Chile is shaped like a big test tube – long and narrow. And here, there have been the most varied kinds of political experiments.
I am an agnostic person. Nevertheless, the Christian Democratic Party is non-denominational. It was the big centrist party. I joined because I liked it. I could relate to its humanistic, democratic and moderate approach to politics. Those were my reasons.
The majority in the Christian Democratic Party is Christian and Catholic. But some of the party leaders have been agnostic and we have never had problems within the party. The party is very respectful of the religious convictions of its members.
I was very much in favor of Eduardo Frei Montalva’s [Christian Democratic] government – which was the other revolution, one could say. He oversaw great agrarian reform in Chile. He nationalized part of the copper industry. He expanded the labor unions.
[Eduardo Frei Montalva (1911 –1982) was president of Chile from 1964 to 1970.]
After Frei came Salvador Allende’s government. I opposed his government. I was a Christian Democrat. Our opposition to it, in hindsight, had certain characteristics. We did not want an orthodox socialist regime.
[Salvador Allende (1908-1973) was president of Chile between 1970 and 1973. He was removed from office in a military coup d’état.]
[Allende’s government was] a revolution like the Cuban revolution or like the ones in eastern Europe. But perhaps [our opposition] was very imprudent because, in the end, the relentless fight between the Christian Democrats and the parties of the left opened the door for the coup d’état.
As a result, though I had been a supporter of Frei’s government and I had opposed Allende’s government, I found myself facing a coup d’état in 1973, which we had opposed from the beginning.
[In 1973, General Augusto Pinochet staged a military coup and established a dictatorship in Chile that lasted until 1990.]
And so I spent seventeen years opposing the military regime. It is an intense history. Chile has been the scene of great political conflicts. This is so.
Genaro Arriagada Herrera is a Chilean attorney, political scientist, diplomat and politician.
Arriagada was born in 1943 and studied law at the University of Chile, graduating in 1965. He became active in politics and affiliated with the Christian Democratic Party in 1963. He worked on several of the party’s political campaigns. Following the military coup d’état in 1973, the regime of General Augusto Pinochet banned political parties. Arriagada became active in the democratic opposition to the military regime. From 1980 to 1989, he served as vice president of the Christian Democrats.
In 1988, Arriagada was chosen as Executive Secretary of the Concertación, the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, a broad coalition of political parties from across the political spectrum that opposed the military government.
In October 1988, the Pinochet regime called a national referendum asking Chileans whether they wanted to continue the military regime. As Executive Secretary of the Concertación, Arriagada became the director of the historic “No” Campaign, which opposed extending military rule. The opposition organized a large voter registration effort and mounted an upbeat campaign that urged voters to restore democracy to Chile.
As Chile returned to the democratic path, Arriagada served in multiple senior positions. He led Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle’s successful presidential campaign in 1993 and then served as a minister in his government. He also ran the successful presidential campaign of Ricardo Lagos in 1999. In the late 1990s, Arriagada served as Chile’s ambassador to the United States.
Since leaving government service, Arriagada has held a variety of academic positions and has been affiliated with institutions such as the University of the Americas, the Inter-American Dialogue, the Wilson Center, and Harvard University’s Institute of Politics. He has also worked with democratic groups in countries like Bulgaria, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Serbia.
Spanish conquistadors led by Pedro de Valdivia conquered Chile in 1541. The country’s capital, Santiago, was founded in the same year. Throughout the 277 years of Spanish rule, there was resistance by indigenous groups, such as the Mapuche.
In the early 19th century, an independence movement began in Chile with the establishment of a national front. The front maintained power from 1810 until 1814, when Spain reestablished control of the colony. Many leaders of the pro-independence movement reorganized in Argentina. In 1817, the exiled rebel independence leaders regained control of Chile and formally declared independence on February 12, 1818.
While initially under the leadership of authoritarian General Bernardo O’Higgins, Chile later established a tradition of democratic rule that largely continued until the 1970s. In 1970, prominent Marxist leader Salvador Allende won power in democratic elections. While the economy initially boomed under Allende, domestic opposition and international pressure, especially from the United States, led to increasing difficulties for the government.
On September 11, 1973, a military coup overthrew Allende and installed General Augusto Pinochet as president. Allende committed suicide as troops advanced on the presidential palace.
The sixteen years of Pinochet’s military dictatorship were marked by significant human rights violations and the abolishment of civil liberties. The dictatorship jailed dissidents, prohibited strikes, and dissolved the national congress and political parties. Thousands were tortured and killed; many more were forced into political exile.
In 1980, the Pinochet regime promulgated a new constitution. It included a provision calling a referendum in 1988, allowing voters a yes or no vote on whether to prolong Pinochet’s tenure as president. The referendum campaign saw massive opposition efforts to encourage voter turnout, with nearly the entire democratic opposition united against the military government. While the Pinochet regime belatedly began making reforms, 56 percent of the population voted “no” to continuing the dictatorship, setting the stage for a return to civilian rule.
In 1989, Chilean democracy was fully restored by a democratic election to choose a new president, the first free election in nearly twenty years.
Since the return to democracy, Chile has implemented significant economic and political reforms, including a free trade agreement with the United States. Although there have been major strides in promoting equality and human freedoms, the human rights violations of Pinochet’s dictatorship still haunt many people. The Rettig and Valech Reports investigated and documented the human rights violations and torture under Pinochet’s government, but many Chileans continue to demand greater accountability for those responsible.
Freedom House’s 2014 Freedom in the World report categorized Chile as “free” with an overall freedom rating of one, with one being the freest and seven being the least. The country also received ratings of one in political rights and civil liberties. However, in the 2014
Freedom of the Press report, the nation was categorized as “party free” due to a lack of diversity in the media.