Last summer, I was going to travel to Chile. I began looking at airfare, destinations, transportation, and buying travel guides. Then I bought a Miata and decided to spend my summer driving to the lower 48 states and see America instead. I think I made the right choice but I am still fascinated by Chile and still wish to travel there. It ranks as the country I would visit if I was granted one wish by a travel-agent genie. However, no matter how much I rub my passport, no supernatural phenomena appear.
So it goes without saying that am pumped whenever a new Chilean History book appears on the shelves of the bookstores. Chile has an amazing past: European Conquistadors. A fight for independence. The military coup of 1924. Democratic elections.
In 1970, socialist Salvador Allende was democratically elected President. The US was scared that communism had now spread into the Americas and decided to undermine the presidency with propaganda and financial blockades. When that didn't work the US decided to set up an atmosphere where an assassination was possible. On September 11, 1973, (note the date) a military strike killed Allende and Augusto Pinochet, a US hand picked successor ascended to power.
Pinochet became a tyrant and ordered the killing of thousands of dissidents and forcing the exile of 30,000 more. The US was complicit in these human-rights violations. Pinochet began an international terrorism unit and assassinated exiles in foreign countries, including a car bomb, killing two people, in Washington D.C. in 1976.
This all sounds like it would make a fascinating book. Much intrigue and formerly classified information between the CIA, the White House, and Chile. However, The Pinochet File, which I finally finished, is written so dryly and you can't wait for the 500 page book to be over. In fact, most of the time, I was so bored and I couldn't even be outraged that we were permitting this to happen or that US citizens were killed in their nation's capitol by a group of terrorsts that we helped install.
The ironic part I guess is that once Pinochet was out of power the Chileans democratically elected a socialist again. Probably to see how the platform would all play out without US involvment. Then they were progressive enough to elect a woman as President in 2006 who is the daughter of an air force general who was captured and tortured in the military coup of 1973.
If there a country that is more geographically, politically and culturally diverse, I sure haven't found it. Maybe when the genie finally appears he can point me otherwise, but most likely he'll help me pack my bags for a trip to the country with the world's driest desert and lushest jungle; the mysteries of Easter Island and the chill of Tierra del Fuego; the ocean and the Andes.
