Ex Prisioneros Políticos de Chile (Part I)

Through my contact at Amnistia, Director Sergio L, I have a list of domestic human rights groups in Chile. I emailed all of them a few days ago requesting meetings, their perspective, etc. One of them, La Comite de Retornados del Exilio (The Committee of the Returned from Exile), responded:

Estimada Lauren:
Mañana habrá una actividad sobre Derechos Humanos en el hotel Presidente ubicado en calle Eliodoro Yañez 867- comuna de Providencia, a las 15.00 horas. Nos juntamos dirigentes del Comité de Retornados del Exilio, para escuchar a los integrantes de la Unión Nacional de Ex Prisioneros Políticos de Chile y algunos parlamentarios invitados. El tema será las demandas pendientes sobre la reparación a la prisión política y torturas. Creo que te servirá para tu estudio que debes realizar, ya que se trata de organizaciones integradas con los directamente afectados por violaciones a los derechos humanos cometidas por la dictadura militar entre el 11-09-1973 y el 10-03-1990.
Saludos fraternales para tí

So, at 15.00 hrs today I presented myself at the Hotel Presidente near the metro station Salvador (incidentally, Chile has a fantastic metrosantiago website where you can click on the line (L1-red), find the station (Salvador, though I live next to Los Leones) and see a very comprehensive map of the surrounding area) to sit in on a meeting of the Committee. To clarify confusion, the majority of the members in this meeting are ex-political prisoners, and then there are some representatives from the group that made me aware of this meeting, the Comite de Retornados del Exilio. Of course, some overlap.

The hotel is small, nestled about a block away from the Amnistia offices I described earlier. It looks like a place locals would meet for tea (never tea, of course, only coffee here). It is small inside: it reminded me of the bed and breakfast we all stayed in for Spencer and Brooke's wedding. A very homey feel. Around the corner from the receptionist was a smallish room (probably 15 by 25?) with a table at the front and maybe 7 rows of seats.

Pictures will follow when one of the gentlemen who was there emails me. I had forgotten to bring my camera, plus it didn't occur to me that I would snap photos as I listened in on the meeting.

The meeting lasted from 3 pm to almost 7 pm, with a short coffee (cafecito?) gathering at the end. I was warmly welcomed from the second I stepped into the room. The attendees looked like they were in their sixties or older, although they could've been younger and just weathered by life, given the theme of the meeting was just how weathering life was in Chile during the dictatorship. It struck me that many of the men in attendance looked like pictures of old men you see playing checkers in Havana (Buena Vista Social Club type images). The women were friendly, many outspoken. The atmosphere had a gospel-like component when it came to comments from the audience.

The first part of the meeting was a presentation by a man who no one sitting in the seats directly next to me could name. His presentation centered on legal details of the military procesos. I will elaborate when I look up the details of the case discussed.

The remainder of meeting (a good 2-plus hours) was dedicated to the group declaring their demands to the government (2 members-parlamentarios-of the government were present) who responded with statements like "We are working together to bring you justice, but our hands are tied as well." I have an interview with one of the members of government on Monday at 9 AM.

In addition to the presentations from the dirigentes of the group (one of them, a woman from the South of Chile, invited me to come stay at her house if I wanted to travel south while I am here), the presentations included energetic demands from the different representatives. Many individuals were coming from the south of Chile where living conditions are far inferior (and far colder right now) than those in Santiago. The education and income curve means that victims of the dictatorship who now live in El Sur are even less equipped than their poorly-equipped counterparts in Santiago to deal with the legal aspect (both economically and for the complicated legal content) of fighting for their rights as victims.

This was a very long and complicated meeting. I will bring more details later.

Framing the problem...gathering 2 by 4s

I realize that having studied Chile and the rest of Latin America so many times in school and having spent so much time thinking about Chile recently leaves anyone reading this a little behind in the background information necessary to understand what it is that I have studied, what it is I am currently researching, and why it matters. And it probably makes a lot of the content of this blog irrelevant to you or your interests. I don't want to be irrelevant. I want to be interesting.

