How Chile Restored Democracy 35 Years Ago (and its Lessons for Today)

By Frank Greer

Earlier this year, I found myself sitting in Santiago, Chile watching a vocal minority in the U.S. Congress bring our government to the verge of complete shutdown, threatening the health, incomes, essential benefits, and lives of millions of Americans. Republicans in Congress continue to threaten the very structure of the U.S. House of Representatives and continue to leave America weaker in the face of multiple world crisis. And they have been encouraged along the way by Donald Trump, the leading candidate for President, who just a few years ago plotted an American coup and is now promising to impose authoritarian measures if re-elected.

Chile is one of the many countries that overcame a coup and dictatorship in the 20th century, and I believe there are important lessons that we need to learn from the struggles of the people of Chile. Interestingly, I also think the recent passing of Henry Kissinger provides an important lens for Americans to consider those lessons.

This past year my colleague Annie Burns and I were invited by the U.S. Embassy in Santiago to commemorate the 35th anniversary of a historic citizens’ movement that defeated the entrenched dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and restored democracy to Chile in the plebiscite of October 5, 1988. We came to Chile 35 years ago as volunteers to assist the fledging democratic organizing effort.

The movement was led by Genaro Arriagada, an amazingly skilled and effective political leader who had brought together a coalition of 16 political parties, civic and religious organizations in a united front to create “la Campaña del No” – the “Campaign of the No” – to defeat Pinochet in a national referendum on the continuation of his bloody regime.

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https://www.postalley.org/2024/02/09/how-chile-restored-democracy-35-years-ago-and-its-lessons-for-today/