Untitled Document
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Untitled Document
A Purpose Driven Power
Chile's president overcame adversity to rise to power, now she must do the same for her country.
By Ashley Carter
I remember reading the headlines about crowds celebrating the death of one of South America’s most hated dictators, Augusto Pinochet—and being upset upon learning that he died painlessly. There were hundreds of thousands of victims who were tortured to death under his rule who are known as “desaparecidos” (disappeared ones). Minutes after, I thought about a woman I grew to admire a lot in the months leading up to his timely death—Michelle Bachelet, who is now the President of Chile. There is a great deal to learn about this woman, such as that she is an Agnostic Socialist and a divorced mother. But what’s more intriguing is that as a strong survivor of Pinochet’s reign of terror; she has taken a bold step in promising justice for those affected by the regime.
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Chilean President Michelle Bachelet |
The year was 1973. The war in Vietnam ended, but for many Chileans, another war was beginning. Under Socialist leader Salvador Allende, Chile’s economy worsened and his Marxist ideals became unpopular. On September 11, the military staged a coup d’état (supported by the Nixon administration) against Allende, which eventually resulted in his death. This new dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet would rule the country for the next 17 years.
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Before the coup, Bachelet’s father, General Alberto Bachelet Martinez, was an Air Force Brigadier. After the new government came to power, it dismissed Alberto of his Air Force position, and jailed him under charges of treason. He was brutally tortured there, and eventually suffered a cardiac arrest in 1974 which caused his death. The family would never be the same after this.
During his imprisonment and after his death, Michelle and her mother worked for the underground Socialist Party trying to organize a resistance movement, but this didn’t last for long. Being the political activist she was, Bachelet was one of thousands considered an enemy, a “comunista.” |
The bombing of La Moneda Presidential Palace during the 1973 coup.
On January 10, 1975, Michelle and her mother were blindfolded and detained by two agents and taken to Villa Grimaldi, a secret detention center in Santiago where they were interrogated and tortured. In her interviews, Bachelet talks about the physical abuse she endured while her mother was kept without food and water. Bachelet and her mother were released after a month through their connections with the government and were exiled to Australia. Villa Grimaldi is now a memorial for the 4,500 people who were beaten, raped, electrocuted, and tortured within its hallowed halls.
This fury of mass arrests, kidnappings, tortures, and executions resulted in about 30,000 abductions and close to 3,000 deaths. People fled to escape persecution, repression, torture, curfews and censorship. Military police raided the small-impoverished poblaciones (shantytowns) of Santiago looking for “cockroaches” (anyone working against the government). Anyone and everyone, including small children were victims. The dictatorship ended in 1990 when Pinochet gave up power in exchange for immunity—though at the time of his death he had about 300 pending criminal charges against him. |
Cartoon of Gen. Pinochet |
Though Bachelet returned to Chile in 1979 to continue her work as a Social activist, she did not become popular until 2000 when she became the country’s Minister of Health. In 2002 she was appointed Defense Minister. During the presidential elections of 2006, Bachelet beat out her opponent, Sebastián Pinera, with 53.5% of the vote.
As President, Bachelet speaks out against human rights abuses and vows to work against hatred. In stating this, she has had to come to terms with her own past, which hasn’t been easy. I question whether or not one can truly
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forgive someone who is responsible for such crimes against that person, let alone an entire country.
But whether or not she has truly forgiven Pinochet and his military, Bachelet will seek justice in the form of reparations for those who were hurt. “I'm a doctor,” she says. “I know when you have an injury, it will heal if it's clean enough. If your injury is dirty it won't heal. And so when we're talking about societies, we are also talking about healing, and for a good healing process you need to make things right and in that direction you need truth, justice and reparation.”
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