Here's the quick and easy (which is neither quick nor easy):

Chile, a developed and economically stable country in Latin America, suffered a violent dictatorship from the years of 1973 (September 11th-US was complicit in the coup which installed Pinochet, see the Foreign Affairs Affaire involving my thesis advisor, Kenneth Maxwell) to 1989 under the rule of General Augusto Pinochet. During the military rule, there were egregious human rights violations (these included the excessive detention, torture-30,000-and disappearance-3,000-of numerous Chilean citizens) which were justified in the name of a war against communism (the "war against terror" rhetoric was pervasive, which may feel a little familiar. But I need to keep this short. Right, Brooks?)

Salvador Allende, a socialist, had been democratically elected president of Chile in 1970 much to the dismay of US President Richard Nixon who, with the help of the CIA, had done everything he could to covertly deter Allende from being elected (Allende had run in 1964 but a similar aggressive campaign by the CIA-funding negative print and television ads-probably caused his defeat.) Anyone who doubts that the CIA would actually do this and thinks these are only "allegations" needs to visit the CIA's website on their covert action in Chile, read Peter Kornbluh's book The Pinochet File, or check out the document declassification project by the National Security Archive, or cruise around state.gov and see what's there. Why? Because it was the during the Cold War. Domino Theory. See The Vietnam War. See Guatemala, 1954. Cuba, 1961. Cuba, 1962. Cuba, throughout the 1960s. Brazil. The Dominican Republic. Panama. Iran. Afghanistan. Nicaragua. On and on.

So, starting in September of 1973, there was a right-wing military government in charge of Chile. Pinochet, in order to consolidate power, needed to eliminate leftists (He also needed to eliminate leftists because Henry Kissinger said so.) From 1973 to 1976 (the most violent and repressive period), Pinochet's regime systematically tortured and executed approximately 3,000 Chileans. The secret police, DINA, were in charge of the operations that hunted people down, removed them from their houses and "disappeared" them forever. Throughout the military rule, repression existed, however it was worst in those early few years. Perhaps most fantastic (in a terrifying way) in the history of Pinochet's repression was that it did not stay within Chile's borders. Operation Condor was an international operation which hunted down and killed "subversives" or Regime enemies in Spain, Argentina, and even the United States (Letelier-Moffit car bomb in Washington, DC.) Even Chilean exiles were not safe.

Beginning in 1976, Argentina suffered a very similar military coup with even worse repression. However, the Argentina military leaders were not as cunning as Pinochet, mismanaged the economy, and allowed demonstrations against them to proliferate (by engaging in far more random repression, Argentines couldn't be sure of their safety by staying out of politics, as Chileans could. This is how Pinochet succeeded in cultivating fear and keeping the public quiet and submissive.) Uruguay also had a similar military coup with some of the worst repression in the southern cone (worse as calculated by the percent of their population that suffered.)

By 1980, Pinochet, after seeing that "democracy" and "human rights" was becoming increasingly important to the powers that be (think United States and the Carter administration), constructed a Constitution of 1980 and conducted a plebiscite for whether he would remain in power as president. The plebiscite was a yes/no vote on whether Pinochet should stay on as president until 1988 when the constitution called for another plebiscite. The vote, unsurprisingly was "yes" (there was still a cult of fear, as well as direct pressure from the government to vote "yes.")

By the time 1988 roled around, the Argentine military rule had crumbled (1983), the US Contra War in Nicaragua had been revealed (1986), Reagan had started talking to Gorbachev, and the Berlin wall was soon to fall (1989). The Cold War was thawing. And supporting military government was no longer a la mode.

In 1988, Pinochet submitted to the plebiscite he had agreed to in 1980. The "no" vote won. Pinochet had underestimated the cooperative power of a center-left coalition that had worked tirelessly from 1980 to 88 to ensure that a "no" vote passed. Pinochet had no choice but to step down. In 1989, a presidential election was held and Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin became President of Chile in 1990.

