CHILE

‘Chile will return to democracy,’
pledges former Allende minister

At one time education flourished in
Chile, with eight major universities, while 37
. cent of the population, including

3,600,000 children, were studying, and the
budget for education, at 20 per cent of the
National budget, exceeded the amount spent
On the military.

That was before the Sept. 11, 1973 coup
that toppled the democratic coalition
Zovernment of Salvador Allende and
Plunged the South American nation into
the fascism that still rules, Dr. Edgardo
Berane told a Vancouver assembly Jan.

Enriquez, who lost two sons and a son-
in-law in the bloodbath that followed the

Coup, was the minister of education in

Allende’s Popular Unity government. In
town for the founding meeting of the
Chilean-Canadian Communty Association,
he related in a wide-ranging speech some
details of the bloody, U.S.-backed coup, its
Subsequent aftermath and his belief that
democracy will return to the Pacific coast
Nation.

“You can rest assured that Chile is going
to be a democracy. We are going to rebuild
Our country, just as we have rebuilt after the
Many earthquakes we’ve been through,”
Enriquez told the audience.

A medical doctor, and current professor
of anatomy at the University of Mexico,
Enriquez presents a rare insider’s view of
the events leading up to and during the Sept.
11 fascist takeover.

Noting that on the day before the coup,
then-armed forces commander and current
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet) ap-
Proached Allende “‘with tears in his eyes to
Swear his loyalty,” Enriquez related how the
President planned a public address to pro-
Pose a plebiscite “to deal with some of the
Problems that morning (of Sept. 11).

EDGARDO ENRIQUEZ...former edu-
cation minister recalls events of bloody
Sept. 11 coup.

“I was with Allende that morning,” said
Enriquez through translator Francisco
Gonzalez, “He was talking to the (Chilean)
ambassador in Buenos Aires (Argentina). I
heard him say, ‘I am going to die in my
palace.’

“Five hours after that conversation the
armed forces tanks and planes attacked the
government palace. It burned, and Allende
was assassinated.”

Enriquez, who witnessed theattack on
the palace and his own ministry of educa-
tion, suffered personal deprivation as well.
His son Miguel, a revolutionary leader, died
with the thousands massacred “without
pity” by Pinochet’s forces. Another son,

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and a son-in-law, are among the thousands
of “disappeared” persons unaccounted for
after the coup.

The former minister described how his
pregnant daughter-in-law was kicked in the
stomach by an army officer, resulting in the
death of her child shortly after birth.

In the subsequent 11 years the list of dead
and disappeared has increased. But with
foreign debts amounting to $20 billion (by
comparison, the debt under the Popular
Unity government was $4 billion), the
cracks have appeared in Pinochet’s military
junta, Enriquez noted.

Several members of the junta, including
the air force commander whose planes orig-
inally bombed the presidential palace, have
quit. Meanwhile, the right-wing Christian
Democratic party, which had initially sup-
ported the coup, are now also in opposition,
Enriquez related.

The Catholic Church, traditionally divided
over support for Pinochet, has been increas-
ingly critical of the regime, he said, noting
that the bishops have asked the Pope to
cross Chile off his list during the current
papal tour of South America.

Meanwhile mass opposition, despite the
recent re-imposition of the dictatorship’s
state of siege and the reopening of concen-
tration camps, continues, said Enriquez. He
said another series of strikes are set for
April, and opposition continues in the form
of tax revolts, clandestine radio broadcasts,
and acts of sabotage on public installations.

There is also the possibility of open
armed conflict, he said.

“If people receive arms, they'll go into the
streets and fight the military. I personally
don’t wish to see a civil war start in Chile.
But we must compare the number who will
die in a civil war with the number who have
already died under the Chilean dictator-
ship.”

In an interview later, Enriquez cautioned
that while there is a potential alliance
between what he called the “progressive”
element among the Christian Democrats
and the left-wing forces, the “situation in
Chile is not easy.

“After what has happened in Argentina
(the current trials of the former military
dictators), and considering that the Chilean
armed forces have committed so many
crimes, they fear the justice that the Chilean
people desire. That's why they’re united to
defend themselves.”

The right-wing Christian Democrats
would like an alliance with the military to
establish a new government, but the junta’s
crimes are such that “these right wingers
would be ashamed of such an association,
and rightly so,” said Enriquez.

“There is no doubt that some progressive
elements of Christian Democracy will join
the left and help whatever form of struggle
emerges. It all depends on how the progres-
sive Christian Democrats see this form,” he
said.

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