Chile Project

The project: Chile's Tri-Colored History

On the left, the Unidad Popular years, pictures of Allende, etc. In the middle, below, Pinochet, the Junta, torture, repression, shadows, evil, dark forces, etc. On the right, the new Chile emerging from the dark shadows and entering a period of excessive commercialization and economization, meaningless consumption and ratification democracy. Includes images of the abuse of natural resources: indifference, huge Liders, Blockbusters, McDonalds. The illusion of a better Chile, of "economic growth" and "development". Advertisement, white anorexic women, huge tree trunks on trucks, malls, the americanization of Santiago, poverty , islands of prosperity in a sea of poverty, poblaciones, unemployment, etc.

The Intruder II

And when he finally caught that first glimpse, something exceptional would happen to him. A feeling so intense, so pure, that time itself seemed to stand still. He could stay watching her all night, for as long as she was in that office, working diligently on her oversized notebook. His concentration impeccable, not a cell in his body would move. Only his breathing, though controlled like a science experiment, could be heard by the creatures sharing the back yard with him. This woman he coveted so much simply had no idea he was there, and that simple fact drove him crazy. And just the possibility of making contact with her, of finally breaking the distance that existed between them, kept his body lush with adrenaline.

The Intruder

He had perfected the art of spying on her. He'd been watching her for a few days now, in fact. He knew that every night, without fail, she would bunker up in her office behind the house. He didn't know exactly what kind of work she was doing, or why she was so passionate about it, but clearly it was important to her. It didn't matter that much to him, he just wanted to watch her. He became obsessed with watching her. Slowly creeping up to her window. Very slowly. So slowly in fact that a few hours would go by before he could catch that first glimpse of her.

The Unicorn

Yesterday,
I lost my blue unicorn.
I left him grazing in the fields
And he disappeared.
I’ll pay handsomely
For any lead.
The flowers he left behind
Will not tell me a thing.

Yesterday,
I lost my blue unicorn.
I don’t know if he ran away,
I don’t know if he went astray.
And I have
But one blue unicorn.
If anyone knows where he is
I beg you to tell me.
I’ll pay
a hundred thousand, a million.
For I lost my blue unicorn yesterday.
Now he’s gone

My unicorn and I
became friends,
partly through love,
partly through honesty.
With his indigo horn
he’d catch a song,
knowing how to share it
was his greatest joy.

Yesterday,
I lost my blue unicorn.
It might seem
like an obsession,
yet I have
but one blue unicorn.
And even if I had two
he’s the one I love.
I’ll pay handsomely
for any lead.
For yesterday,
I lost my blue unicorn.
And now
he’s gone.

Silvio Rodriguez

MOP

Despite growing concern from the international community, and the many attempts on behalf of the United Nations to mediate a unilateral solution to the escalating controversy, the United States of America announced this morning that it would continue with the development of its weapon of mass destruction, M.O.P. (Massive Ordinance Penetrator). Upon completion of the weapon, this American nation would, for the first time, have the ability to penetrate so-called "deep targets" in the region. Some analysts say that the announcement was strategically planned for the month of February, as most of the government of Chile is on vacation somewhere deep in the south of the country with no access to telephones or fax machines. The Republic of Chile has been leading a regional diplomatic coalition to demand that UN weapons inspectors be deployed to the Anglo-Saxon nation. The possibility of deploying OAS weapons inspectors led by secretary general Jose Miguel Insulza has also been proposed.

President Lagos issued harsh statements yesterday from his vacation home in Caburgua over a glass of vino tinto. In his trademark "third person" oratory style, the president reminded the international community that "Chile is a serious country where institutions work, and its president cannot simply stand on the sidelines while a hostile and imposing nation threatens stability in the Americas." After a round of questions by the local media, he referred to himself as being, "the one president who will do whatever it takes to get them to comply with international law, and that's that!"

Minister of international relations Ignacio Walker returned from his vacation home to Santiago early in the morning for an emergency meeting with other members of Lagos' task force. Chile's regional coalition includes former victims of United States invasion. Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Panama top the list. Chile itself has been the victim of aggression by the United States; first in 1973 where the christian nation tried to impose its "free market" system within the country using a uniquely subtle torture, exile and mass-killing method. More recently, however, there have been widespread reports of cultural propaganda infiltration by the United States.

