Adios General!
Morrison, Micah
"Despite fifteen years," he said with "Of course if democracy is a winner a broad smile, "it was a very big day. our situation will be better," the If democracy is a winner, it will be good...
...soldiers firing on doves...
...A broad opposition coalition carried over from the success-ful effort in the plebiscite...
...Two socialist parties were born out of the debris of Allende's socialist party—the Socialist party/Almeyda (PS/A) and the Socialist party/Nunez (PS/N...
...He wants a return to democracy, he wants "more attention to the poor," but he also wants the military to be prepared to intervene "if we have the same problems as we had with Allende...
...MM stituting the old game as it was in the years leading up to Allende...
...O ne morning I drove with Patricio Vargas to the poor neighborhood of La Victoria, a stronghold of the Communist party and other ele-ments of the radical left...
...Some reports indicate leadership fight between aging Moscow-based secretary general, Luis Corvalan, and a younger Gladys Marin...
...While the plebiscite was a positive sign, the priest said, the majority of working-class Chileans face enormous problems...
...When I was growing up," my friend Solange said one night over dinner, "I was taught that everyone who was not a Catholic was going straight to Hell...
...ham-mers and sickles...
...The gate swung shut...
...In the time of Allende we were living near the mines in the south," Claudio said...
...Popular with a main target of the RN—youngish Chilean professionals—Buchi may prove a bit too far out for older Chileans, but he's an indication that RN is looking to the future and positioning itself as the major moderate-conservative party...
...This argument is unresolved at present, and has spilled into violent confrontations among factions in the poor areas...
...B ehind the candle-lit altar, statues of angels and tall crosses loom in the dim light, shadows of angel wings flicker on the church walls...
...He is a trim man in his early thirties with a quick smile...
...Prominent member of the "No" effort...
...While "disappearances" have dropped to about a dozen in the last five years, death threats and low-level harassment —dead cats on your doorstep, vans following you down the street, head-lights beaming in your window at night, pleasant chats about the routes your children take every day—have sharply increased...
...Claudio and many, many others support the military wholeheartedly...
...Solange and her boyfriend Alberto, like many Chil-eans, have little patience for the old ways of the Roman Catholic Church...
...MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM Please enroll me as a member of the United States Strategic institute for one year entitling me to receive quarterly issues of Strategic Review and a 40% discount on USSI publications commissioned by the Institute...
...The power of the saints and shrines and strict traditions is slipping in this over-whelmingly Catholic country, where divorce is illegal and acted out daily in the theater of annulments, where abor-tion is absolutely forbidden and, of course, widely available...
...Everything will be better...
...Whether this beast can hold itself together is a major question of the election season...
...Thirty thou-sand people are crowded into a 10-block-by-l0-block area of small brick homes and unpaved streets...
...terms, resembling, say, a thoroughly re-spectable neighborhood in Southern California...
...Chilean socialists have a long-standing rivalry with the Communist party for influence among the poor...
...The Vicaria holds most of the evidence...
...doves crucified...
...Every day in my business I am on the phone to Miami—it is , the same all over Chile...
...Alberto and Solange both speak English...
...Better than most he knows how fast laws change...
...We cannot afford cy...
...Ricardo Nunez Socialists are more moderate...
...December's election...
...What the CIA did was to kick a man already sliding fast down the slippery slope...
...It was an argument I often heard from the left, though even the left does not dispute Chile's current economic prosperity...
...close ties to extreme left, to Moscow and Cuba...
...Now people were uncer-pected, take power after the December tain about the election process and the election, one of the major issues—and future...
...Their history cannot afford to get sick...
...What the priest did not say was a probable source of tension within the that the Chilean Communist party was coalition—will be how to expand the locked in a furious debate about wheth-prosperity without endangering it...
...Patricio and I stopped for lunch in an air-conditioned mall called...
...Who-ever is a Marxist," he declared straight off, "I am for whoever is against that Marxist...
...It's not a light psychological blow, after all, when you get a death threat in which you're pointedly reminded about the hundreds who never came back...
...As many moderate members of the Chilean left were quick to point out, this gives the Communists a back door into the major opposition coalition...
