Realidades; Chile - A Special Report

News. In New York. By WNC. The. Chilly 3000 miles long on the Pacific coast of South America a nation of 10 million people whose history and soil have combined to create a deep sense of national identity a country proud of its democratic

traditions. And also a land of economic contrasts with great wealth and great poverty. Fertile earth mountains rich in nitrate gold and copper the nation's wealth concentrated in the hands of a very few. Three years ago the Popular Unity Government of Dr. Salvadorean Indigo sons set out to radically reorganize Chile's economy. On September 11 1973 the Chilean armed forces overthrew the government president and his closest aides are dead at the new military junta has initiated what Newsweek magazine called a

reign of terror. A Washington Post editorial estimates that 10000 people have been killed in the aftermath of the coup. A remarkable political experiment has come to an end. One. Time. A fourth 1970 in this popular Unity Coalition. Composed primarily of the communist and socialist parties won the elections with thirty six point two percent of the vote. The results took many people by surprise but they were consistent with the long struggle of Chile's working class movement.

And defense of its interests for power over the institutions of the state. During the 19th century. Thousands of landless Indians and poor farmers traveled to the nitrate fields in search of work. They found subhuman living conditions and dictatorial treatment at the hands of the British mining companies that control the industry. In 1987. Thousands of nitrate work has marched to the city of Santa Maria de Kiki. To demand higher wages and improved conditions in the mining camps. The government responds by calling up the army. And twenty five hundred workers. Were killed. Five years later Luis Amelio founded the first

working class political party in Chile and runs for president as its candidate. Dependence on a single commodity proves disastrous. When the nitrate market collapses after the First World War. The region yields rich deposits of copper United States financial groups establish the end to Condren Kennicott kakapo corporations. Replacing the British as a principal foreign investors into. You sit at the import so you know

what you're doing and you're a bionic and Kitty I guess you don't mean that you say no you don't hear me say that the economic turmoil of the Great Depression is reflected in the establishment of the Chilean socialist republic. On June 4th 1932. The Republic last for just 12 days toppled by a military coup. Then a young medical student joins the protests against the coup and is arrested and a year later he is a founder of the Chilean Socialist Party. In 1938. He serves briefly as Minister of Health in the popular front government. During the Cold War.

The Communist Party is outlawed for 10 years but the workers movement continues to find legal channels for its struggles. In 1952 again the runs for president for the first time receiving 5.4 percent of the vote. The Cuban Revolution sent shock waves throughout the continent. In many Latin American countries. The movement against foreign domination acquired a new level of militancy. And demanded a new level of response from the privileged classes. CIA officials have acknowledged that in 1964 Christian Democrat Edward the free received massive United States assistance in a successful election campaign against Iran. They ran on the slogan of RUSCIO in the red revolution in liberty. His program called for far reaching land reform killing the zation of

copper a redistribution of the nation's wealth and an independent foreign policy. For his term was marked by a general deterioration of the economy and the most striking workers at a Salvador and put it the money. On the eve of the 1970 elections few of phrase structural reforms had been accomplished. Popular Unity Coalition promised to carry out those reforms and beyond. Its program was explicit. Dismantle the capitalist economy and open the way to a socialist society. Before they could be inaugurated. Opposition took a violin form. The chief of the Chilean armed forces was assassinated after refusing to participate. In a plot to overthrow the government from. High level military personnel and members of the opposition National Party which indicated in the conspiracy. On November 4th

1970 Salvador Allende was installed as a constitutional president of Chile. On January 4th 1971 was interviewed by Regis subarray noted French journalists. Even when will you be willing to go to San sandwich once a year and we're still going to come in until they come up a lot happier. Good idea. Missing the point of the film. Think fall into the limo when the economy gave me to.

