Last month, Katie and I had the opportunity to visit Chile, and we truly loved every moment we spent there. The people, the street food, the music, the culture, the history, the natural beauty – we were completely blown away by everything that Chile has to offer!!!
While we loved exploring Santiago, visiting the Incan lagoon, and spending a day in the port city of Valparaiso, perhaps the most powerful moment of our trip was our visit to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago. This museum provided a sobering account of the many atrocities the military coup presided over when they overthrew the democratically elected president in 1973 (with backing from the U.S. government) and maintained a brutal capitalist-oriented dictatorship for 17 years. Specifically, the military junta imprisoned, tortured, and killed anyone who publicly disagreed with their dictator, Pinochet. Political opponents “disappeared;” freedom of speech and movement was suspended; constitutional human rights protections were removed; Congress was dissolved; etc.
I often hear Americans say, “this could never happen here.”
But I could not help but to see the many parallels of Pinochet banning books and demonizing “the left” for all of Chile’s problems in the 1970’s (sound familiar?), weaponizing the media to only report what the administration says is true (like the current presidential administration banning the AP from the Oval Office over their failure to use the term “Gulf of America” in their reporting), deporting massive groups of people all at once, and rampant firing of government employees.
What was perhaps most interesting to me was how this brutal dictatorship ended. After decades of fake elections and full control of the media, international pressure forced the Pinochet regime to agree to free and fair elections, with a simple ballot like the one below. The vote was asking the public if Pinochet would be allowed to have 8 more years of power, and each side was allowed to show a fifteen minute commercial the night before the election, before all media broadcast cartoon for 30 hours straight. In many ways, this television ad was responsible for bringing down the dictatorship, with the final “No” vote winning 53% – 47%.
After Pinochet lost the election, he initially was going to claim fraud and suspend the results of the election, before international pressure encourages the military junta to go along with the results of the election. At the end of the museum, it carefully reminded us of the early warning signs of fascism:
1. Powerful and continuing nationalism
2. Disdain for human rights
3. Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
4. Rampant sexism
5. Controlled mass media
6. Obsession with national security
7. Religion and government intertwined
8. Corporate power protected
9. Labor power suppressed
10. Disdain for intellectual and the arts
11. Obsession with crime and punishment
12. Rampant cronyism and corruption
It CAN happen here; it can happen ANYWHERE.
Some people suggest that it already is.
When are we going to wake up, America?
“No podemos cambiar nuestro pasado.
Solo nos queda aprender de lo vivido.
Esta es nuestra responsabilidad y nuestro desafío.”
Andrew Paulsen 