...You must understand," Patricio said...
...It sounds pretty ness to withdraw from the presidency familiar, of course, and it's hard to has created new lines of tension all over argue with Chile's present financial the political landscape, including situation: foreign debt is falling, ex-among the poor and the far left...
...National Renovation (RN...
...There is more mobility among the classes—a La Victoria kid can go to the university or join the army or enroll in a vocational school, though the radicals tend to look at this as some sort of sneaky capitalist trickery...
...Chileans grow grim and sink inward when the Allende years and the coup are brought up...
...Seventeen parties formed the "Concertation" at last count, from the Christian Democrats leftward, including just about every-body except the Communists...
...Under current law he may remain commander of the army and senator-for-life, but that is the dreamwork of a dictator, a bit of self-delusion and a couple of minor cards in his poker game with Chile and with destiny...
...COALITIONS The Concertation...
...our situation will be better," the If democracy is a winner, it will be good plumber said...
...Name Address City State Zip q My tax-deductible contribution of S25 is enclosed...
...The poor are the left's most loyal constit-uency and the left will continue— justifiably in many cases—to press for a greater allocation of resources toward health and housing and education and jobs...
...ON THE RIGHT Democratic Radical party (PDR), founded by conservative dissidents expelled from the Radical party for opposing its leftward course, strong but not unconditional supporter of Pinochet...
...In a democracy we will .for us...
...Those were the neigh-borhoods of the "Si," of the more than 40 percent of Chileans.who voted for Pinochet in the plebiscite...
...The mistake of democracy is to accept all ideas...
...Neither image is com-pletely true...
...I am against Pinochet...
...I hope "everything will be better" for "We need miracles to live on our Chileans when they return to democra-salary," he added...
...One of Chile's oldest parties, PR swung hard left and in 1969 became a key supporter of Allende's Popular Unity alliance...
...No one cares democracy loses, there will be problems about our opinion now...
...y ears ago, the church stepped in-to a space created by Pinochet's banning of political parties and be-came through its Vicariate of Solidarity Chile's most _important human-rights organization...
...LI 4 the pertinence of its articles, and the depth and clarity of the thinking displayed...
...He is an electrical engineer in his early fifties, and a defiant man...
...Chile's problems were brought about by Chile, not by Washing-ton or some insidious conspiracy of multinational corporations...
...Contrary to the conspiracy theories of the American left, the Chilean view—on the left as well as the right—of the CIA's role is that it was a factor but not a decisive factor in the fall of Allende...
...Jarpa and Allamand possible presidential candidates, as well as the recently much-touted "phenomenon," Minister of Finance Hernan Brichi...
...But even the radicals of La Victoria acknowledge that things are changing...
...Both are vegetarians, more or less...
...We were near Las Condes and headed for a chat with the upper-middle-class Chilean "family" of Melanie Brevoort, an American exchange student I had met in the Vicaria...
...One fac-tion, led by party president Patricio Phillips, backed the "Si" in the plebiscite, while another faction backed the "No...
...One of his daughters said, "My father was on a list to be killed...
...Led the "No" campaign...
...We desire...
...For the old fox is no fool...
...The CP's terror arm is the FPMR...
...And rush -a copy of Central America.and the Reagan Doctrine...
...Because now for us...
...Associated with the "Silo movement" of Mario Rodriguez of Argentina, PH calls itself "the New Left" and claims to reject Marxism, aspiring instead to a "socialist, libertarian, and non-violent revolution...
...The foregoing is the professional judgment of Harry Zubkoff, Editor of Defense Media Review...
...Banned...
...After the coup the military found many machine guns in the homes of Allende's people in the south...
...Both work: Solange in Citibank, Alberto in an import-export firm...
...in Allende's heyday...
...This is his chance to get out in a historical moment of tranquility and prosperity...
...When the coup came, many Chileans welcomed it, thinking Pinochet would soon turn power over to a civilian gov-ernment...
...Instead, military death squads went after the left wing of Allende's Popular Unity government, particular-ly the militants of the Communist par-ty and its allies...
