‘Still a lot of pain’: Victims of dictatorship persecute Chilean elections | Politics News

Antofagasta, Chile – Samuel Burgos Espejo was just a child when the soldiers killed his older brother, one of the victims 1973-1990 A Chilean dictatorship Thousands of dissidents were tortured, executed and forcibly disappeared.

“I was 11 when my brother was killed. I saw the death at the door of my house, ”said Al Jazeera Burgos Espejo, now 56 years old.

In 1973, a US-backed military coup overthrew Salvador Allende, the Socialist President-elect, and ousted General Augusto Pinochet. The Pinochet’s dictatorship it ended more than 30 years ago, but many of the families of its victims continue to seek justice.

They have sounded the alarm during the Chilean presidential election, which has emerged as a dictatorship issue in recent months. Sunday getaway, Right-wing candidate Jose Antonio Kast with high esteem Pinochet.

Burgos Espejo’s brother, Jose Gabriel Espejo Espejo, was 20 when Pinochet took power. An active member of the Tierra Amarilla Communist Youth, 800 km (497 miles) north of the capital Santiago, was in custody and was arrested several times during the first years of the dictatorship.

Espejo Espejo was at a neighbor’s house late the night he was killed. The military-imposed border was in place and he was arrested by patrolling soldiers, taken outside and told to walk home. He was shot in the back when he reached the front door of his family’s home.

“I heard the shot and got out of bed. My brother was on the ground, bleeding, ”said Burgos Espejo, wearing a T-shirt with the photo of his brother and the date of his death: March 20, 1976. “There’s still a lot of pain.”

More than 1,200 were missing

For Burgos Espejo and many other Chileans, memories of the dictatorship have dominated the election campaign.

Emissions bury caste, a right-wing religious conservative, Gabriel Boric, against a progressive Social Democrat. The winner will take office on March 11 next year and is likely to face stiff opposition in a split Congress.

Kast, a 55-year-old lawyer and former congressman, he got more votes in last month’s first-round election. Boric, a 35-year-old congressman and former student activist, led the polls until a ban on the publication of pre-election polls was imposed on Dec. 5.

The electoral roll now recognizes people who have forcibly disappeared under Pinochet’s rule.

While the dead are unable to vote, while the Chileans are voting, the voter lists will include the names of people arrested and missing during the Pinochet dictatorship with a note: “Missing person due to necessary disappearance.”

The National Electoral Service, SERVEL, which launched the move this year, said the recognition of those arrested and missing in the electoral roll was an act of “citizen memory”. More than 1,200 people, most of them political dissidents, were forcibly disappeared by the military under Pinochet’s command.

Some of the missing were massacred and buried in the desert. Some were thrown from helicopters into the ocean. Some remains of the victims have been found, but most are still missing.

He may have been Burgos Espejo’s brother after one of them was shot, but the military said he was being taken away by Burgos Espejo’s father who got into the truck and refused to let him down. They went to the hospital, and after confirming that he was dead, a doctor stopped the soldiers from removing his body from the hospital.

“It was obvious that they wanted to disappear as they did with so many victims,” ​​Burgos Espejo said on Tuesday, waiting for Gabriel Boric to arrive in the northern city of Antofagasta, where some supporters of the mob put up “No to Fascism” posters. Caste reference.

Caste opinions

Kaste has staged a violent coup in 1973, defended himself on behalf of military officials convicted of crimes against humanity, and has clearly defended the Pinochet regime, which he calls a “military government,” never a dictatorship.

He denied being a “Pinochetist” before last month’s election, and withdrew his remarks to downplay human rights violations, but opponents and journalists continue to question his long career in favor of Pinochet.

The history of Kast’s family also surfaced during the campaign. He always said that his German father had joined the military under the command of Adolf Hitler but had nothing to do with Nazism. Earlier this month, a Chilean journalist discovered the ID card of Kast’s father, the Nazi Party, which indicated that he had joined in 1942 at the age of 18.

He has made a united caste effort to present himself as a tolerant Democrat. He also made significant changes to his platform after the first lap, but is in favor of some of the points that created the most alarm.

A supporter of Gabriel Boric is carrying a sign waiting for the candidate to arrive in Antofagasta, northern Chile, saying: ‘No to fascism. [Kast]’ [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera]

Anti-communism and references to “agitators” and “terrorists” appear repeatedly in the caste discourse. He has proposed a South American intelligence partnership that is reminiscent of Operation Condor, a US-backed intelligence-sharing scheme used in the 1970s and 1980s to identify and kill political dissidents among South American dictatorships.

Kaste also wants to significantly expand the situation in which a president has the power to order preventive arrests and detentions in unnamed places. The current constitution during the dictatorship, in the process of being replaced, only gives this power during the war.

‘Polarized’ landscape

However, the main focus of law and order has been the support of many people who are concerned about crime, as well as others who want to stop protesting frequently.

Elections are taking place in a changing political landscape after an explosion Social unrest in October 2019 which saw sustained mass protests. Demonstrators noted not only the unsuccessful government of President Sebastian Pinera but also the last 30 years, and called for a structural change.

One of the consequences of the political crisis has been the rejection of coalitions of traditional parties that have ruled since the end of the 1990 dictatorship. 8% of the vote last month, respectively.

“There were always two blocks and they tended to go downtown for different reasons to reach agreements,” said Ricardo Iglesias, head of the Institute of History at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso. “Now, with the gap in the political center, the debate is polarized.”

On the outskirts of Calama, in northern Chile, he pays tribute to 26 prisoners who were executed locally in 1973 and other local victims of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera]

This is the first time in three decades that the debate on dictatorial democracy has been an election issue, Iglesias said, adding that for many Chileans, however, it is unlikely to resonate.

“It’s not binary. It’s not just dictatorship democracy. It’s not just order and security versus left-wing discourse. In the middle … there is a group of young and old citizens outside the discussion. What they want is to solve their problems, ”Iglesias told Al Jazeera, highlighting inequality, employment and gender, among other important issues.

“I think Boric is trying to get away from that for a while,” he added. “Boric tries to be a discourse for the future, but Kasten’s discourse is for the past.”

Meanwhile, many families of victims of the dictatorship are still searching for the full truth of what happened, looking for the missing and fighting for justice, and for them, Kaste is a dangerous return to the past.

“We want justice,” said Burgos Espejo. “How many mothers have died without ever knowing where their children are?”