CHILE
Police attack Communist Party office
By R.M. Sharpe
The headquarters of the Communist Party of Chile was
brutally attacked on Nov. 27 by over 300 members of the
Carabineros, the Chilean national police. General Secretary
Gladys Marin, International Department Head Luis Barrera and a
Communist Youth League leader were among 50 people reportedly
arrested in the police assault. Most have since been
released.
Located in Santiago, the Chilean capital, the small office
was "then trashed, telephone lines cut, and computers and other
electronic equipment smashed and thrown out into the street,"
the party reported in a communiqué distributed on the
internet. Scores were beaten--some requiring
hospitalization--while defending themselves well into the night
with sticks and stones against police batons, tear gas and
water cannons.
Secretary-General Marin told the Nov. 30 Santiago Times in
response to the attack that "Something dark is taking place
across this county. There are dark forces, de facto forces
within Carabineros and Justice"--a reference to the fascist
elements that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990 and have remained
in the shadows since then.
Party leaders believe that the attack was deliberately
carried out as a police threat against plans by the
administration of President Fernando Lagos to restructure the
force. This includes the "retirement" of 15 high-ranking
officers and shifting the Carabineros to the jurisdiction of
the interior ministry.
The assault was executed less than a day after Gen. Alberto
Cienfuegos replaced former police head Gen. Manuel Ugarte.
Additionally, according to the Santiago Times, it took place
"just four hours after Gen. Cienfuegos had met Lagos to discuss
the renewal of Carabineros' higher echelons."
While condemning the attack, both the president and the
police head denied that it was a police protest instigated by
"higher ups." But Marin demanded an investigation into the
allegation. In addition, she insisted that "the operation was
an act of political provocation against her party," reported
the Santiago Times.
The police action was carried out under "legal" cover of an
eviction order for back rents allegedly owed by the party.
Civil Court Judge Pilar Aguaya signed the order without proper
notice first being served. After meeting with Marin in a
Santiago jail, Gen. Cienfuegos announced that Sergio Garcia,
the commander of the police action, had been removed pending an
investigation. The Communist Party has filed a lawsuit against
Aguaya.
The anti-communist police attack came against two
backdrops.
Internationally, the U.S. government, led by President
George W. Bush, is using the attacks on the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon to unleash a global offensive, dubbed the "War
on Terrorism," whose targets include leftists fighting for
economic justice. While supposedly aimed primarily at Islamic
fundamentalists associated with Osama bin Laden, the U.S.
stance has emboldened far-right forces in many parts of the
world.
In Chile, parliamentary elections are only three weeks away
and increased votes were expected for the communists.
President Lagos's Concertacion coalition, described as
"center-left" in the capitalist media, has ruled Chile since
1990, implementing the International Monetary Fund's
neo-liberal "free market" policies but also allowing some
political space for the left to function.
The upcoming vote will take place with unemployment above 9
percent and an expected downturn in economic growth from 5.4 to
3 percent, according to government figures. Meanwhile, talks
between Chile and the United States that would create the first
trade pact between Washington and a South American country, via
"fast-track" legislation, have stalled.
In September 1999, 26 years after the CIA-backed coup that
overthrew former President Salvador Allende's Popular Unity
government, tens of thousands had taken to the streets across
Chile. In Santiago, 10,000 marched to Allende's burial place.
They also recalled the other victims of dictator Augusto
Pinochet's military regime, which lasted from 1973 to 1990.
Allende, a Marxist and leader of the Socialist Party, had
been elected president of Chile in 1970 only to be murdered
three years later in a bloody coup. A wave of terror was then
unleashed against the left and working-class movement during
Pino chet's rule. Over 3,000 people were slaughtered while
Washington worked behind the scenes with the fascist
generals.
Efforts to bring Pinochet to trial for his crimes have been
fruitless.
Three months after the September 1999 march, Communist Party
candidate Gladys Marin won third place in the presidential
election with what Cable News Network called "a small but vital
3.2 percent."
The 1973 coup in Chile showed that the capitalist rulers
wouldn't allow the workers to challenge their privileged status
and their ownership of the means of production merely by
winning an election. Once Allende began to implement even mild
social reforms, the ruling class began plotting his downfall.
When they couldn't achieve it at the ballot box, they did it
with brute force, dispensing with any pretense of respect for
democratic traditions.
Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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