...Split internally and with other elements of the right over RN's refusal to back Pinochet unconditionally in the plebiscite...
...He "did not have a problem" be-ing identified with the liberation theol-ogist wing of the church...
...Pa-tricio gestured at the gleaming shop windows, the busy concourse, the video parlors, and fast-food restaurants...
...The church, fissured by political battles from within, faces what it views as greater problems from without: apathy, materialism, increas-ing secularization...
...By accepting membership in the United States Strategic institute, you will receive Strategic Review regularly and you can look forward to other timely analyses and background information — not readily available elsewhere — on vital national security issues...
...USSI is an indepen-dent, nonprofit organization...
...Melanie looked at him...
...Solange voted for the "No...
...Democracy cannot accept ideas that will destroy democracy...
...Another: "No to Pinochet, No to the Dictator, No to Torturers...
...In this volume 15 experts direct a hard fight on U.S...
...and here, somehow fittingly with the biggest crowd in front of her, is my favorite, Santa Rita de Casia-she who helps those with "Impossible Claims...
...Other small forces on the left include: the Christian Left, the Movement of Popular Unity Ac-tion and splinter groups, the Social Accord for the "No" and the Popular Socialist Union...
...Led by Sergio Onofre Jarpa and Andres Allamand...
...I hope it will bring them all they good education for our children...
...Both consider themselves conservatives...
...If have more participation...
...Moderate socialists, mostly...
...If the opposition doesn't blow it by exploding leftward and if Pinochet doesn't pull the plug, Aylwin is likely to become the next president...
...After a bitter internal power struggle nominated PDC President Patricio Aylwin, 70, as its "pre-presidential" candidate—in other words, the PDC's choice for president of Chile, and presumably the choice of the "Concertation" (see "Coalitions," below) of united opposition parties, following wheeling and dealing over congressional apportionments and policy directions...
...Angry voices are beginning to be raised about "uninvited guests at the party" and what it may mean come election day...
...You Americans," he exclaimed, "you think Allende was a socialist...
...Allied with the tiny Green party...
...Similar testimonials have come from academicians, journalists, legislators, policymakers...
...I'm putting my money on the graceful exit...
...In the plebiscite, Alberto could not decide which way to vote and finally annulled his ballot...
...Manfred Woerner, Secretary General of NATO, singles out Strategic Review for "its embracive, universal view of strategy, and its focus on the global interplay of political, economic, social and military factors...
...He says he loves Jesus, that Jesus is Love, but that he rejects many of the teachings of the church...
...The Vicaria, with a group of lawyers and researchers, carefully documents cases of "disappearance," torture, and death threats...
...In addition to his own party, Silva Cimma is backed by the powerful PPD, the Humanist party, and the Nunez Socialists...
...As ye ex-it so shall ye be judged—at least in part...
...Before ports are booming, taxes have been the plebiscite, the priest said, it was lowered, new jobs are being created...
...At the home of Claudio Canales we sat in a small comfortable living room...
...A sleepy priest waits in a confessional, the door open, light from a bare bulb spilling over him...
...Founded in 1980, allegedly by former members of the security forces...
...Negotiations will be long and loud...
...Many see him as an arrogant tyrant who trampled over the liberties of the citizenry for far too long...
...Mothers are here with their restless children, and gum-chewing teenage girls, businessmen, street kids, and cripples, soldiers in civilian clothes...
...But he was a Communist...
...In that time I became afraid for my family and bought a handgun...
...Largest opposition party, center to center-left...
...Everything is related to next the laws do not protect us...
...To day Chileans do not want to hear about human-rights abuses, particularly from THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MAY 1989 foreigners...
...One of the newest opposition coalitions is PAIS, an acronym for the Broad party of the Socialist Left...
...Strategic Review permits you to share in the strategy debates now underway at the highest levels of U.S...
...q THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MAY 1989...
...Radical Party (PR...
...The opposition, eager for a return to democracy, is engaged in a delicate balancing act, assuring the military that it will not be put through a shattering settling of accounts on one hand, and assuring the public that the truth will come out on the other hand...
...Party for Democracy (PPD...
