Today we drove 540km south towards Santiago at an average speed of 100km including a coffee stop, toll booths and a police checkpoint thanks to the good works of General Pinochet! Outside Chile his name is mud but many Chileans regard him as a saviour. It is a very contentious subject and before coming here I read a number of articles and books so as to try to understand the history, I hope the following précis is fairly balanced although any supporter of either camp will say I am biased.
In 1970 Salvador Allende won the Presidential election by a very small margin. He was a socialist who is probably best described as Chiles Tony Benn. Despite having a narrow majority he set about an aggressive socialist programme nationalising 80 industries, mostly without compensation, as well as land reforms giving rural workers land from any farm of greater than 0.8 Km squared. He also increased the minimum wage but fixed prices.
Prior to his election the USA government and many US companies had invested in Chile as it was seen as one of the more stable South American countries, neither government or businesses were very pleased to see their investments wiped out so all cash aid stopped and the opposition parties were encouraged both in public and clandestinely via the CIA.
After a year in power the economy collapsed, a combination of mis-management of the nationalised industries (the owners who were generally good an managing the businesses had left), the sky rocketing costs of the increased wages and social reforms and the removal of aid by the US turned what was a stable and well run economy into a basket case. The Chileans call the period 1971 – 1973 as “The Chaos”, a period when people had to queue for basic foodstuffs, services did not work and strikes, many caused by small business such as truckers who could not increase prices but had higher costs, meant that the country ground to a halt. Allendes supporters blamed the US, whilst they encouraged the opposition the real problems were more fundermental.
In the end a Junta formed by the armed services (Army, Navy, Air Force and Police) decided to take control. There were a few skirmishes and as Allende was holed up in the Presidential Palace the air force famously fired into it using British made Hawker jets and the army fought their way in. Allende, having broadcast to the nation a few hours before was found dead, presumed to have killed himself.
The army rounded up all the potential suspects who were not treated well. In all during the first year about 100 people died (or went missing) in dubious circumstances.
General Pinochet was made President, he was in charge of the Army, the idea was that the four services would rotate the presidency until civilian rule was restored.
General Pinochet (we did not photograph any statues of Pinochet, the picture opposite is of Jose Castro, the Navy's man in the Junta).
They say that power corrupts and total power corrupts totally. If General Pinochet had, after a year or two, either passed the presidency to another member of the Junta or set in motion a route to civilian rule he would now be as highly regarded in Chile as Bernardo O Higgins (no I have not made this name up, see below). But he didn't, his secret police force became more organised and vicious, he became more paranoid and for the next 15 years he ruled Chile as a dictator. He did restore the economy after a couple of false starts and, being a dictator, he could spend money as he wished. One of his big projects was to build the Route 5 road the whole length of Chile which is what started me on this little essay. For years the political parties in Santiago had debated the merits of this road but they could not see many votes in it and anyhow it was too difficult. Pinochet just did it, spending money on infrastructure is a good thing to do in times of depression and high unemployment but the real benefit is it connected the poorer rural areas with the centre, the farmers had access to the markets for fresh food thereby improving their lot and it helped unite the country.
Route 5 is the road we have travelled on our holiday, it is a well maintained two lane highway and all the access roads into the Andes or to the coast are well maintained.
So what happened in the end? Pinochet, being surrounded by sycophants, believed the people loved him. When the Pope, the UN and in particular the Regan administration pressurised him to have an election he instigated one with the question “Should I stay another 8 years or stand down” 55% voted for him to go whilst 44% said he should stay. He prevaricated for a bit but eventually stood down.
The memory of the Allende and Pinochet years is still very strong, it is not a subject to bring up in polite company in Chile, both men still have strong support however we have seen very little in the way of political posters or activity, politics has perhaps become something to keep quite.
Bernardo O'Higgins
Bernardo is the most popular man in Chile, he was the illegitimate son of a Spanish Officer born in County Sligo who was the Governor of Chile at the time of Bernardo's birth.
Bernardo led the independence uprising in 1810 and became the first President. Eventually he fell out of favour and left for Peru in 1823 however since his death his status has been restored and now every town has a Bernardo O'Higgins street or Plaza and we must have seen twenty statues of him during our visit. .