that belong to a political sector that we call “the Chilean right politics” have approved the coup because they contend that Allende violated the constitution of 1925 in several ways and he was trying also to impose his revolution in a very violent manner with the support of communist countries like Cuba or the Soviet Union. The younger generations which have been born after the coup have grown exposed to these two main streams of opinion.

Whatever the truth had been, this topic divides the Chileans into two groups; those who support Pinochet and those who reject him. Anger and hate have been maintained among these two sectors even between the younger ones. What can we do in order to reach reconciliation between Chileans?

I believe that reconciliation could be accomplished by three main ways. The first condition for reconciliation is that every injustice committed before and after September 1973 is repaired as much as possible according to the rule of law. This is rather a judicial process than a political issue. Secondly, the discussion around this problem should be led by historians and scientists and not by politicians. Scientists should play a major role in order to reveal the historical truth and they should have the bravery to support their vision, whatever it might be, with clear data and strong evidence. In the last place, it’s imperative that politicians don’t use this topic for electoral purposes. This third action could be only achieved if they accept the fact that everyone who was old enough for making decisions in 1973 has a little of guilt in the breakage of democracy that we suffered.  Therefore there wouldn´t be any good reasons for blaming someone for things that occurred before and after the military action.

If we led the scientists to enlighten the historical truth with data and evidence, politicians don´t use their prejudices for electoral purposes and we try to use our current laws to repair any human right violation that was committed before and after the coup, then we could expect that reconciliation among Chileans will be achieved soon. In this sense, I believe that we have reasons to be optimistic because certain actions similar to those described have been already embraced.