Even down. Now I guess you asked for nine years. And he's saying you don't run your mouth. It's an act or something. Yeah. I mean you give him a good look at it as a fake doesn't it. It two days ago we completed the ones one thousandths FLARM to be expropriated. That means that we have expropriated in the six months around seven million acres

and reform of government in six years. It's probably the same amount of funds we did in six months and we're planning to finish with the land reform next year. This process started through the organisation of a presence about 10 years ago because there have been two land reforms one organized by rightist government that according to the rhythm of the process that reform would have been completed in three thousand years but now we are performing that other form only in three years. I don't know what other government can do it faster than we it like California. We have doubled the resources that California has. Another part of it is like New Zealand and we have much more resources than New Zealand. The other part of Chile is like

Vancouver and Oregon and all that. We can feed not only medium people but 100 million people and export to the rest of the world at a time when the Northern Hemisphere in winter the best fruits in the world we are exporting now. But it does not mean that can enhance know you do nothing then you are who you are. He had to put on a float. And he says the first thing they tried to explain to the peasants who are the real enemies in the small group is not our world. Second the land in the hands of the presidents is not only a responsibility for their own for

their own interests but that they should use all what they are learning with techniques and to raise production for their needs. Although the whole country and not only that all the income that they get from are from the land they are going to be able to break all the traditional ignorance of the peasants and peasants like himself and others and go to their university and get training at university. That being the important thing is that little by little getting into socialism really contributing to going to socialism together with the rest of the Chileans for the benefit of all the Chileans. For.

More than a million people live in the slums around Santiago. Almost anything the government can do here would be an improvement but these people also know how to do things for themselves. Can you say that you I mean you got to. You got to leave it. So it is a TV. Show you shouldn't be able to eat it.

The government move quickly to place basic industry under state control to facilitate economic planning. Large production centers and copper steel coal cement textiles and lumber cane state industries. In the first months of the new Administration workers participated in management and planning. It.

Either way. So you are in a fun day. You. Know you love. You. Give.

You the. Most important area of nationalization was the copper industry. 80 percent of the country's foreign earnings come from the sale of copper. A drop of one penny in its price means 16 million dollars less a year

actually. Between 1969 and 1972 the price of copper on the world market fell from 70 cents to 48 cents a pound. Over the past century. Foreign mining companies have extracted nearly 10 billion dollars from their operations in Chile. A sum equal to the value of all economic wealth in Chile today. A unity government re-establishes diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba. First if there is moves towards friendly relations with the socialist world. Of. Latin America this chile became a

symbol of independence. A small country insisting on its right of self-determination while respecting the rights of its neighbors. The Congress controlled by the Christian Democrats and National parties with its power over the purse and impeachment led the first line of attack against the government. Nine in the cabinet members were impeached. It continually blocked laws designed to help the economy such as the government proposal to punish speculators and black market operators in 1972 it reduced this budget by 33 percent. At the international level. Chile face what came to be called the invisible blockade. Private U.S. banks do some short term lines of credit from 220

million to 35 million dollars. Members of the U.S. financial community. Cautious in their public statements at this time. The Chileans are very proud that they are. Probably the most democratic nation in Latin America. They have come out and said that they want to continue this process. They want to continue having that Congress free elections free press at the same time as far as foreign investment goes. They have been put on record saying that they will encourage foreign investment here in Chile. They are looking for that technology which they need very very. Desperately here if they are going to complete their program. The thing is that these countries don't have to make the thing profitable. After all there's a tremendous demand on our resources things. The. Sandbox. Serves. On the foreign investment we have a is not to developing countries it's to develop nations because capital is feel safer there they can get a

good return without having to get involved in the political or economic turmoil. So I go on from time to time. A 27 percent increase in the purchasing power of workers strains the productive capacity of the economy. The sabotage of farms and factories by expropriated owners and a lucrative black market aggravated the shortages of food and basic commodities. Yet when the government instituted rationing 75 percent of the population proved. That the other 25 percent was extremely vocal. That's how they got. Out

in September 1972 the Kennicott corporation launched a campaign to block the sale of Chile in Kabul around the world. In hearings before a U.S. Senate subcommittee teenty admitted discussing various plans with the CIA undermining the popular unity government. Its aim was to force a resignation. In December 1972 they took the case that it was bleeding country. The United Nations been so not glad to see on doffing knows him but he is asking that this guy rest line it. They look at a company like a corporation

see it on money how to include your own. Do all these things. You know the you don't make that the person that will be getting a lot of Devante cotton ball she told me go get blasted it's a mess. It is me. My eldest daughter and Nicole. But I guess I just have to know that for having my foot on both sides. I am ready to go. So I don't see any other mood. I like that day. If it didn't work out in me Parthia like it Roughie

they old Moxey more but a bass bass voice. If you've got more veterans Your big ideas CN does that mean the media may be unfettered or any party or even if they got Touraine man socky get that are you going to be outed. You say stay this way down to compendiums I would do it without looking stuffy in order to know when he's out. I think it was my daughter. Then I said Nope instead of this Weasel's. In.