Museo de Bellas Artes

I know I promised intense academia... and it's coming. But first I thought Mom might want to see a couple pictures of their Museum of Fine Arts. The Museum of Fine Arts in Chile is the oldest art museum in Latin America. I could only take pictures of the front and then inside the main atrium. Although I did manage to sneak one of this strange "magia" exhibit. Here is the building:


Inside the atrium you may be able to see that along the wall are various busts and other statues. Some of them are replicas (one Donatello replica on the balcony) but most are orginals from 50-150 years ago. This is the inside:


And then there was this room that introduces itself by saying (in a very dark ominous, booming voice) something like "man and magic have been intertwined since the dawn of time" and then this creepy music (circus-like) is playing and you look through slits in this oval shaped enclosure (audience walks around the outside) and this odd little carousel contraption is twirling on the inside. I didn't really enjoy it. I felt like I was in a Bond movie (like that room with all the mirrors and that booming voice, or that one where he's in Egypt). Anyway, I kept expecting someone to step out of the shadows with a revolver. Well, no one did, so I took a picture:


The subway was pretty funny on the way back. Not sure who other than Taylor would appreciate the fact that in their super (Sue-PEAR!) modern metro system they were playing the music video to "Rock DJ" on the flat plasma screens. Oh man. And then when I got off it was Phil Collins. Enough.

A Diet Entry (for easy digesting)

Grab your earmuffs! It's 57°F! The elements are really getting to them down here. I look like a displaced member of the Polar Bear Club: no scarf and just a light fleece guarding me from the frigid air. I might as well be walking down the street in a bathing suit. I would've thought the same latin blood that keeps these people so hot-headed and vocal at times of national crisis would keep them warm during the winter.

So this entry is short and sweet because Brooks doesn't like reading the long ones. He finds it easier to "digest" if the writing is short and the words only have two syllables (syl-a-ble-s, crap! Sorry, Brooks.) But a warning to all: my next entry will be an academic force to be reckoned with. A leviathan. A treatise. A manisfesto. It will discipline and punish you. It will incite fear and trembling. An archealogy of knowledge. I'll go beyond Good and Evil and I'll offer no Apology.

But for now: look what happened to the mountains during the smog-in yesterday:


A whole blanket of snow while I couldn't see them. Here's a picture of the mountains directly in front of me (there is a picture of them without too much snow in an earlier blog entry.) I hope its not hard to see when the snowy mountain top ends and the clouds begin (it's a little dreary here):


Final funny thing: You all would die laughing if you saw these people trying to sing along with the Beatles. All the music in this coffee shop is American and the workers and guests sing along. It's priceless.

Crêpes, the Center & an illicit photo

This morning I awoke to smog. Smog. Smog. I can't even see my mountains. Fortunately, what I could see was my way to The Coffee Factory (does it sound sexier in English to them? Is it like our restaurants...Chez Henri...Boca Grande...ha: both the very expensive and very cheap steal from other languages) where I pide (everyone who reads this better be pretty good at Spanish by the time I get home) una Cappuccino Royal. It's pictured in my profile. Pretty, huh? It's allure, however, is something you can't see: a doble carga (shot) of espresso. Now you know where I get the energy to write. While we're on the subject of gastronomy, check out my almuerzo (crepes con platanos caramelizados y fresas, con chocolate, salsa de frutas y crema):

So Dad doesn't ask: $3.88. Mom: In addition to still having 10 fingers and 10 toes, you can see I certainly won't be returning malnourished.

