[News] Chile: Celebrations in Half-Light

[Anti-Imperialist News]

resumen-english.org
<https://resumen-english.org/2023/09/chile-celebrations-in-half-light/>
Chile: Celebrations in Half-Light
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By Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein - September 2023


I write this week from Chile where I attended an international seminar
organized by the Municipality of Recoleta, the XXI Constituent Foundation
and other organizations to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the fall in
combat of President Allende and the enthronement of the fascist
civil-military dictatorship that established itself in this country for the
duration of 17 years.

A gloomy atmosphere hangs over a country that has not managed to overcome
the division and confrontation imposed by the dictatorship. The anniversary
date has had “ambivalent celebrations”: some have remembered Allende, his
deed, his loyalty to the people and his heroic immolation in defense of
democracy, while others have remembered with joy the violent irruption of
the armed forces that “liberated Chile of the Marxist cancer.”

Meanwhile, the government stood at the sidelines, organizing an elitist
commemoration devoid of mass participation that would have given the
emphasis that the date and President Allende deserved. President Boric’s
previous rhetoric, assuming a shameful neutrality, refers to the
controversial theory of the “two demons” that holds Allende and the
dictatorship equally responsible for the coup d’état.

It could not be otherwise given the fact that Chile has a weak, cowardly,
timid, hesitant and pusillanimous president, of whom the most recalcitrant
right takes advantage of to go on the offensive and keep the people in a
paralyzing immobility. This immobility began on November 15, 2019, when the
power elites, Boric among them, signed a elitist governance agreement that
paralyzed the social protest which had Piñera and his government “against
the ropes” and on the brink of being thrown out the windo. It must be said
that, unfortunately, the pandemic also played its part.

Boric benefited from this agreement that many in Chile consider a betrayal
of the people and a decision in favor of businessmen and the right. As at
the end of the 80s of the last century, the hidden powers of the country
resorted to a mediatized solution that they could control and manage at
will in order to avoid an alternative that had the people as the
protagonist and driving force of the transformations and that would lead
Chile to a true recovery of democracy, legally constrained today by a
constitution fraudulently approved during the dictatorship.

The agreement of November 15, which subsequently brought Boric to the
presidency, gave continuity to the neoliberal economic model and deepened
the repressive democracy imposed by his predecessors. Boric’s loyalty to
the United States is absolute. His surprising alignment with Washington
regarding the conflict in Ukraine is an expression of a dog-like decision
to follow the master’s orders. Even Pinochet exercised more autonomy in
matters of foreign policy.

All this has caused the government to minimize the anniversary to turn it
into a celebration behind closed doors in the Moneda palace, surrounded by
hundreds of police officers and empty, silent streets, absent from the town
that Allende defended until the last minute of his precious life.

The most important commemorations occurred in the municipality of Recoleta,
where Mayor Daniel Jadue, his team and other popular and social
organizations took charge of remembering Allende in his true dimension,
generating a true cultural festival and a great debate of ideas to
contribute to the process of political formation necessary for Chile to
return to the path of a true democracy: real, participatory and with
popular protagonism.

As for me, I was part of a panel held at the headquarters of the National
Confederation of Municipal Health Officials (Confusam), a combative union
of health workers, in which the public policies of the Popular Front were
reviewed. It was my responsibility to give a presentation on the
international policy of the popular government and the internationalist
thought of President Allende.

Likewise, within the framework of the events organized in Recoleta, I had
to present different levels of analysis of the conflict in Ukraine, to
explain the international repercussions and the transformation that this
fact is having in the international system and the transition from an
Atlanticist model to one that has its axis in the great Eurasian space.

But the most emotional and beautiful event that I had to attend was a
meeting at the Andrés Bello High School where I was studying when the coup
d’état occurred in September 1973. There we remembered and unveiled a
plaque with the names of six murdered and one disappeared classmate, who
were students of that high school and became victims of the dictatorship.
Walking through the hallways and courtyards of the school where I began my
educational and political training as a revolutionary activist, I was able
to evoke that fateful day 50 years ago.

While these commemorations are taking place, the country is struggling in
the middle of a new right-wing trap that the president, his government and
the parties that support it have observed as sheep of the power that
manages the country. In a masterful move, the fascist right is drafting a
new constitution so reactionary, so retrograde and so conservative that
even sectors ranging from the slightly less cavernous right to the official
left have called for it to be rejected, which – it is worth saying – does
not allow being encouraging in the face of the size of the regression that
would mean approving a medieval constitution in the 21st century.

Pinochet’s current constitution will end up being validated and
legitimized, which gives continuity to a system of neoliberal economy,
restricted democracy and justice “to the extent of the possible.”

More shadows than lights have been observed in these commemorations,
although the last words of President Allende will always continue to be
heard, which have never lost their validity: “…other men will overcome this
gray and bitter moment where betrayal seeks to prevail. Continue knowing
that sooner rather than later, the great avenues through which the free man
can pass will open to build a better society. Long live Chile! Long live
the people! Long live the workers!”

*Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein* is a Venezuelan international relations
expert, Gelfenstein was previously Director of the International Relations
of the Presidency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and his country’s
ambassador to Nicaragua.Twitter: @sergioro0701

Source: United World
<https://unitedworldint.com/31646-chile-celebrations-in-half-light/>
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