The. March 1973 congressional elections. The government. Increased its vote from 36 to 44 percent. The results of the March elections convinced most of the opposition that they have lost the legal struggle for power leadership now passes to the fascist organizations which have insisted from the outset that only a violent assault can happen because of the months that followed. Preparations for the long run. Are intensified. On June 29 an army regiment stage is gorgeous. Zation claims responsibility and its leaders go underground. Pledging an armed struggle against the government. The national party demands that the military officers who refuse to support the coup be tried for treason

by their fellow officers. Private school students stage a violent demonstration in San Diego. In July. Again this military aid kept in Australia is assassinated. On the third anniversary of his victory. One million people come out in support of the government. Throughout these months. The government has accused the opposition of dragging the country into civil war. A confrontation is. Is. Carried out with ruthless precision.

It is the beginning of the bloodiest massacre in the history of Latin America. Books defending the fascist like ideology of the junta seized from homes and public buildings and burned in the streets. Three weeks after the coup the Nixon administration offered the junta

24 million dollars in community credit which was eight times the total extended to Chile during three years of the popular unity government. My name is Jose Iglesias. In the film we have just seen presidents and they charged in the speech that he gave last December at the United Nations that American corporations have intervened in the political life of Chaillot. This is not a new charge. And Jose Garcia who is producer and narrator of this special report went to Washington on October the 8th to discuss this matter with Senator Edward Kennedy. Senator Kennedy is chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on refugees. Please note that the committee of forty mentioned in the interview is composed of Representatives of all the intelligence agencies of the

United States. Its chairman is Secretary Kissinger. Heaven is the exclusive interview with Senator Kennedy. Senator Kennedy as presiding chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on refugees and humanitarian problems in Chile. Can you summarize your conclusion as a result of last week's hearing September 25th regarding the situation in Chile. Well it's a very desperate condition in Chile. I don't think that there's a question there have been a number of people who've been summarily executed. Bernie my great interest has been in the cause of human rights. I think the really important question is what steps are we going to be taking now to sit the fact from fiction the willingness of the junta themselves to abide by the Declaration of Human Rights which Chile had signed and under the entire American system their willingness to work with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The degree of cooperation with the

various voluntary church agencies the degree of cooperation with this government and permitting refugees that have lived in Chile and come from other countries in Latin America to have free passage to other places of asylum. Senator Kennedy. With. Many other notions of the possible intervention by U.S. corporations mainly connected copper and TNT. Would you say that special Senate investigation should be undertaken in order to clarify these allegations. Well I think that would be useful quite frankly for the appropriate committees of the Congress of the House of Representatives of the Senate to have an opportunity to examine the intelligence information and other information that is collected in this committee of 40 that has been a part of the intelligence community and

concerned itself primarily with Chile and the report to the Congress. I think this would be an enormously useful and helpful. I think any of us members of the Congress would deploy or quash any action that had been taken by the agency itself and in the internal affairs of Chile quite as the the Chilean people themselves would although as your question suggests in the past there there have been interference and in direct and indirect ways in the in the political structure and organization and elections in Chile in the past. But I think there have been some allegations and charges. I think it would be a service to the American people if the respective committees of the Congress had an opportunity to examine the materials. Here in the studio to discuss the recent events in Chile.