After lunch, I took a cab to DRCLAS, the satellite office of the Center for Latin American Studies (where I work during the year/summer) at Harvard. I wanted to make sure I knew where the office was in case I needed anything and also I was planning to meet with the Regional Director, Steve R. DRCLAS in Santiago is located on the edge of one of the nicer comunas called Vitacura. I, for example, live in a comuna a bit to the south which is called Providencia (see map of Santiago.) In order to get to DRCLAS in a cab (which isn't exactly necessary since I found how to walk home) you have to ask to be dropped at the entrace to "La CEPAL," which is the Comision Economica para America Latina, a part of the United Nations. DRCLAS offices are located in the building nextdoor to the UN. Down the street is the United States Embassy. The area in which the offices are located is not comfortably accessibly by foot. If you know where it is located, it is not far, however it is clearly typically reached by car (diplomats to the UN and other important government officials, reasearchers, etc.) The atmosphere around this street (Dag Hammarskjold, the only I've come across with such a foreign name-cab drivers don't even recognize the address) is cold and sterile. It is some of the most official-looking buildings I've come across and security in this area seems even tighter than in La Moneda (the center of government in Chile where I didn't go through a metal detector and smiling guards barely peeked in my bag before pointing out the window-20 yards away-behind which President Michele Bachelet was working.) This is the front of DRCLAS (offices on the 3rd floor):


At DRCLAS, I met with the Regional Director, Steve R. We discussed my project and he gave me some thoughts and some valuable contacts. When I mentioned Wendy Hunter's theory of military power being eroded by electoral decision making (and in some sense, inertia), he was quick to stress the hours of research and work logged by individuals who are dedicated to bringing justice to Chile. I am heartened by this account of the changes in Chile (it's harder evaluate responses like the one by director of Amnistia, Sergio L., who says that Chile perhaps has not come so far and that marked advances in justice for past violations should be expected this many years after the transition) because when people recognize the determination behind certain changes (military trials) it is easier to analyze in reverse what venues the individuals and movements took to achieve their goal. Somewhere in that journey from 1990 to the present, the tide of justice turned and with so many people working so hard on bringing human rights to the forefront, its hard to imagine that some of these individuals aren't the catalysts themselves.

Steve R. recommends I speak with a few individuals:

Pedro Alejandro M. was a victim of torture in 1974 who went into exile in the United States after he was released. He later returned to Chile to investigate the violations committed by the regime. He has been a lead investigator in going after DINA (Pinochet's secret police), collecting evidence against them, and fighting for trials. Steve R. even mentioned that Pedro A. M. even knows where many former DINA members live in Santiago and the rest of Chile.

Christian is the director of the Valech Report (a recently ordered-by then President Ricard Lagos-second report on disappearances and torture in Chile during the dictatorship). The Valech Report follows the Rettig Report, which was the initial National Reconciliation Report ordered by Pres. Patricio Aylwin just after the transition to democracy. The Valech report, unlike the Rettig Report, focused more on torture which had gone undocumented by Rettig. Rettig documented about 3,000 cases of disappearance. Valech makes clear the very systematic torture that occurred as it revealed testimonies of 30,000 torture cases. Lagos followed up this report by offering reparations to victims of torture.

Alex W. is one of the directors of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). The Washington Office on Latin America is a non-profit think tank/policy promoting organization that promotes human rights in the region. Working for them would probably be my dream job next year.

There are some other academic individuals that I am following up on as well.

After my meeting at DRCLAS, I got my bearings and realized I could walk back to my apartment. I was walking by a rather ominous looking wall when I saw the flag of the United States waving in the corner of my eye. I realized I was walking by the US Embassy. Then I realized I should have known because the security being employed was second to none. I was yelled at for taking a picture. It's almost like you can tell the exact coordinates of the building and the thickness and durability of the steel fence just from this photo. I'm no expert, but I'd say the green shrub might be penetrable. I really hope my sleeper cell is reading.

Anyway, as a US citizen, I felt very alienated (looking at this picture makes me feel like a Mexican immigrant south of Texas) and unwelcome on my own terra firma in a foreign country. Speaking of Mexico: Bush better build that border wall a little higher because we are rubbing off way to much: leftist loser AMLO is "challenging" the 4-day long vote counting and demanding a recount.

I think tomorrow morning I will go and register with the embassy (formally: so that if anything happens to me in Santiago they have my information and can help; informally: so I can actually get inside that building and see what it's like). Also, I'd like to feel justified using English.

