Pinochet, Allende, denialism and official truth
Days after a study “Chile in the shadow of Pinochet,” that showed that over a third of Chileans feel like the 1973 coup d’état was justified, Pinochet’s legacy seems to divide Chilean politics more and more.
First, it was Republican Party member Luis Silva who mentioned having a certain admiration for the former Chilean dictator. President Gabriel Boric and government spokesperson and Community Party member Camila Vallejo came out with statements condemning the “denialism” by politicians like Silva.
What did Silva say?
Silva was asked about the CERC-Mori study. Silva said that he felt “a hint of admiration” for Pinochet, in the sense that he thought “that he was a statesman, a man who knew how to lead the State, to reassemble a State that was divided to the core.”
Silva, who received the most individual votes out of any candidate during the May 7 Constitutional Council elections, added that he proposes “a more balanced reading of Pinochet’s ‘government’.”
According to the Republican, there were obviously “atrocious” things that happened during Pinochet’s rule, things that “stain what he did for Chile.” However, despite the gravity of the matter, “we should not simplify or reduce the17 years that he was in power to human rights violations, because I believe that we deprive ourselves as Chileans of a balanced understanding of our history. It would make us very bad interpreters of the present,” he maintained.
Government response
Boric was quick to condemn Silva’s statements. “Augusto Pinochet was a dictator and anti-democratic, whose government killed, tortured, exiled and made those who thought differently disappear,” Boric tweeted.
“He was also corrupt and a thief, and was never a real statesman,” the President added in response to Silva’s admiration.
President Boric advocated for a “common view” during the commemoration coup, on Sept. 11, 2023.
During his second Public Account, on Thursday, June 1, Boric said that he hopes that the commemoration will mark an end to the “stubborn denialism” that still exists in Chile, and that Chileans “will be able to have a common vision that sustains … the universal value of human rights and the importance of democracy.”
Opposition backlash
The President’s hopes proved to be controversial and all but unifying.
In a response, María José Hoffman, of the opposition party Independent Democratic Union (UDI), said that “the 50th anniversary is a complex issue for Chile,” and added that she hopes that the government does not want to impose an “official truth” on the people: “That would be a profound mistake.”
When asked about Silva’s statements, Hoffman said that deciding whether Pinochet was a good statesman is up to historians. However, she did add that the “barbarities” committed by Salvador Allende, Chile’s socialist President who was overthrown during the 1973 coup, were comparable to those committed during the dictatorship.
Hoffman was backed by her party leader, UDI President Javier Macaya. Without Allende, he said, there would have been no Pinochet. According to Macaya, the largest division within Chilean society is the apparent “zero-sum game between Pinochet and Allende.”
It is mostly the political left that exploits the figure of Pinochet’s, he added, saying that “the left knows that Pinochet divides, and polarizes, [by evoking his name we] enter into a discussion that historically has given them political returns.”
We must look to the future. We need to be able to make these 50 years serve for lessons learned, but not with our eyes continuously in the rearview mirror,”
he concluded.
Whether to look forwards or back, Chilean representatives seem to be as divided as ever.