Keywords: Augusto Pinochet
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ramona Wadi
- 03 November 2020
Chile has a strong democratic tradition, which was marred by the dictatorship. The representatives tasked with writing the new constitution will need to veer away from the prevailing right-wing and centre-left influence, all of which contributed to Chile maintaining its status as one of the most unequal societies in Latin America.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ramona Wadi
- 08 September 2020
1 Comment
The coronavirus pandemic has been utilised by Latin American governments — prominent examples being Brazil and Chile — to militarise societies, criminalise resistance and normalise violence.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ramona Wadi
- 18 March 2020
For the Mapuche people, as well as Chileans, the tearing down of colonial and military relics is a statement reflecting the determination to take an active part in the memory process of Chile. It is time, in other words, for the narrative of the oppressed to come from oppressed voices.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ramona Wadi
- 29 October 2019
5 Comments
For the first time in decades, the mass protests have proved the strength of Chile's collective memory. Pinochet's call for oblivion is defeated; this can be seen in how Chileans demonstrated with full awareness of continuity. They have also testified to their unity with the Mapuche people, all protesting as one against neoliberal violence.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ramona Wadi
- 26 February 2019
3 Comments
The news last week of former Pinochet era intelligence agent Adriana Rivas' arrest in Sydney spread like wildfire. Australia should embrace its moral and political responsibility to collaborate, through the appropriate legal channels, towards the Chilean quest for justice and memory.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ramona Wadi
- 25 January 2019
2 Comments
During his speech at the World Economic Forum, Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro was adamant that throughout his tenure, the country would be open to global investors. Absent from the equation were the indigenous people of Brazil, who represent a major obstacle for the planned exploitation of territory and natural resources.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Antonio Castillo
- 30 October 2018
8 Comments
Bolsonaro's election is the product of Brazil's disenchantment with democracy and hatred against a political system corrupted to its core. It is corruption — a malaise that infiltrates just about every slice of Brazilian society — that has pushed the country to what Vladimir Safatle, a Brazilian philosopher, has described as 'night without end'.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ramona Wadi
- 24 August 2018
1 Comment
It is important that Bachelet's appointment is discussed away from the framework promoted by the UN. Primarily, it should raise questions as to how a torture victim can become complicit in impunity as president. That such complicity is ignored at an international level should contribute to the growing mistrust in the UN as human rights 'guardian'.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Ramona Wadi
- 03 August 2018
8 Comments
Last week, Javier Rebolledo, an investigative journalist specialising in uncovering dictatorship era crimes, was taken to court by a convicted torturer and former member of Pinochet's secret police. It is an act of political violence against a committed journalist. Chile needs people like Rebolledo if memory is to survive.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Tony Thompson
- 14 September 2016
6 Comments
I don't speak Spanish but I knew I had to try to ask someone. It wasn't an appealing idea. The crowds of people roaming here were the bereaved. They were here to visit their loved ones, not help me tick a box on my tourist adventure. However, I had little choice. I stopped a friendly looking middle aged man. 'Victor Jara,' I said. 'Donde?' He smiled and said a lot of things in Spanish while gesturing in a particular direction. I thanked him and headed the way he had pointed.
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AUSTRALIA
- Binoy Kampmark
- 25 August 2015
14 Comments
The spectacle is a strange one. Heydon has to rule on an application that directly concerns his own fitness to be in the position. It recalls the situation Lord Hoffmann found himself in after his links with Amnesty International perceptibly compromised his views on extraditing Chile's former military ruler Augusto Pinochet. Even the best jurists can fall foul of the bias rule.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Tim Kroenert
- 18 April 2013
Pinochet's supporters are, with good reason, banking on the populace's fear and willingness to maintain the status quo. Enter brash young advertising executive René Saavedra. His rusted-on socialist colleagues are at first aghast but gradually persuaded by his conviction that rather than wallowing in negativity, they should be selling optimism.
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