Just before heading south for his vacation, minister of the interior Francisco Vidal made public an in-depth government report detailing an intricate United States-led propaganda campaign aimed at unsuspecting Chilean elites. In the report, the military intelligence agency outlines an intricate network of clandestine audiovisual re-education centers called "cineplexes" designed and built to trigger a massive identity crisis within the country. Many Chileans have reportedly been coerced into eating highly toxic United States food while watching films and commercials depicting everyday life in the United States. The use of English, the official language of the United States, in highly opportune moments has also been reported.

Although numerous intelligence reports and media outlets suggest that the United States is already testing depleted uranium-laced weapons of mass destruction on innocent civilians and future unborn generations in remote areas like the Middle East, the Puritan Governing Junta (PGJ), led by court-appointed leader George W. Bush, have insisted that its M.O.P. program is actually a civilian program designed to coordinate and carry out massive public works projects such as highways and bridges. This morning the PGJ made an indirect reference to a similar program currently operating in the Republic of Chile in an attempt to downplay their role in any possible violation of the international ban on weapons that make big holes. A different set of expert analysts have interpreted this as a veiled threat directed at Chile.

According to the Chilean ex-minister of public works,Javier Etcheberry, the andean version of the M.O.P. program has been highly successful in coordinating and constructing bridges that last for up to five years, but he also stressed the differences between the two programs. "Our program is designed to give foreign firms the unique opportunity to build big things for us in exchange for envelopes full of money", affirmed the ex-minister, "while the PGJ's program is clearly designed to make big holes." Friends of international intelligence experts have reviewed the evidence and concluded that, although the weapon of mass destruction under scrutiny could conceivably be used in a civilian project, it would more likely be employed to harass neighboring peace-loving democracies and to destabilize the Americas.


Santiago spokesman Osvaldo Puccio held an emergency press conference during a breakfast cocktail party held in the orange garden where he downplayed everything. "No.........this is typical...........everything is unfolding as expected...........the government has done....... everything according to plan........and........nobody has to worry about anything.........we can handle it."

New Faces

I find it interesting that for an entire week since Michelle Bachelet made public her choice of ministers for her new cabinet, the local newspapers have been successively brimming with the strange and repetitive conclusion that the Chilean president-elect represents a radical break with the ruling elites which make up her coalition ("the parties for democracy"). Everyone with access to a space in print media has rallied around this very simple, yet curious, conclusion: that Michelle Bachelet is some sort of a renegade politician determined to entirely re-organize the chambers of power. It's rather amazing. Wherever you turn, the same rhetoric is used over and over again. Bachelet is confirming her "unique style", her retreat from "politics as usual".

This presumed "radicalism" is anchored on the basis that she has somehow ignored the political parties, which make up her coalition, in the selection process. This, I must add, has led to an unfortunate explosion of editorials spouting the "unquestionable importance" of political parties in democracy as well as the president-elect herself ratifying the same. Other mechanisms employed to accentuate her "rebellion" include the nauseously repetitive affirmations that she has a "unique style", and that her latest decisions indicate a departure from the conventional. Of course, mixed in with these "indicators" of discontinuity with the political establishment is the related gender issue. After all, she is a woman.

As a woman, she will no-doubt incarnate a different "style", but whether or not this will translate into a real change in the policies of the concertacion is not something that should just be assumed, as the media is already starting to do. Let's try to remember that the fact that she's a woman, while historical and important for Chile and the world in the sense that the cultural fabric that usually leads to discrimination against women in the workplace has been significantly altered (and that's positive!), does not mean that the upcoming government will be more feminine, more autonomous, or more "sensitive" to the needs of women, families, or the poor. Unlike Evo Morales, who became president of Bolivia precisely because of who he is and where he came from (and the promise to bring his point of view of the country into the presidential palace), Michelle Bachelet is president (or will be) not because she's a woman. I might not have the authority to make the following statement, but common sense tells me that Michelle Bachelet rose up the ranks in the concertacion the same way every other politician does: going with the flow, behaving as expected, avoiding controversy, compromising personal values, learning how to talk to the media, etc. In other words, behaving like a man in a political environment dominated by men. Why should we automatically assume that once in power, she's going to act intelligently, with foresight, and with empathy, in other words, with what many consider to be a woman's touch? Maybe she'll be as heartless and reactionary as the warm and fuzzy Margeret Thatcher.

In a recent La Tercera article about the new cabinet, Michelle Bachelet is interpreted as having applied a sort of "shock therapy" to the concertacion. The last time they used this clinical term in politics was to describe what Pinochet did to Chile's economy in the seventies. In other words, heavy stuff. According to La Tercera, the ground where the concertacion stands has been shaken by a Bachelet-inspired earthquake of grand magnitude.