The second picture is the "illicit photo" I referenced in the title. This is especially confusing since it is only a photo of the well-known seal of the United States. Can you see cameras? Am I being recorded? Oh well. I hope you know how well protected you all are from me down here. I'm just running rampant in Santiago like the little leftist devil you know I am. Down with Kissinger! Viva Allende!

For Grandma (and others too, I suppose)

Grandma:
I am so glad you are enjoying my pictures and writing. Here are a few more for you. This is a picture from "La Moneda," which is the Chilean equivalent of the White House. La Moneda is where Salvador Allende fell in the US-assisted coup which you read about in The Pinochet File. On the gate it says "By Reason or Force" (Por la razon o la fuerza).


Here is another picture from one of the courtyards in La Moneda. It is of the fountain that people throw coins (monedas, incidentally) into. You can see the schoolchildren in their uniforms on the otherside. The other picture is of a very friendly guard who showed me where Michele Bachelet's (La Presidenta) office is and told me when La Moneda was initially built (1805-last year they had the bicentennial) and when it was renovated (1983?) The firefight that you read about in The Pinochet File (in 1973) apparently did not do too much damage. He told me that the renovations were very slight. As you can see in the picture, there is no visible damage.
























This picture (below) is of Plaza de Armas, I am standing at the front of La Moneda, facing away from it, to take this picture. There is a bit of Santiago smog sneaking into this photo. When I get back to the Centro, I will take some better shots. And maybe even some that include me.


Finally, here is a look back at La Moneda after I walked through it. The sun was just peeking over the top of the palacio but I think it the picture still captures the building pretty well:


Some final thoughts for tonight: I am in Chile to study, among other things, the development of human rights over the past fifteen or so years. My goal is to figure out what factors brought about the prosecutions of members of the military and, in particular, those of Pinochet himself. What I am not researching, or rather, what I am taking for granted are the gross human rights abuses and terror propogated by the military and National Guard in Chile during the dictatorship (1973-89). The campaigns to establish what violations have occured have been many (National Commissions of Reconciliation, Reports by the UN Commission on Human Rights, Reports by Amnesty International - see amnistia.cl for links). This includes an estimation of about 3,000 individuals disappeared and many more detained and tortured by the militares (including the current president, Michele Bachelet). With this in mind, I came to Chile somewhat fearing those in uniform. Or if not fearing, at least expecting them to come across as at least cold, distant, unfriendly, and strict. Instead, I have found that those who look terrifyingly stiff in their guard posts begin smiling and greeting as you approach them. I have had instructive and educational conversations with the guards of the palace. They are far more friendly and helpful than their counterparts in the United States. One even complimented my Spanish. Here I am researching the fearsome military and national guard of Chlie and I find those in uniform now to be some of the most welcoming individuals I've come across in the past week.

Time for me to sleep before a big day tomorrow.

Buenas Noches.

Painting a picture

Mostly so that Mom and Dad can visualize (and Mum can know how dedicated I am to this camera), here I am blogging away this evening on my windowseat (if you guys hadn't noticed yet, you can click on the picture for a much much bigger version):


As you can see, I am surrounded my my essentials: a cappuccino con crema from about 16:00 hrs and a glass of vino blanco from about 17:30 (and 18:00, and 18:30...), a plate that had an empanada (a chicken filled doughy pouch - like a hot pocket?) on it. Victory: I heated my dinner. Failure: I can't turn off the oven. At least it's electric and not gas like my heater, the Calorama Junior ("yun-yor") which works by pairing a large supply of natural gas with a flame. Delightful. I hope I never have to choose between the burning apartment and a 16 story leap. Maybe I should wear a parachute. If I did have to make a jump for it, here's what I'd be heading for: the lovely, twinkling, be-smogged streets and buildings of Santiago...

I figured out how to set the exposure on the camera so that it can take in the city lights. My vista goes on and on. It's very cool, if not a little beautiful. But I just think large expanses are always fun. Ok, I just checked the oven and its still rather caliente, which means I haven't yet discovered how to turn it off. If only they used words (Spanish or English) rather than Inca-like hieroglyphs (an outline of a fish... a chicken... a symbol that probably means "stormy water" in Japanese) I would be better off navigating this situation. Well, don't worry about me. At least I finally have a heater that doesn't require gas and a flame.

