Violence in the streets and candlelight vigils in the rain: Chile reaches a tense 9/11

The 50th anniversary of Augusto Pinochet's coup d'état against Salvador Allende finds Chile this Monday in an atmosphere of high tension, with violence in various sectors of Santiago throughout the weekend, a growing abyss between President Gabriel Boric and the opposition and a candlelight vigil in the rain on Sunday night with a repeated slogan: “Never again!”

The vigil was in the Plaza de la Constitución, in front of the Palacio de la Moneda, the headquarters of the government that exactly 50 years ago today was bombed by the Chilean Air Force to evict President Allende, who ended up committing suicide..

“The women of Chile, once again, as always, giving us all a lesson,” Boric wrote on his social networks regarding the women's march on a cold and rainy night at the end of winter in the capital of Chile.

It was the end of a weekend that was sometimes violent.. On Sunday afternoon, hooded men confronted Carabineros in the center of Santiago, where they also tried to loot a market. In another sector of the city, anarchist groups threw stones at protesters from the Socialist Party, part of the left-wing coalition led by Boric.

In the incident carried out by the hooded men, some 50 people dressed in black threw stones and cobblestones that broke six windows of the La Moneda Palace.

In the Santiago General Cemetery there was damage to the Carabineros Mausoleum and to the tomb of Senator Jaime Guzmán, a Pinochet collaborator assassinated in 1991 by the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front.

The government fears what could happen this Monday, and that is why it organized a deployment of 3,000 police officers and 411 helicopters and drones in 13 critical points in Santiago.

“We hope that the commemoration is carried out in peaceful terms and with a civic sense,” the Secretary General of the Presidency, Álvaro Elizalde, told EL MUNDO.. “Because the most violent political event in the history of Chile was the bombing of La Moneda.”

The opposition coalition Chile Vamos, which in 2017 brought Sebastián Piñera to the presidency for the second time, warned in a statement of the climate of violence: “We absolutely condemn the unfortunate acts of violence that occurred on the morning of September 10, 2023, including the serious vandalization of the tomb of Senator Jaime Guzmán Errázuriz and the Mausoleum of Carabineros de Chile, as well as the damage to dependencies of the Palacio de La Moneda”.

Chile Vamos added that it will not be at the events at the Palacio de La Moneda this Monday because it sees them “laden with ideology”, and not because of differences with the government about the document that emphasizes the defense of democracy and the rejection of coups d'état. The center-right coalition also criticized Boric for joining a demonstration that toured the streets of Santiago.

Piñera, on the other hand, will be at the events, in addition to having signed a document in favor of democracy along with Boric and other former presidents: Michelle Bachelet, Ricardo Lagos and Eduardo Frei.

“I have seen the criticism from right-wing sectors, I tell them that I have no shame in participating together with groups of disappeared detainees, because they deserve all our respect,” Boric told Chilean television.

The Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, who had committed his attendance, but who will finally remain at the G-20 Summit in India, will also not be in La Moneda, as will the Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Only four Latin American presidents will be in Santiago this Monday: the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Pou, the Colombian Gustavo Petro and the Bolivian Luis Arce. The Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa, as well as the President of the German Senate, Peter Tschentscher, will also be present..

The presence of López Obrador is a fact, since the Mexican head of state practically does not leave his country. Boric appreciated the gesture of his Mexican counterpart.

“After the coup d'état, Mexico extended its hand to us and welcomed more than 3,000 compatriots (…). The brotherhood between Chile and Mexico is projected with the commitment to human rights, international cooperation and democracy always. Thank you president and thank you Mexico!”

Late on Sunday night, Boric uploaded to his social networks the greeting of the acting president of the government, Pedro Sánchez.

“50 years ago, Chilean democracy was the victim of a brutal attack that shook the world. That barbaric coup not only broke the constitutional order and overthrew a legitimate government born from the polls, but it was also the prelude to a dark time,” said the socialist leader before paraphrasing Allende himself.

“Fifty years after that sad day, we look back confirming a beautiful certainty, and that is that in the end the great Alamedas, blinded by darkness for so long, opened wide.”

Sánchez's phrase refers to Allende's radio speech on the morning of September 11, 1973, with the bombing of La Moneda already underway and shortly before committing suicide: “The great avenues will open where the free man passes.”