Or Andreas Rojas until the coup. Press attache at the Chilean Embassy in Washington Professor James Retter professor of physics at the Catholic University of Santiago and the University of Chile until he was picked up by the military and released on the condition that he would leave the country immediately. And Reverend William Whistler of the National Council of Churches He is director of its Latin American program. I had hoped to ask my first question of the spokesman for the present military government of Chile. Mr. James Hogan who is the chief of the delegation to the United Nations. Mr. Holga had accepted our invitation but half hour before this discussion was to begin it was canceled. A replacement has not arrived and we shall have to go on without him. General Les Guzman

recently said to the New York Times that this was not a time for discussions conferences or congressional investigations and perhaps the absence of a member or spokesman of the junta is due to this anyway my first question. So your Rojas has to do with what has been I think the opinion of most Chilean and certainly of all observers that the Chilean armed forces are different from that of all other Latin American countries that they would never interfere in its political life certainly not violently. What made them do you think and on this occasion interrupt the democratic process in Chile. I believe. That. The Chilean armed forces in general specially its officers

do represent. What is vaguely defined as a middle class. The Chilean. Large sectors of the middle class were terrified by the workers ideology. Workers who were there that were represented. In the government. By the constitutional president of Chile Salvador Allende. Also the Chilean cultural the ruling classes started a long time ago. A campaign of terror against what they call communism. And the campaign was so effective that they believed them themselves. What kind of campaign of terror I don't understand. Well appealing to all sort of subconscience fears that people have. Received through their lives. I mean the fear

of my two logical enemies such as Russian innovations and Russian submarine base an acts of terror. Did they come in pick apart what acts of terror did this ruling class commit. The ruling class of the Chilean upper classes. Yes. Well we have seen your seed every day. The teller was supposed that she was supposed to come from the left. Came actually in and the brutal. Totally unexpected manner. It wasn't a surprise to you the cool. Decoud self. As a political move. No. Because we could see it coming. That's a pretty good move. But the arm the manner and the fascination of bloodshed they had started that they couldn't stop it. They cannot stop it. The fact that. Conservative people such as the

director of the University of Chile it got to the building has been suppressed and has been repressed and has been moved away from his job. Makes me think that I may change my mind. But for the time being every every every thing tells me that we are facing probably the first serious case of mass fascists since Mussolini or Hitler. Professor Ritter you were there during the coup. Do you agree that this was a fascist action. Can you tell us a bit about your own experience for example. I think from my own experience what I saw and what I witnessed there is no other word that I can find except fascism. I was awakened that morning of a coup by the jet planes that were later to bomb the presidential palace them and they the. Workers in the factories in an area quite near where I was living near the center of town in the of some somebody. And.

The. Core. Areas of the city on the outskirts of Santiago. The firing and the planes. Were operating all that day. There was very heavy firing very near where I was. My building was under attack quite a number of times. I could see them in the burning. I could see the factories being bombed and burning. Factories were bomb factories were bombed. Yes do. Would you hazard a reason for why factories were bombed the factories were bombed in the particular factories that I. And in the cases that I know personally because in some cases because there was in fact armed resistance on the part of the workers who had been called out the night before by the National worker's Confederation to go to their factories to occupy them that something was in the air something was off. They had best be ready. In other cases. I know offices and party headquarters of all the parties that had supported

and Marxist and non-Marxist were attacked while people attempted to destroy some records which might incriminate a number of people. In your own experience. In my own experience no I meant by your own arrest when did it come my own it was the reason I said my own arrest came actually about a week after the beginning of the coup in a pre-dawn raid. That was I don't know it was carried here but they were they used for the first time in Santiago the method of blocking off about a 10 block square area at the at 6 o'clock at the moment. The curfew was lifted. Announcing that all people were to remain in their apartments in their houses or that they could not leave under pain of being shot they could not go near their windows. Then about two hours later while I was waiting about 10 soldiers Army Army soldiers came in all armed with machine guns and began a search of my

apartment. All the reasons that they give here for coming to your pocket. They were searching all apartments as I said. I had already been searched once a day after the coup by police force. In that case I was searched because I was a foreigner and this was admitted openly. They told me that all foreigners from then on would be searched as a matter of routine and that I should expect a further visitation in the future. In fact this is what happened. You were taken to the famous stadium right. I was I was taken away because my visa was in an irregular situation it was being renewed. I was taken in a truck with some other prisoners. The standard procedure we were beaten on the head of kidneys and so forth with rifle butts and then taken to the national stadium. How many people whether they would you hazard. It's very difficult to tell. I in in the section that I saw I was in two sections that stadium I saw a total of about a thousand people being held. I know a guard speaking to the soldiers inside the stadium who at that time was saying that there were upwards to 14000 prisoners being held

