Wednesday, January 16, 2019 // The Statement
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Wednesday, December 4, 2019 // The Statement
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iolence in Chile is an idea that
I tie closely to my parent’s
generation. Sept. 11, 1973 — a
day that echoes in the history of Chile.
Sept. 11 was the date of the mili-
tary coup that would redefine Chilean
politics, economics, and by extension,
society. The coup brought on a com-
plete overhaul of the health care sys-
tem (loosely based on the American
system), failing schools, poor pensions
and even the systematic privatization
of water.
It marked the beginning of two
decades of violence. It was on this day
when the CIA-backed military took
the country away from the people and
with the mantra of national recon-
struction, completely altered the fab-
ric of Chile. Those decades would be
marked by systematic political repres-
sion and the persecution, torture and
murder of dissidents.
The consequences of Sep. 11 are not
just a traumatic memory for Chileans:
The day’s legacy lives on in the coun-
try.
But now I am seeing violence play
out during my lifetime. Violence lives
on in response to the protests that
broke out in Chile about a month ago.

Onlookers are in shock as the often-
lauded capitalist success story is going
up in flames. But to really understand
what is happening in Chile, we first
have to understand its history.
F

rom abroad, Latin America
is a region plagued by eco-
nomic and political instabil-
ity. Uncertainty is a word that thrives
in Latin America, and it takes hold of
every political party — left or right.
Systemic corruption runs in Chile and
the rest of Latin America.
But it wasn’t always like that.
We need to think about the history
of Latin America with an understand-
ing of the broader geopolitical context.
From the late ’40s to the early ’90s, the
United States fought to contain com-
munism during the Cold War. Dur-
ing this time, the U.S. government,
through its use of the military and
the CIA, enacted policies to expand
American dominion beyond its geo-
graphic boundaries. Through econom-
ic engagement, both by private means
and
government
treaties,
military
intervention or regime changes, Amer-
ica imposed its free-market ideology
on to the rest of the world, including
Latin America.

In Chile, the 1960s
and ’70s represented
an era of social hope.
Chile was one of the
first
countries
to
freely elect a social-
ist president, and with
the election of Salva-
dor Allende in 1970
lay the promise of a
prosperous Chile. But
this social hope was a
threat to the American
ideological project.
In one fell swoop,
everything
changed.
What took place in
the country instead
was the fast transfor-
mation of a neoliberal
dreamland. At its core,
this resulted in dereg-
ulation
and
priva-
tization
of
several
facets of government
as well as the devel-
opment of a state that
guaranteed the rights
to
promote
private
entrepreneurship. As
a result of the history of
American intervention, Chile is now
witnessing the growing inequality of
its people. The imposed political trans-
formations have left in their wake the
displacement and destruction of entire
communities and a country unable to
reconcile its political divide under a
crumbling neoliberal banner.
T

he idealized image of Chile’s
success story is now frac-
turing as a result of recent
protests. What originally began as
unrest because of an increase in sub-
way tariffs has transformed into a
countrywide movement of Chileans
demanding economic reform and the
expulsion of its President Sebastián
Piñera. Chileans are crying out in
favor of better access to health care
and education, pension system reform,
nationalization of natural resources, a
crackdown on government corruption,
recognition of indigenous rights and a
new constitution that replaces the one
written during the dictatorship.
But the president has responded
to the surge of protests with hostile
words and actions. He first declared a
state of emergency, a right of the state
that has not been invoked since the

dictatorship (1973-1990). Along with
an enforced curfew, the state of emer-
gency was intended to ensure private
order by restricting people’s civil lib-
erties, movement and right to assem-
bly. Piñera has even gone so far as to
claim that Chile is at war with people
he deems are “enemies of the state.”
He has sent about 10,000 armed mili-
tary personnel to Santiago and other
areas to contain the growing unrest.
Though he has since taken the mili-
tary off the streets of Santiago, prom-
ised higher pensions, better health
coverage, higher taxes and even sup-
ports a referendum to write a new
constitution, these promises are not
enough to get people off the streets.
The people do not believe his words.
And how could they trust their govern-
ment?
Official reports of human rights
violations are circulating, but the gov-
ernment does not take responsibil-
ity, and social media is flooded with
accusations of biased reporting. There
are videos of police snorting cocaine
to remain more vigilant circulating
on social media. There are videos of
people being taken from their homes
on Facebook. It was recently reported
that a destroyed subway stop, Estación
Baquedano, was being used as a tor-
ture room. Women have claimed to be
sexually abused after getting arrested.
Countless photos are circulating of
people getting shot in the eye and los-
ing their vision.
These drastic measures are reopen-
ing the wound of the dictatorship. It
is invoking the memory of a violent
past into a turbulent present. These
protests may have been started by stu-
dents, but they are now fighting hand
in hand with older generations who
survived the dictatorship. The time-
line of Chile’s history is blurred on the
streets of Santiago and beyond. The
cries of the past are echoed in the cries
of today.
Piñera is wrong. Chile isn’t at war
with enemies of the state, Chile is still
fighting the oppressive legacy of the
dictatorship. It was never about the
30 pesos tariff increase. It is about 30
years of political repression and a peo-
ple whose desire for an equal and wor-
thy life has endured. What lies at stake
is the opportunity for a rebirth of the
country, one that can finally lay to rest
the bones of the dictatorship.

The price of a free market

BY MARTINA VILLALOBOS, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

COURTESY OF ORIZON VILLALOBOS