Chile - nut shell report

Christina Marie Glessner

ENG 540 – Chicano Ecology

Dr. Kells

Wednesday, May 07, 2014

“Nut Shell” Report on Chile

​In my experience learning about Chile in Skidmore’s “Modern Latin America,” a vast amount of history was explored in only a few pages.  Because of this, there were many important things grazed by, such as civil wars and activist movements.  This is not necessarily a flaw of the book’s telling, as the writers only have a small amount of space to relay a very large amount of information, but it made me think often about the spaces in-between what was given as much as what was given.  The book most particularly focuses on Chile’s economic and political changes from about 1814-2003.  Both the economy and political landscape were often in flux throughout this nearly 200 year time frame.

Every time the country seemed to advance economically, that time was surrounded by economic depression.  For example, early in the 19th century, Chile’s agricultural exports carried much of their economy, but this didn’t last.  The Wars of Independence put a hindrance on trade.  Then, the California Gold rushed increased agricultural exports, as the rush openedup a market for trade.  Then, when the transcontinental railroad was built, the US didn’t need foreign imports anymore, so Chile lost the market.  A similar trend was seen with their nitrate exports.  The country’s economy benefited from the business, had peaks and lows, and eventually the industry petered out.  Then, again, this trend was seen with copper mining, but this time with an added layer of foreign interference with the industry on Chile’s soil.  With copper mining, when smelting entered the industry, Chile didn’t have the money to engage with that process and sought the help of outside investors.  With this, the benefit of copper mining and exportation on Chilean exports dropped.  There was also less Chilean employment in these important jobs and jobs relevant to copper mining (such as parts production, which was now primarily imported) (110-112).

The political landscape in Chile also shifted often.  The landowning elite consistently carried the most power, but specific political parties are always shifting.  In 1830 a three decade period called the “Conservative Republic” took place.  Then, between 1861 and 1891, Chile was in what was called the “Liberal Republic.”  In 1891, there was civil war, brought on partially because of a nitrate taxation and the president’s proposal to start a National Bank.  These political ideas were opposed by the landowning elite that profited off of private banks and the nitrate industry.

After the civil war, Chile suffered many years of protests and strikes, sometimes turned bloody, where citizens fought for better labor rights.  Every time it looked like labor rights would be favored, favor seemed to return back to the employers.  The level of rights, so the level of rights were also in flux (118-119).

In 1935, the international communist movement was telling supporters to seek out allies to win political sway.  This is the first time where we really see groups from different political parties banned together into coalitions to win races.  A trend started of Chilean political parties banding together, then eventually splitting apart, then new groups banding together, then splitting apart.  This trend caused parties to become really aggressive towards each other.  With each breakdown of the parties, the atmosphere in the country was more split, culminating in a constantly fluxing (often depressed) economy and in civil wars.  People were constantly fighting to over throw presidents (122-127).

What happened, eventually, was that the military took over the government, led by General Pinochet.  Though he at first said he would only rule for a short time, his dictatorship lasted much longer.  He worked to uproot the political system in Chile, ending the civil wars, but the “peace” was based on the suppression of people.  Congress and the constitution were cut, political parties deemed illegal.  He made a curfew and restrictions on media.  His main goals were the “unity of the military” and the “oppression of society to stop battles from political parties and labor unions” (133-136).

During this time, the economy was reconstructed to resemble a fair-market economy, with emphasis on taking ownership back of their own industry, though still relying on outside loans.  This didn’t do much to solve Chile’s economic woes, though, and then a financial crash in 1982 “triggered by Mexico’s de facto default on foreign debt” plunged the GDP down further and increased unemployment (133-136).

With propaganda in place, Pinochet re-opened the election in 1988, assuming he’d win.  However, 14 groups made an alliance called Concertacón, and their candidate won the presidency.  In 1990 this president, Patricio Aywin took office.  He worked to put democracy back in place and to investigate the human rights violations from his predecessor’s rule.  Pinochet didn’t leave the scene, though.  He was still the chief of the army until 1998, and when he stepped down, he was still in a position of power, because he became a “nonelected” senator (133-136).

Pinochet was eventually vacationing in London, in 1998, where he was arrested, on request of Spain.  The British were going to give Pinochet to Spain, who would have executed him, but Chilean president Frei said that he needed to be returned to Chile, because as a senator, he had diplomatic immunity.  He was returned.  In 2001 the EU again brought up charges, requesting Pinochet be given to them.  By mid-2003, more than 300 members of Chile’s military were put in jail, and in 1970, the population was outraged to find that the Pinochet-let military raided mass graves (136-138).

The chapter ends with the line, “Not even the dead were safe from the long arm of the soldiers who had hijacked Chilean justice” (138).