Today marks 50 years since Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état forever changed the course of Chilean history. His rule brought about years of egregious human rights violations, during which many Chileans were tortured, murdered or forcibly disappeared, and their bodies never found. The trauma still scars the population today.
Pinochet was removed from power in 1990 after 17 years of brutal military dictatorship, and as President Patricio Aylwin took office on 11 March 1990, he declared, ‘Chile doesn’t want violence or war; it wants peace’. Whilst Chile has enjoyed relative peace and human rights have generally been respected since 1990 compared with the 17 years preceding it, Aylwin’s words still ring true more than 30 years later.
Success wearing thin
Chile has largely been heralded for its stability for the last decade or so; prosperous and peaceful, largely untouched by the levels of violence experienced by other countries in the region. The Latin American success story is largely backed up by statistics, such as those of the Global Peace Index, which ranked Chile at 58 out of 163 countries for its levels of peace in 2023.
Continue reading “‘The only church that enlightens is the one that burns’: The glowing embers of Chile’s Latin American success story”
