| To most North Americans, September 11 is a reminder of the terrorist attacks that brought down New York's World Trade Center in 2001, but a small group of Calgarians has its own stories of horror linked to that day stretching back 30 years.
This year, September 11 marks three decades since the bloody coup d'etat in Chile by U.S.-backed rightist General Augusto Pinochet. That day brought about the death of elected Marxist president Salvador Allende and two decades of brutal repression of Pinochet's political opponents.
The similarities to New York's September 11 are eerie – both attacks came in the morning, and from the sky (in Chile's case, military jets bombed the presidential palace) – and like those mourning New York's attacks, many Chileans say remembering the day is crucial to the country's psychological healing.
Gathered at the Chilean Canadian Community Association in a northeast strip mall on a rainy Monday, a handful of ex-Chilean political prisoners now living in Calgary – many of whom faced torture in Pinochet's prisons – say they, and their country, are still struggling to come to terms with the coup and subsequent 20 years of repression. What makes the anniversary even more bittersweet is that their day of remembrance has been overshadowed by an American tragedy – and the American government had a direct hand in their own horrors.
"We are demanding three things of Chile: truth, justice and compensation," says Victor Gavilan, the bespectacled co-ordinator of the group. "We have to have justice and we have to have truth. My God, they are still denying what they did, and there are thousands of the disappeared. Where is the people who did this? Who has taken responsibility and been brought to justice? There are so many people who lost their families."
Each member of the group has their own tragic story to tell. All were in their 20s when government crackdowns began. Some were working against the government at the time, while others simply participated in demonstrations. Others still say they still don't know why they were arrested. They all unwittingly became part of Chile's "Disappeared" – thousands of citizens snatched by government agents and transferred through the prison system secretly so their families rarely knew where they were. Thousands more were executed.
Eduardo De La Fuente, a quiet, heavyset man, describes in rough English how electric shocks were delivered to his chest, tongue and genitals. Osvaldo Zamoramo remembers cattle prods and psychological torture.
Silvia Gonzalez, a middle-aged woman of perpetual smiles, says she was arrested from the farm where she was working and detained for years. She laughs now at facing accusations of harbouring weapons caches.
"Look at me," she says, chuckling. "I never had any weapons."
While in prison, her husband fled the country with her children, and she was never part of their lives again. Torture damaged her vocal chords so badly that scores of medical procedures were needed to restore her voice. "Thirty-two operations on my vocal chords," she says in a raspy voice.
Many of the others made it to Canada as part of a prisoner release arranged under prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Dagoberto Correa says he knew little of Canada, but chose Winnipeg as his new home because it was in the centre of the country.
Like much of their native country, the group still struggles with anger and frustration over the repression. Pinochet negotiated his own departure from the presidency in 1990, but remained behind the scenes exercising control. Even today, military leaders, developed under Pinochet's rule, say they will not tolerate a lifting of amnesty laws covering members of the junta. Combined with the reluctance of the country's judiciary to prosecute, few members of the regime have faced arrest or incarceration. Pinochet still has supporters in Chile, many of whom credit him with saving the country's economy, so Chile keeps struggling with ideas of justice and retribution.
Correa says the group was heartened in 1998 when Pinochet was arrested in the United Kingdom under orders of a Spanish judge. After years of legal wrangling, however, Pinochet is back in Chile and the group says it has little optimism he will ever see the inside of a prison. They also aren't holding out much hope of retribution from the American government. Although U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell recently said he isn't "proud" of his country's covert support of Pinochet, Correa says that falls short of an admission of guilt, and calls it more a political move than apology.
But Calgary's Chilean community is still planning to mark they day. A commemorative event featuring guest speakers and a reception is scheduled for September 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the John Dutton Theatre in the Central Library.
The group says remembering the tragedy is the only way to ensure it doesn't happen again.
"(Pinochet's regime) may never be prosecuted, but we still want justice," Zamoramo says. "We want the history books to tell the truth." |
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