Ok, Mom, Dad: take advantage of lame posts while I'm excited enough to give you pictures of my apartment and view. Here is looking from my kitchen out the (open) window during the day. You can see the buildings and the mountains behind the city, as well as the little tree growing on my terrace thing and maybe if you look closely you can make out the white wire being run from next door by the crazy-dog-lady and her husband whose TVCable (TayVayCahblay) we seem to be paying for (oh, sublervitude):
That is all. Onto more important and academic things.

Algunas fotos

Photos from Santiago de Chile so far...


This is the view of the Andes from the plane on the way in. The sun was rising and I had a front row seat looking east of the cordillera. Unfortunately, I caught a big of wing in the frame, but at least I wasn't directly over the wing. The next picture is off the sun rising.

Here is the view from the departamento that I am renting. The mountains dwarf the city far more than is evident in the photos. They are massive and much farther away than they appear. If you look in the distance you almost make out some towns at the foothills which are still about an hour or more away from my apartment by car.





Here is the front of El Palacio de la Moneda. This is the where the President has her office. It is also the famous location of Salvador Allende's death when Pinochet and the armed forces (with the help of the US govt) took over on 11 Septiembre 1973.

You enter from the other side in front of Plaza de Armas. The guards are very friendly and happy to recount history and speak to tourists.






Inside La Moneda are two courtyards. One is de los canones and the 2nd (pictured here) is full of orange trees and has a fountain in the center where people throw coins over the shoulders into the water for good luck.

Revista Cosas

I did arrive at about 16:15 hrs for my entrevista con Sr. S. at 16:30hrs. I thought I made good time. But there was an emergencia at the magazine. Not exactly sure what that means. Someone finally spotted someone else who didn't look drab in Santiago and had to go snap a picture?

Anyway, Nancy, the receptionist, and I chatted (Castellano, I was getting tired...) until almost 18:00 hrs. In the meantime one of the men (must have been about 60, short, balding) who was in charge of opening and closing and opening and closing the door and collecting and distributing mail was bringing me new copies of the revista as well as Sprite diet in a hour glass shaped tumbler (like they use for the Got-milk?-it'll-give-you-a-waist ads) which was balancing precariously on a white saucer. I was sinking into the leather couch-and trying not to spill my drink-when Esperanza, the assistant of Oscar S., came downstairs to collect me. After profuse apologies ("Todo en Chile no es asi...no somos siempre asi..."), we began the interview.

I had expected it to be conducted in English, however when espanol es mejor I don't have much of a choice. I began setting the parameters for my project. I am interested in the period from about 1990 onward and specifically interested in figuring out who in Chile wanted Pinochet to be tried and brought to justice for crimes during the dictatorship. Where did the pressure come from?

We covered a range of topics in this vein, none of which were particularly new to me. There are really two camps...the pro-Pinochistas and the anti-Pinochet groups, who wanted him to be brought to justice. The people of Chile were far more upset with Pinochet after the Riggs account scandal (More on Riggs). Unlike Argentina, where the Argentine people became vehemently anti-military after they saw/experienced the gross abuses and human rights violations being perpetrated (estimates of 9,000-30,000 disappeared compared to Chile's 3,000), Chile followed a different trajectory. After the majority of the violence was over (repression was worst from about 1973-76), Chile's economy began booming (Allende was probably doomed without direct CIA involvement in the early 70s; inflation was out of control, the economy was tanking) due to Pinochet's neoliberal reforms. The Washington Consensus was working perfectly in Chile, eliciting smiles from both Henry Kissinger and Chileans on the streets of Santiago. Economic prosperity was one of the reasons Pinochet was not taken down like his counterparts in Argentina (where the economy, among other things, was a disaster.)