...Party is dedicated to Pinochet as national leader and usually can be found at the forefront of pro-government demonstrations...
...Formed as a one-time "instrument" for the plebiscite and led by the charismatic Ricardo Lagos, a major figure on the left, PPD recently constituted itself as an official party...
...portraits of Allende and the late leftist poet Pablo Neruda...
...The military and a growing number of Chileans watched with in-creasing alarm as the left seized property, sought inroads among the armed forces, gutted the economy with ill-prepared nationalization schemes and rocketing inflation and food shortages, and began to arm its followers...
...One of the Chicago boys, Biichi is only 40, long-haired, climbs mountains, is a vegetarian and occasionally rides his bike to work...
...Largest party on the right, and one of the youngest —founded in 1987 in fusion of several conservative groups...
...And with a clean election, he will have done ex-actly that...
...At pres-ent, legality of both parties is in limbo because of their embrace of Marxism...
...They talk of human-rights abuses when the- military responds but they never talk when policemen are murdered in the streets...
...American culture— fashion, music, television—is all over Chile and inevitably the secularization and materialism argument seemed to turn into the "American influence" argument...
...Now I believe differently...
...In La Victoria, as in other poor sectors, the free-market policies of "the Chicago boys"—the ubiquitous term for the University of Chicago-trained economists running Chilean economic agencies—have meant a sharp drop in health care...
...If you have to go to a hospital," the priest said, "you're told to bring your own bandages and a blank check...
...It was a war," Alberto said once, his mouth set in a tense line...
...He had been in Chile almost twenty years—arriving, in other words...
...Construction jobs are up...
...See "Coalitions...
...That is why Secretary General Woerner chose Strategic Review for unveiling his important and controversial proposal for a NATO missile defense in 1986...
...supported the "Si...
...The room grew tense...
...Largest Communist party in Latin America outside Cuba...
...I noticed Patricio did not particularly like what he was hearing...
...Educational opportunities are slowly expanding...
...Anti-Communism is a deadly serious business in Chile...
...Communist Party of Chile (PCCH...
...Traditionally claimed about 15 percent of the vote...
...My Spanish is poor and Patricio and one of the daughters were translating...
...Many on the Chilean right do not disagree with need but with method: Notwithstanding the opposition's not, the right argues, the redistribution determination to be unified for the of existing wealth, but the creation of election, Pinochet's apparent willing-more and better jobs...
...M any are still against Pinochet...
...Affiliated with Socialist International...
...Alberto also believes differently...
...MID-SIZE PARTIES Humanist Party (PH...
...We met a radical American priest who agreed to talk with me only if I withheld his name and the name of his order...
...Could be a pivotal player in the elec-tions...
...Formerly the major center-right party, still organized on a regional level but experiencing problems on the national level...
...MM SHARE IN TODAY'S BEST THINKING ON THE STATE OF OUR NATIONAL SECURITY "A very important element of the media for professionals and lay-men alike who want to keep abreast of national security affairs is the quarterly journal...
...Las Condes is upper class by Chilean standards, upper-middle class in U.S...
...I fear it will not because politics is not the only thing changing in Chile...
...UDI marched out of the National Renovation party because of RN's refusal to back Pinochet unconditionally...
...Already from further left and right in political precincts one hears dark mutter-ings about possible future National Renovation/Christian Democratic alliances...
...I fear it will not...
...masked figures climbing battlements— all the hands are left hands and in them are Chilean flags and AK-47s...
...In the mall I continued my relentless search for all things Chilean, exploring a bacon cheeseburger and four.Diet Cokes...
...Both are from the upper end of the middle class...
...Yet with a successful election, Pinochet can step aside claiming that he achieved the goals of the 1973 coup: sweeping the Commu-nists from power, returning Chile to economic stability, and restoring effec-tive democratic institutions...
...While pledging fealty to a single opposition candi-date, factions to the left of the Christian Democrats have already put up their own man, Enrique Silva Cimma, head of the Radical party...
...Your tax-deductible contribution of S25 or more will help to support USSI's ongoing program of research and publi-cation — plus the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping to promote the realistic and informed public discussion essential to national security in the late Twentieth Century...
