30 years after Allende's fall, citizens remain split over their country's past and future.

Mario Canseco

On Sept. 11, 1973, General Augusto Pinochet spearheaded a coup d'etat to topple the government of Salvador Allende, the first Marxist politician elected to lead a Latin American nation. Chileans observed the anniversary last week, as years of military obliteration have left permanent scars in the population.

Allende was elected in 1970, winning a closely contested election with 36 per cent of the vote. For the next three years, the socialist head of state put companies under government control and imposed a moratorium on debt payments. As the country began to suffer from a dwindling economy, Pinochet ordered troops to bomb the presidential palace. Allende offered his parting message live on radio, as troops advanced down a hallway and into his office.

The General's tenure was marked by a crackdown on political parties and dissidents, known as the "Caravan of Death." An estimated 3,000 people were killed, and thousands more went missing. After Pinochet lost a 1988 referendum on his tenure, democracy fully returned to the South American nation. Elections have been free and fair since 1990, and mindful financial planning enabled the country to avoid economic hardship.

Even after Pinochet was no longer at the helm, Allende's figure remained elusive, as a semi-official position virtually erased the leader's image from memory. A palace door—from where Allende's lifeless body was carried out after the coup was consummated—remained sealed for 30 years.

Last week, social-liberal president Ricardo Lagos championed a campaign to return Allende to the limelight. Lagos commissioned two commemorative plaques and two portraits for the presidential palace, and re-named an interior ministry hall. In acts of remembrance, Allende's image was present. Media outlets blitzed the audience with documentaries and specials.

Chileans have mixed feelings 30 years after the coup. Earlier this month, 53 per cent of respondents to a poll by Fundacion Futuro chided the government for exploiting Allende's image, and 56 per cent claimed the excessive amount of media attention to the anniversary was unwarranted.

The population remains divided over past and future. More than half of all respondents to a July survey by Fundación Futuro wanted full disclosure of the truth and trials for human rights violators, while 17.2 per cent said it is time to forget the issue. Not surprisingly, 87 per cent of respondents thought the country was still far from reconciliation.

Spanish justice Baltasar Garzón came close to trying Pinochet in 1999, seeking prosecution for crimes committed against European citizens. Months went by as the former dictator fought the arrest warrant from Britain. In London and Santiago, crowds gathered to either support the leader who freed the country from certain doom, or to condemn the dictator responsible for heinous acts. In the end, Pinochet returned to Chile due to "health and humanitarian reasons," retaining diplomatic immunity as a senator for life.

A few weeks ago, Lagos presented a new accountability strategy. The president's plan increases economic compensation to relatives of victims, expedites pending judicial processes against suspected human rights violators and contemplates an admonition to differentiate the high-ranking officials who planned the repression from the lower-level soldiers who followed orders. The National Congress agreed to review the proposal, but organizations encompassing relatives of victims were not satisfied.

Chileans are already looking ahead to the next administration, and two cabinet ministers from the ruling Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia (CPD—Agreement of Parties for Democracy) have positioned themselves as the main presidential hopefuls, foreign minister Soledad Alvear and defence minister Michele Bachelet. In a June poll by Ipsos Search Marketing, either public servant would narrowly defeat prospective Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI—Independent Democratic Union) nominee Joaquín Lavín, currently the mayor of Santiago.

It might be up to Bachelet, Alvear or Lavín to revamp the government's position on human rights abuses on the next presidential term, to begin in 2006. Bachelet—the daughter of an air force general who was executed after opposing Pinochet—was detained and tortured in the notorious Villa Grimaldi internment facility.

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