My class visited el Museo de Derechos Humanos (Museum of Human Rights) today in Santiago. It was a very sobering experience that was difficult to reflect on in Spanish. Basically, dictator Pinochet caused chaos and pain throughout his 17 years in power (1973-1990) and his legacy continues to hurt Chile. Despite the extensive number of people killed, disappeared, and tortured, many Chileans continue to pretend the atrocities were meager and justified by Chile's greater evolution. In this way, Pinochet continues to cripple Chile, although he has been dead for almost 5 years. Similarly, Pinochet basically wrote Chile's new constitution and was allowed to become a lifelong Senator of Chile even after Chile's supposed transition to Democracy. Thus, many politically-active Chileans still consider the government one of Pinochet. For this reason, Chile has been blocked from true and significant progress and many Chileans have given up hope. They consider all presidents to be the same, in large part because the work only within the framework of what Pinochet's constitution allows them too.
Although I am still a novice to this topic, I think it is essential that Chileans educate themselves and each other about the terror that occurred. They must understand the faults of the past in order to move on to the promise of the future. At the same time, Americans must also understand the significant role of the US government in supporting the military dictatorship in Chile. We are a large part of why the coup happened in the first place and our promotion of human rights abuses did not stop there. It is our job to keep our government accountable so that suffering is kept at a minimum.
I am looking forward to learning more about the past, present, and future of Chile. So far, I have found the politics intriguing but also depressing.
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