...er to abandon "armed struggle" and SMALL PARTIES AND INDEPENDENT GROUPS ON THE LEFT Center-left Social Democratic party of Eugenio Velasco, strictly avoids contact with Communist left, leads coalition of small lefty parties, including Liberal party, Republican party, and National Democratic party...
...To be sure, great and potentially ex-plosive issues will have to be decided soon—not only all the complexities of a return to a functioning democracy, but also the shape of a new constitution eliminating military domination, the question of the ban on Marxist parties, the delicate task of investigating human-rights abuses, the question of the Chicago boys and their economic poli-cies, and the manner in which the needs of the poor will be addressed...
...At the same time, Chileans want the truth because they know the society needs to hear the truth, because they want to settle the past, and because they want to end the use of the 700 "disappeared" as a political issue...
...Currently engaged in a contentious underground congress, debating con-tinued use of "armed struggle" and approach to upcoming elections...
...Yes," Patricio said quietly and not happily, "I learned something too...
...Yet give it up is what he appears about to do...
...or arrange for a graceful exit and, after a face-saving period, retire from all posts before be-ing forcefully retired by the new gov-ernment...
...See "Coalitions...
...Others love the man and see him as the savior of the country...
...Despite fifteen years," he said with "Of course if democracy is a winner a broad smile, "it was a very big day...
...As the country modernizes, many people, particularly the young (of all political stripes), are changing their views toward the Roman Catholic Church, a traditional anchor of society...
...By this time Patricio's translations had dwindled and the daughters had heatedly taken over...
...Claudio introduced us to three of his daughters—including his "adopted" American daughter—and his wife...
...Pinochet achieved his economic success, he said, by breaking the unions, forbidding long strikes, and cutting social programs...
...They kneel and cross themselves and pray before the shrines along the walls: here is the saint who helps "with dif-ficult and desperate causes...
...is one of long struggles within demo-"But democracy will not bring mira-cratic institutions, particularly between cles, will it...
...Almeyda is Clodomiro Almeyda, Allende's foreign minister and a popular figure...
...Fr he road from La Victoria runs 1 past apartment blocks and fac-tories and vineyards and gives way to shady streets with green lawns behind sturdy locked gates...
...there is the saint who watches over those in Purga-tory...
...They argue that all countries have periods of human-rights abuses, that the actual number is small, espe-cially when compared with the hund-reds of thousands murdered by the Viet-namese and Cambodian Communists in the 1970s, and that the West has been suckerpunched by the lies of the left, such as the movie Missing...
...I am .a Chilean journalist...
...strategic stakes in Central America and the broader implications of the evolving regional scenario...
...How was Ito defend my home when they had machine guns...
...It is cool in the Church of Saint Augus-tine, footsteps echo on the stone floors of this quiet refuge from the glare and blare of mid-day Santiago...
...He is not a follower of any evangelical movement, though American evangel-ical missionaries are an active and growing force in Chile...
...Uninvited guests at the party...
...Alberto, with a university degree in engineering, is also a tour guide and a trader in fruit...
...It was formed by a group called the Christian Left, the Almeyda Socialists the Communist party, and other elements of the radical left...
...If that were not trouble enough, two members of PAIS, the Almeyda Socialists and the Christian Left, are also members of the "Concertation...
...Dust swirled in the harsh sunlight as we walked past women and children and a few drunken men...
...The problem of human rights is magni-fied and distorted," Claudio angrily said...
...Solange thinks she will vote for the op-position, if it behaves itself...
...I write this not to condone illegal "disappearances" but to note that many Chileans feel that the military was not striking against in-nocents in the majority of cases...
...Located in a warren of high-ceilinged offices on Santiago's Plaza de Armas, the Vicaria is a surprisingly cheerful place, although it is constantly hounded by the government...
...The reason for the tension between the government and the Vicaria lies with the church organization's extensive documentation of many of the over 700 cases of "disappear ances"—kidnappings and murders— committed between 1973 and 1977...
...His op-tions are rapidly coming down to two: dig in, cancel the election, and try to survive the storm...
