Thousands pay tribute to Chilean communist leader (Pinochet foe)

Gladys Marin, Pinochet foe and survivor of Operation Condor. Treated in Sweden and Cuba for cancer, she was a personal guest of Fidel Castro during her stay on the island. Nice photos of her and Allende and her and Fidel from La Nacion sent by a friend :hi:

The Italian Communist Party yesterday called her the "Chilean Pasionaria," after the famed Pasionaria of the Spanish Civil War.

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The Chilean government on Sunday ordered two days of national mourning after the death of Gladys Marin, a veteran Communist Party leader who was at the forefront of opposing dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Thousands, many carrying red roses, filed past Marin's body in a coffin at the former National Congress in Santiago.

"The mourning decreed by the government is an expression of our respect for what she embodied and for the thousands and thousands who in democracy follow her," said President Ricardo Lagos, who was among those who paid their respects to Marin.

"Before whatever banner that any one of us may carry today, comes the banner of Chile," the Socialist president said. "And Chile is better for that which Gladys Marin struggled."

http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/tue/mar8w32.htm

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Earlier article.

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Chilean Communist Party leader dead at 63

...Marin died at her home in the Santiago middle-class suburb of La Florida, said Guillermo Tellier, the Communist Party's secretary-general.

"A few hours after falling into a coma, our loved comrade and president of our party has died," Tellier said.

Marin battled brain cancer for a year-and-a-half, including surgery in Sweden and two recovery periods in Cuba, where she was a personal guest of President Fidel Castro.

Marin was an implacable foe of Pinochet's 1973-90 dictatorship. She was one of the leaders of the first massive protests against Pinochet in the 1980s, often facing the police tear gas and water cannons in the streets.

In 1998, she filed the first suit against Pinochet for human rights violations during his regime, thus starting the former dictator's legal troubles, which include two indictments and house arrests.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/03/06/marin.obit.ap/

She was brave to openly oppose Pinochet, when so many like her were being tortured and killed. I'm not a communist, but in some countries and times, the alternative is worse.

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....Hounded by Pinochet's secret police, Marin fled Chile in 1976 after her husband, Jorge Munoz, and members of his cell were arrested by Pinochet's security service.

Munoz remains on a list of 1,198 detainees of the dictatorship, who disappeared without a trace.

Marin lived in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Russia during her exile but returned in 1978 to become a leader of the underground resistance to Pinochet.

Following the return of democracy, Marin sought legal proceedings against Pinochet, who ruled Chile with an iron fist until 1990.

http://news.lycos.co.uk/people/050306232913.oxnrpreq.xml.html


Thousands of Chileans pay tribute to Chile's Communist leader Gladys Marin outside of La Moneda government palace as the funeral procession passes by the statue of the late President Salvador Allende during her burial ceremony in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, March 8, 2005. Gladys Marin, the combative leader of the Chilean Communist Party, who became a symbol in the fight against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites), died after a long fight with cancer at the age of 63 years-old. (AP Photo/Santiago Llanquin)

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Chile Honors Women, One In Particular

...Marin became a member of Congress at age 24 and then spent two years in exile after Gen. Augusto Pinochet seized power in a 1973 coup. Marin's husband disappeared after he was arrested by Pinochet's security service. Her party was outlawed by the military dictatorship and went underground.

On Tuesday, as national TV networks carried live footage of her funeral, politicians took turns eulogizing her. The government ordered two days of national mourning.

"When everyone was silent, she spoke out," said Jaqueline Cortes, who was also waving a flag at the procession. "As a woman, she always seemed like someone fighting for us."

Although the two leading presidential candidates are women, just 17 percent of elected members of Congress and 13 percent of municipal officeholders are women, said Cecilia Perez, minister for women's affairs. But she said the recent changes have coaxed Chile's women to become more assertive and speak out.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18384-2005Mar8.html


Members of Chile's group of relatives of missing and detained hold portraits of Jorge Muoz, husband of Chile's Communist leader Gladys Marin who was missing after being detained by agents of former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites) during her funeral procession in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, March 8, 2005. Gladys Marin, the combative leader of the Chilean Communist Party who became a symbol in the fight against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, died after a long fight with cancer at the age of 63 years-old. (AP Photo/Felix Alonso)