New Faces, New Ideas?

Chile is not exactly a big country, but what passes for a "new face" in Chile is quite alarming. "Nobody gets seconds!" and "new faces!" announced Bachelet during her campaign run. And, as La Tercera confirms in an article dedicated to creating the illusion of controversy around the cabinet appointments, it seems that keeping this simple promise of "new faces" is part and parcel of this supposed "bacheletazo". But if you look closer at the faces neatly stacked in the easy-to-read newspaper layout, you'll begin to get an uncomfortable feeling of familiarity.

Isn't that Andres Zaldivar's face hovering comfortably in the Minister of the Interior's slot? He's not exactly a "new face", is he? Zaldivar has been senator, minister of the treasury, assistant to the minister of the treasury, president of the Christian Democrat party, and he's been part of the political establishment since the 1950's! Hey, isn't that Alejandro Foxley's face in the Minister of International Relations' slot? Alejandro Foxley is not exactly the new kid on the block. He's been minister of the treasury, a senator, the president of the Christian Democrat party, and he's also been a quite familiar face in the political establishment of the concertacion through the long (and seemingly endless) years they've been in power.

Surely the new head of the economy is a "new face" with new ideas behind him. It has been said that Andres Velasco, now minister of the treasury, is a man made in Harvard, not in Chile, and undoubtedly Harvard is quite far from Santiago. Surely, nobody must have the faintest idea who he is when he visits the presidential palace as a tourist. After all, since he was fifteen, he's never been in Chile for more than 12 months at a time! But what exactly does he do in those 12 months? Well, it turns out that he too has been an integral part of the concertacion establishhment, working for the minister of the treasury, Foxley, back in 1990 and more recently negotiating the free trade agreement with the United States. As head of Corporacion Expansiva, a virtual liberal think-tank that conjures up neoliberal solutions for problems exacerbated by neoliberalism, Mr. Velasco has helped unify the concertacion liberals and transform them into a powerful force inside the political establishment. Another new face.

The youngest member of the cabinet, excluding the new minister of culture, is Ricardo Lagos Weber, now in charge of public relations. We'll be seeing a lot of his face. He's only 43! Thank Jesus we finally have a new face behind an important cabinet position. But wait, isn't Ricardo Lagos Weber the son of current president Ricardo Lagos? Wow, so even when we actually get a new face, it looks a lot like an old face!

Maybe there's confusion on the rhetorical level in the media. Maybe we need to figure out what we mean by "new face". Might a new face mean that the face in question hasn't been seen very often by the public? That certainly can't be the definition. Surely there are people who've been part of the political establishment for ages, faces as recognizable as President Lagos or even Eduardo Frei, working diligently behind the scenes, far from public scrutiny, and virtually unnoticed. These people surely shouldn't be considered new faces, no matter how new they feel to us.

But nevertheless, there is a unique urge in the media these days to present these initial decisions as "clear signs" of a radical departure on behalf of the president elect; a departure, a new awakening, a rebirth. It's attractive and refreshing, but it just might not reflect the reality on the ground. I don't want to sound pesimistic, but Michelle Bachelet's cabinet is far from representing a break with "politics as usual". Despite what the media keeps repeating over and over again, her future cabinet reflects a desire to continue with the same fundamental economic and social policies that have governed the concertacion for a long time.

CRAZY LUCIA

Who is this ridiculous woman who bounces from country to country wearing her Mervyns's kakis and her JC Penny handbag? Is she a bird? Is she a plane? No, it's the nutty daughter of that infamous ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet, the man who just six years ago was still the most influential man in Chile. This last week has been very tiring for her, as well as for the press and television, which have filled the front pages and news reports with nothing but Lucia. The Lucia extravaganza has raged for an entire week, but finally she's back home, comfortable in her cozy house in smog-filled Santiago. After fleeing justice and embarrassing herself and the entire republic of Chile, Lucia's bail was granted this Monday, costing her six thousand dollars.

Meet Judge Carlos Cerda. He's the Chilean judge investigating Augusto Pinochet in the Riggs case, where the ex-dictator is charged with hoarding millions of dollars in illegitimate bank accounts across the United States, opened with a variety of falsified passports. It's been over a year since this case exploded on the international scene, and a lot of time and paper has been wasted on microscopically picking out and examining every centimeter of detail and following every capillary trail in the hopes of not having to ever pronounce the 90-year old "cacho" of a dictator guilty of anything. The intricate role played by every single member of the Pinochet family, right down to the family dog's nutritionist, must be documented and the media must report and repeat those all too familiar and embarrassing "court appearances", "house detentions", "immunity hearings", in order to give the impression that justice is slowly unfolding. Reality, however, indicates that Carlos Cerda might well belong to that highly prestigious club of Chilean judges who've made a career out of processing Pinochet, but who lack the courage to actually convict him of anything. As Fernando Paulsen put it on Tolerancia Cero this past Sunday, "it's easy to process, convicting is where you actually need balls!"

