My friend Marta Zabaleta, who has died aged 85, was a trailblazing feminist and socialist in Chile and Argentina at a time when speaking up required not only conviction but also extreme bravery, as saying and doing the right thing left many “disappeared” during state-backed reigns of terror. She was one of the lucky ones who escaped to Britain, where she settled in Epping, Essex, and thrived as a loving mother, writer, academic and campaigner.
In the 1960s Marta worked for the UN’s Centro Latinoamericano y Caribeño de Demografía (CELADE), in Santiago, Chile, and progressed to the Instituto de Capacitación e Investigación en Reforma Agraria (ICIRA), a Chilean government/UN project. As part of her research, she focused on growing rural trade unions and in so doing exposed how the American CIA was trying to control them. This caused her to be expelled from the institute by government officials.