La gente (note: both "la gente" and "el pueblo" mean "the people" in Spanish, however after Allende was removed the phrase "el pueblo" was striken from discourse because of its marxist connotation-think proletariat- and replaced with "la gente" to refer to the general population. Probably the equivalent of "the public.." in english.) eased up and credited Pinochet for saving Chile. They found him trustworthy with their money (Latin America is well-known for corrupt politicians-almost every election in LA to this day has would-be presidents promising to be honest and not siphon money away into personal accounts). Oscar S. somewhat cynically pointed out that 3,000 dead in the past (for justifiable reasons: Chile, along with the US, was fighting an elusive communist foe which frequently manifested itself as subversive leftist movements in Latin America) was unfortunately just the price to pay for stability and money in their pockets now.

When the money scandals were uncovered, the Chilean public felt shocked and betrayed. Many Pinochet supporters defected to the other side and supported his trials. However, according to Oscar S., the public support for bringing Pinochet to justice is far more passive in Chile than in the rest of the world. He noted that when Pinochet dies, it will probably have more effect abroad than in Chile. Oscar S. went on to assert that Chileans have moved on with their lives and it is a very small amount of people ("muy poco") that are continuing to hold active demonstrations (according to him, less than 200 at any given time.) This mostly includes family members of the disappeared or very focused human rights groups.

The interview with Oscar S. leads me to believe that my initial hunch that international factors were more prevalent in bringing about the trials of Pinochet (and other militares) may not be too far off the mark. It seems that a broad based movement in Chile was not something that was going on throughout the 90s.

However, there is a sticking point. The public, though not parading in the streets against their former dictator, have been voting for socialist candidates since 2000 (Ricardo Lagos, now Michele Bachelet.) Both candidates have been supported by the Concertacion (broad-based center-left coalition brought together of the course of the 80s to defeat Pinochet in the 1988 plebiscite) which means it could just be inertia that has the population voting this way. I am not sure how much it means to them to put socialists back in power (Allende was from the Socialist Party). The question is whether this represents an active democratic decision or just a default position on the part of the voting population. We'll see.

Victory (and a tall-skim-caramel-macchiatto) is mine...

I can blog from a state of inner peace now that I have located Starbucks. It was not clear though, for a little while, how long I would have to go without los mejores cosechas de cafe. Not to worry, I am sipping a caramel macchiato alto, descremada. And it's delicious. 1.700 CLP. hmmm. that is $3.15. Pretty much right on the money. Sorry, Dad. Although there is free Wi-Fi. They are ahead of the US.

So, I think that I am writing right in the middle of some sort of Trade Center Convention in Santiago. I am surrounded by rich-looking suits and people with lap-tops and notebooks. It's a very serious atmosphere. A far cry from the hippie-infused Starbucks experience I am used to. Starbucks, of course, goes against everything hippies represent ("man, coffee should be free"). Or maybe they justify it by imagining that higher wages then go to the poor Colombian workers who no doubt toil under Starbuckian despots somewhere outside of Medellin. I am boring myself. US hypocrisy is too well-weathered a subject in this city.

Today: Review interview of last night at Revista Cosas con Oscar S. and investigate links provided by Segio L. Also, go by the DRCLAS office on Dag. Hammarskjold and maybe a small visit to the US Embassy.

Oh also, I need to get my camera cable and visit La Moneda when I get a chance. ok.

Amnistia

Amnistia Internacional

At the offices of Amnesty International (Amnistia) at Huelen 164, I had the opportunity to speak with the director about my project. Sergio L. is a roundish balding man of about 60. His tired and rugged appearance speak to the arduous and determined experience amnistia has had over the past 30 years fighting for derechos humanos in Chile.

We discuss the role of human rights organizations in the fight for justice in Chile. As I present the basics of my project by framing the success of human rights over the past 15 years, he is quick to remind me that although 600 militares have been put through procesos only about 10 have actually been convicted. He goes on to question how far Judge Guzman actually could have gone with the prosecutions versus what he accomplished (Guzman retired in 2005.) We discuss how most recently Pinochet was stripped of immunity (in February/March) in the case of Operacion Colombo in which 119 individuals were killed in Argentina (in what was reported to be a fire fight, but later discovered to be a massacre.)