Chasing Lucia Pinochet halfway across the universe and wasting a weeks worth of press on her lame existence is part of this extravaganza of half-baked justice where consumers of Pinochet family disgrace confuse the juicy, fallen from grace type of images with real justice.

Before judge Carlos Cerda could notify Lucia of the charges she faces, along with the other members of the family (Lucia faces charges of tax evasion bordering a million dollars as well as passport falsification while the others face relatively minor tax evasion charges), Lucia decided to take a trip to Mendoza (Argentina) with her son Rodrigo. A perfect time to take a road trip over the Andes mountains wouldn't you say? Judge Cerda had taken all the steps to ensure that this legal formality would go over smoothly, even ensuring the Pinochets that they would be released immediately with no fuss and little noise. But when Lucia suddenly remembered that she had to present herself to the judge, as her family did on Monday, she did what any normal Chilean citizen would do....she traveled to the United States to do some shopping! Arriving in Washington, Lucia Pinochet was shocked to learn that her visa had been revoked. What nerve! She probably thought she would receive the same open arms welcome she had grown so used to in the years when her daddy was Washington's favorite mass-murdering dictator. Prevented from entering the country by international police, who were presumably acting on the arrest order issued by Judge Cerda on Monday after realizing that Lucia had fled the country, she then switched forms and decided to apply for.....political asylum? Claiming political persecution? What on earth was she thinking? She then spent two days as a common prisoner at the Arlington Prison, waiting for an audience with an immigration official. She was treated just like a regular inmate, forced to wear prison uniform and confined to a small prison cell. It's understandable that many can consider this a form of justice. After all, as a Pinochet, she did get a small taste (a very small taste) of what it must've been like for so many of her daddy's "terrorist enemies" in and around the countless concentration camps throughout Chile during the dictatorship.

But here's the interesting part. After suddenly deciding that political asylum wasn't her thing after all, she got back on a plane and returned to Chile, first class. This is somebody who a minute ago was seeking political asylum! Imagine if a Cuban balsero suddenly decided to return to Havana after applying for political asylum in the US. Would Fidel Castro be waiting at the airport with open arms, saying "I'm glad you changed your mind son"? Well that's pretty much what happened to Lucia. Judge Carlos Cerda actually went to the airport to greet her; he physically got on the plane and assured her that there would be no political persecution and that she would receive fair treatment. She spent the weekend in custody, and was then released on bail! This is somebody who just days before had fled from justice and had wanted to live in a foreign country! Doesn't that classify as a flight risk?

Many think that rather than a random act of desperation, Lucia's craziness represents a calculated legal defense strategy designed to confuse and delay the Riggs case against her father. It might've complicated things had it turned out differently, but in any case, all this media attention has created a certain amount of sympathy for the Pinochets. Many of the usual Pinochet apologists have come out of their dark caves to defend the family. Perhaps it was a calculated move, perhaps Lucia Pinochet is insane, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that the real guilty one, the one who is responsible for all of this, still manages to elude justice, or as they say here in Chile, still manages to "pasar piola". Pinochet has been charged with almost every crime imaginable, he's been under house arrest, he's been over house arrest, he's been stripped of a thousand and one layers of immunity, some of his immunity has been put back together again, but he's never actually been convicted of anything and he's never had to appear in court. Why is that?

Maybe it has something to do with something that's very Chilean. Why take a stand and try to solve a problem, when doing so might cause a few inconveniences and rock the boat a little? If time itself will take care of the problem on its own, then why do anything? Pinochet, it seems, is going to die with a clean record.

And there´s another interesting little factoid involving our warrior judge Carlos Cerda. This coming March, the constitutional senate commission will vote on who will become the newest member of the Chilean Supreme Court. Thanks to President Lagos, Cerda´s name appears on a very short list of candidates; he could follow in the footsteps of judge Sergio Muñoz, who had to abandon all his cases, including the Riggs case, in order to integrate the high court. Will Carlos Cerda have enough time to convict Pinochet, or will the case switch hands and be delayed yet again?
Anthony Rauld