Chile’s president has given an outspoken defence of democracy as the country marked the 50th anniversary of General Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état, which ushered in 17 years of brutal military dictatorship.
“Problems with democracy can always be solved … and a coup d’état is never justifiable – nor is endangering the human rights of those who think differently,” said Gabriel Boric in a speech outside La Moneda, the presidential palace bombed by British-built Hawker Hunter jets during the 1973 coup.
Salvador Allende, the democratically elected leftwing president overthrown by the military, gave a final radio address to the nation before killing himself in his office at the palace as the tanks closed in. Before the restoration of democracy in 1990, more than 40,000 people became victims of torture, political imprisonment, execution or “forced disappearance”.
“It is time to make up for these absences, correct the faults, repair the damage [and] project ourselves beyond our pain,” Boric said on Monday.
The anniversary came against a gloomy backdrop for democracy in Latin America, where poverty and crime have helped populist figures on the left and right gain growing political support.
According to the Latinobarómetro 2023 survey, favourable opinions of democracy are at a low ebb. Among respondents to the poll, one-third disagreed that democracy was the best system for government despite its problems.
Boric was flanked by the presidents of Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia and Uruguay, as well as Portugal’s prime minister. Out in front of La Moneda, the giant flag which flies on the concourse was lowered to half-mast.
The atmosphere in Chile has been tense in the run-up to the commemoration.
The Unión Demócrata Independiente, the rightwing party formed to uphold the legacy of the dictatorship – and one of several to refuse to sign a commitment to uphold democracy – issued a statement saying that the coup d’état was “inevitable”.
It even went as far as to blame the “Chilean left” for the military takeover. As is customary for the party, and some on the Chilean right, the statement avoided the use of the term “dictatorship” or reference to a coup d’état.
Earlier on Monday morning, Sergio Bobadilla, a congressman from the party, justified the coup, saying “there was no other way out”.
Chile has no law that penalises denial, justification, minimisation or celebration of the serious human rights abuses perpetrated under the dictatorship.
“Of course there was an alternative!” Boric said in his speech. “And tomorrow, when we live through another crisis, there will always be an alternative which implies more democracy, not less.”
All four living ex-presidents – Michelle Bachelet and Ricardo Lagos, who attended the ceremony, and Eduardo Frei and Sebastián Piñera, who did not – signed Boric’s four-point declaration, which sought to uphold democracy and guarantee that the events of 50 years ago would not be repeated.
On Sunday night, hundreds of women participated in a candlelit procession around La Moneda chanting “¡Nunca más!” – never again.
Earlier in the day, amid tension on the eve of an anniversary that is often marked by protests, Boric had participated in a march down the Alameda, one of the main avenues through the centre of Santiago, alongside the relatives of forcibly disappeared people.
Hooded protesters attacked parts of the march and smashed glass around the presidential palace. Others torched and attacked graves belonging to those linked to the dictatorship in the Cementerio General.
Boric said that he “did not regret for a second” being “on the side of those who suffered” during the march.
In August, Boric launched a plan to search for the disappeared: the first time the Chilean state has resumed responsibility for the search.
At present, 1,469 victims of forced disappearance are still missing. Just 307 have been found since Chile returned to democracy in 1990.