He gives me a list of local organizations to call as well as names of individuals who work in human rights in Santiago. After I asked about what kind of demonstrations or campaigning Amnesty does in Santiago he told me about "Free Desmeralda," a campaign to release documents about disappearances and torture that occured on the navy ship Desmeralda. Sergio points out that campaign messages become far more salient when national symbols on invoked.

I will be using the website amnistia.cl for its library of the history of derechos humanos in Chile and for a history of their written reports to the UN Commission on Human Rights. Additionally, I will be using fasic.org, a christian churches foundation for further human rights information. Finally, the vinculos section of the amnistia website will lead to other human rights pages in Chile.

Tucked away on Av. Huelen on the 2da piso with no signs or indications that it even exists, the office of Amnesty International is particularly underwhelming for a city and a country where it experienced its vanguard success in bringing human rights to the forefront of the international agenda. With Pinochet under house arrest and various military officials under threat of indictment, what and who are they hiding from?

However, I am reminded by Sergio and by the receptionist that Amnesty offices have been brutalized by bombs and terrorism from the side it fights against. After all, when you are working to subvert terror and abuse, you can only expect to fall somewhat victim in the process.

Besides, how would a central and aggressively present Amnesty office further their cause? It seems that that Amnesty better sirves as an elusive intellectual force, finding their power in a network of ideas that spreads throughout Chile and the world, rather than an obtensibly limited geographical footprint which can be targeted and eliminated. What is not physically present cannot disappear easily.

4 de Julio

Happy 4th of July.

The yapping dog next door woke me up. Or maybe it was the banging on the wall by the neighbors on the other side. Or maybe it was the car alarm that wouldn't quit on Avenida Suecia. Either way, I was in my freezing cold then scalding hot then freezing cold shower by about 10 am. "Rambo," the yapper who is smaller than my cat, was done by the time I was blowdrying my hair. Or trying to blow dry it, with the dryer shutting off about every 2 minutes. Maybe it would be easier for me to walk down the street with wet hair. It would look darker and people would stop staring at me like an unwelcome alien.

Cappuccino con crema by about 11 am at The Coffee Factory and off I go down the street to look for some offices. My goals this morning are to find the office of Revista Cosas, Amnesty International, and ContactChile while not looking lost, stupid or gringa in the process. They are located somewhere off Av. Providencia on streets named Almirante Pastene and Huelen.

Almirante is past the tourist office where I got the free chocolates, free maps, and a free assortment of self-congratulatory looks from Santiaguinos who had already decided how tourista I looked. I start looking for No. 329 where Revista Cosas has an office. It appears that I must continue walking towards the Rio Mapocho and the park. Almirante curls away from the main avenue into a neighborhood of residential houses occasionally spotted with businesses locked behind high steel fences. I looked particularly goofy meandering through the streets, passing construction workers (my name is Lauren, not "Linda"), taxis and other residents heading the opposite direction to the main thoroughfare.

Finally, I located Revista Cosas at the end of the street. I have to return there at 16:30 hrs.

And onward to find Huelen. I wandered for about 15 minutes al sur on Av. Providencia before I encountered Huelen, which, at its busier end, was replete with students sitting and chatting in their winter attire (down coats when its 63 degrees?). Amnesty International is located at Huelen 164 - Piso 2. I found Huelen 158 and then walked past some windows enjauladas to no. 172. Confused I returned back and found that 164 was nestled in a residential portion. No signs caught the eye and nothing indicated an office. Or people.

I pushed open a metal gate to a open air one-car garage containing an old chevy. To the right were two doors: one had a small window which revealed a brightly painted wall and a staircase (Piso 2?). Parecia more caribbean than Chileno given the drab attire these people are sporting during their winter. I climbed the stairs cautiously and (sigh) found an Amnistia sign at the top. I knocked and was greeted by a doppelganger for the tourist agent in the computerized Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? game, complete with the frizzy yellow hair, bobbling earrings, and only lacking the jersey-accented voice, "where to jetsettah?"