Chile: No olvidamos, no perdonamos / Chile: Never Forget, Never Forgive

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Chile: Never Forget, Never Forgive

This  September 11 will mark 44 years since the coup d’etat in Chile where thousands of people were assassinated, disappeared and tortured by the military dictatorship.   

We cannot forget that the US plays, in this tragic history, an important role in the destabilization of the government of Salvador Allende, encouraging terrorist actions and financing opposition groups, including the press, with the goal of destabilizing the legitimate Allende government and thereby generate the conditions for the armed forces to carry out the coup d’etat on September 11, 1973 and thus put an end to the project of social justice pursued by the Popular Unity alliance (Unidad Popular).

We cannot fail to remember the Church Report: Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973, which reveals that the operations carried out or financed by the US to bring down the government of Salvador Allende as well as the fact that during 1970 and 1973 we saw increased training by the US — training 781 Chilean soldiers at the School of the Americas, which was operating in Panama at the time.

At 44 years of these events, we honor the tireless struggle of the thousands of women and men who continue to this day to search for their loved ones, still disappeared, as we do all the family members who continue to struggle and demand truth and justice for these crimes, which the conscience of humanity cannot forget.

We lift up our voices and we support the request for extradition to Chile, from the US, of Pedro Barrientos, involved in crimes against Victor Jara, and of Armando Fernández Larios, Chilean secret police (DINA, National Intelligence Directorate) agent and participant in the Caravan of Death, recently tried for the crime against Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, which occurred in Pisagua in July 1974.

Both Barrientos and Fernández Larios, graduates of the School of the Americas, must be held accountable in Chilean courts for their responsibilities in these crimes.

We join Hijxs in calling, “We do not forget! We do not forgive!”

In Solidarity,

SOA Watch

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