...We spoke in a bare room, sit-ting on rough wood benches, a crude wooden cross on the wall...
...Far-right National Advance (AN), run by an out-of-control demagogue named Pablo Rodriguez...
...Although the government imple-mented an amnesty law for crimes committed during that period, the military fears a devastating series of human-rights tribunals after the return to democracy...
...Founded in 1984 by Tomas Hirsch, PH is growing fast, despite leadership and legal setbacks...
...In many ways they are emblematic of a chang-ing Chile, molded by an aversion to both Communism and the old church and belonging to an emerging New Class of professionals created by Chile's export-led, American-inspired economic boom...
...Both welcome a return to democracy but express strong sup-port for the military government...
...The Silva Cimma Gambit...
...National Party (PN...
...Led by Enrique Silva Cimma and still a force the big boys have to reckon with...
...q Please bill me...
...If relatively easy to present a unified front a center-left government does, as ex-in La Victoria...
...One of the finest is SCRAM IOC Strategic Review, published by the United States Strategic institute, REVDW not only because it focuses almost -exclusively on the most compelling SPRING 1989 strategic problems of the day, but also for the quality of its writing, UNITED STATES STRATEGIC INSTITUTE WASHINGTON...
...There is a deep sense of unease among older Chileans as they watch their children drift away from the church...
...He said he did not support violent revolu-tion, but his sympathies were with "the people...
...there is the Mother of Good Counsel, Mediator between Argentina and Chile...
...This," he said only half-jokingly, "is the Latin way of life...
...Though plagued by factionalism, PPD is fast becoming the major party just to the left of the Christian Democrats...
...Parque Arauco...
...Inde-pendent Democratic Union (UDI), led by Jaime...
...Guzman, powerful figure on right...
...Most right-wing parties won't come near the AN...
...Workers' wages were frozen, but prices were allowed to rise...
...Part of this is pure politics—the boys want to make sure they'll get a good share of the congressional seats up for grabs in an opposition victory—and part of it is an effort to lever opposition policy positions a bit more to the left...
...They got what was com-ing to them...
...In the election, Alberto will vote for the right, probably National Renovation...
...As Melanie unlocked the gate she thanked us and said she had learned something...
...national security policymaking and to enjoy the most authoritative assessments available of the military, political, diplomatic and economic challenges confronting the United States and its allies...
...Claudio supports the disputed Article Eight of the constitution, which bans Marxist parties and is sure to be an issue in the next government...
...These formed the bulk of the "disappeared...
...behind them they appear to be reconMAJOR PARTIES Christian Democratic Party (PDC...
...Its raison d'etre is to circumvent the ban on Marxist parties, allowing Communist party members and others to run in the elections as "individuals," not members of a particular party...
...Elaborate paint-ings in bold colors stretched across walls: hooded FPMR (the terror wing of the CP) fighters holding rifles...
...I glanced out the window the executive and legislative branches, at a sprinkler shimmering lines of water and in the eagerness to put Pinochet over a thick green lawn...
...If you accept our invitation to become a Member of the Institute before June 30, 1989, you will receive in addition the USSI book, Central America and the Reagan Doctrine, edited by Waiter F. Hahn with an introduction by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick (513.00 value...
...They argue that it was achieved at the expense of the poor and that the wealth is not reaching the poor...
...Signature United States Strategic Institute 1625 I Street, N.W., Suite 1011, Washington, DC 20006 shape for itself a role in the upcoming election...
...We in Chile look to the United States these days," Alberto said, "not to Europe anymore...
...The Christian Democrats hope every-one will agree on their candidate, Patricio Aylwin, as presidential candidate of the united opposition...
...It is clear he loves power and is loath to give it up...
...It was, by all accounts, a country on the brink of civil war in the months leading up to the September 1973 coup...
...Only the Fight Will Make Us Free," one reads...
...In that time they would just come and take your home—isn't that a human-rights abuse...
...A golden Christ crucified, his midsection de-murely draped in a skirt of royal red, turns his agonized gaze heavenward...
Vol. 22 • May 1989 • No. 5