in state. Reverend buffler you have in the National Council of Churches tried to deal with the situation from here what information do you have of prisoners conditions. Not only say of foreign refugees who had sought asylum in Chile but Chileans themselves. From the very first hours of the school within the first two days we received information directly from showing that the scapegoat of the coup was going to be the foreigner. Many of the people who had to escape from Brazil and Agwai Bolivia when those coups occurred had gone Chile not only interesting enough during the agenda government but prior during the free government for asylum. And at the outset the first communique giving reasons for the coup

from the official sources was that they were present in a extremists who were there to kill Chileans and to actually move the entire regime further left into terrorism cetera. We had been in contact during prior years with numbers of people who actually were there in the very difficult circumstances who needed assistance. We realized they would become victims. The first concern we had was for the foreigners residentially. We realized as soon as the data began to come into our office in turn in regard to arrests in work or sections in regard to students and academics. The population in general those who supported the idea in their government that the victims would not only be foreigners but those who in any way were supportive of the prior democratically elected government suddenly they were enemies of the state.

Surely something special about my mind right now this sort of leading with Team and food it has been changed by the these people makes me think that the history of Chile it is the history of many foreigners and that is the founder of the Chilean University the University of Chile 150 years ago or so listen Vivian. He created the University of Chile our Founding Fathers Our National Hero was the son of an Irishman that Higgins. The man who created the Chilean navy the same navy now his cute jillions was Lord Thomas Cochran from Scotland. You say to me that that this line of the present government that is that foreigners are a dangerous element is not going to be convincing Oldtown ideology. We are great and this town people are terrible. This is small town ideology.

I think there's an element in this which is also very important and that is that many of the foreigners who are present in Cervi at the time of the coup who many of whom are still in very serious difficulties and many of whom have been executed. The data is very clear on this. You're getting the idea we are getting that data. The fact of the matter is that many of these people were the cream of academia they were scholars they were from every imaginable one of the sciences social sciences. They were not terrorists. They were not people who were there with the idea of altering the government. They were there because in their own situation academic freedom had been removed. They were also faced with persecution. And Chile was the one place that they could go where they could find some freedom for themselves. Now a National Committee has been created and a principally made up of the church's representatives of the churches the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees the International Red Cross in order to try and begin processing. Those persons who need to leave frankly because they have been targeted as people who will be the scapegoats to justify the intervention of the military in the political sphere within Chile. Senator Kennedy in his statement last week well not really not just his statement alone but he introduced day the amendment to that call to the foreign aid bill that called upon President Nixon to extend the help of the United States in this situation. He later on made a statement that Senator Kennedy did showing his dismay at our government having only immediately concluded the 24 million dollar wheat deal with the present government of Chile. Are you getting any cooperation from government

agencies in this work. Are you getting any promises of asylum in the United States. It's been very difficult to. To move the government in this direction. At first there was a reaction. It was not a war situation. This was the State Department was very slow in responding to what was actually happening. Very often we discovered that we had 48 hours prior to the giving of information in the United States or the information that information we had that data could receive no confirmation from the U.S. government. Thus far several moves have been made in Congress to request this type of asylum for persons who need it. We have received no positive response. Other governments are now responding and offering that opportunity. Canada has just concluded arrangements to begin to receive people who need asylum. We understand that Peru is allowing the creation of a

National Committee to aid refugees in Venezuela. Also a number of other countries as well. But our own country thus far one could read into that a lot of things but the fact is that thus far our own country has not made such an offer. So. Do you expect that there will be Chilean refugees. Leaving for various nations of the world. I hope so. But for the time being I will believe it when I will see. There have been reports which have not been confirmed in either one way or the other. The president when they committed suicide or that he was murdered. By the military capture in LA Monera that the presidential palace. Have you been in touch since the coup in Chile.

Do you have any information about this. Yes I think that both words suicide or murder. Are misleading. Or misleading because. He did not commit suicide. And number two he was not murdered. He was fighting and he was killed in the fight. In the struggle in the war. He died like a hero. You have an explanation why we have not heard of more. Armed resistance from the part of the populace. The government did in the parliamentary elections of March this year. Received 44 percent of the vote. You see I believe. Well I used to believe that the do something in the Chilean national social personality

that doesn't like violence. I used to believe that. And the Chilean people in general are not like that type of action. Second I. I am convinced that the civilians poorly armed cannot defeat military very well equipped extremely well equipped on the conventional military field. I mean it doesn't matter if a sniper has a couple of automatic rifles. If you're dealing with Sherman tanks or British hog hunters subsonic planes. The two major opposition parties that is in opposition to the pope a lot of Soixante former parties. That's right. That's right they are not. I'm no longer legal themselves the Christian Democratic Party and the Nationals have both made statements in support of the coup. Do you think that they speak for all their members.

The Central Committees of these parties will I ask for a sign No. I don't know about the other opposition party but I do know about Christian the Christian Democratic Party at the beginning. They did issue a statement in favor of that political move that the coup was. But I am sure that former president Freyja I know the big Christian Democrats thought that he was going to be quite cool as we say in Chile I mean only a move aimed to have personally stepping down from power and then being the second in the succession line of the minister of the Interior who would have resigned then the third in the succession line with the press you know the Senate who happened to be former president for the gruesome Democratic Party. It was a very well organized party with a rather strong ideological point of view they had were very strong in Congress. And

somehow. If they thought that they were alternative. To and they had everything shows me that they were very very wrong. Most of the news that we have received it has been news from Santiago. Professor Ritter you the last one there you must have seen some reporting within Santiago national news what what sort of information were people receiving in newspapers and radio. The basic information and newspapers and radio and of course since 9:30 in the morning on the 11th that has been the Armed Forces Radio television and armed forces controlled newspapers has been primarily one of absolute calm and Funchal in the country followed by occasionally rather surprising reports like the cutting of all communication between Santiago and Bell so for one week after announcing that everything was perfectly calm and under control. They then said All

communications work will be cut and until further notice. And that was maintained for about a week. One hears a lot of rumors. One has to rely basically on rumors. It's very difficult to get any solid information at all. The papers are just full of songs of praise for the for the work of the Congress. I understood that not all papers were allowed to. No of course I don't know. There are no pro or young papers any of the papers that were in any way for you and they have ceased to exist prominently. Originally they allowed the Mercutio to publish and the Tessera since that time they have allowed more newspapers to reopen. But it's the newspapers are all the same. I mean one reads one that used to be a Christian Democratic paper another that used to be a paper of the National Party and the news is identical. The comments are identical the editorials identical practically were something that as a matter of fact excuse me interrupt you. Work so hard. To overthrow that they receive a price. The chairman of the board of the chain of

newspapers has been appointed yesterday minister of economy. And was just before the coup and Mercutio was running on the second page a series entitled What will be the economic reconstruction after a young day. And they were speaking in the first article very explicitly. They said we will assume the presence of an authoritarian and long lasting government in Chile and on the basis of that what shall we do. And that that went on shortly before you. It's very old didn't used to be respect newspaper and its managing editor it's no so rather old man. Very old man his name is Ronnie soon. And he writes in any turtles I believe he wrote that anti-Semitic editorial the other day and he was a member of the Nazi party

in the second world war two days. All this is rather dismaying information. I think we have time for one last question that I'd like to hear from all of you and perhaps to finish with us and your highs what expectation from what you know now. Do you have of the possibility of Chile famous for its democratic constitution this democratic process of many years standing have to regain it. I'm fearful that Chile is chosen one can only call the Brazilian model. And that is the military at the present time has a very very long range plan of carrying out that which it thinks is right for Chile and it is going to be a difficult and arduous thing to uproot. I would say that it really depends ultimately on one important

factor that we have had no time to talk about. And those are the chilling workers and persons themselves. What do you feel about that you know I feel the same like this. I think that the Chilean people still there. And they are alive. And. We have to have hope. We have to be optimistic although sometimes the people I've met friends who were Spanish Patriots who has been hoping the same thing for 35 or 36 years. That. Those people those names those faces that I've seen. I cannot help but I keep seeing them. Perhaps on this note we may add. Thank you gentlemen. Let me make sure

I made it easy for you. Thank you. I shouted shot back. I didn't I mean look what you do with them. You know I see. So where do. You think people

should be independent. Well you know. You're. Not