Torture, murder, disappearances – it wasn’t that bad after all, say fans of former dictator Pinochet in Chile. The number of people trivializing dictatorships is also increasing in other South American countries.
At the beginning of September, around 200 demonstrators stood in front of the government palace “La Moneda” in Santiago de Chile. With waving flags, they commemorate September 11th, the day on which dictator Augusto Pinochet came to power 50 years ago. For the group here: a day of liberation, a day of joy.
They hold up posters: “Pinochet, your legacy is for eternity” it says. Or: “Freedom against communism”. The demonstration is led by a man in his early 40s wearing a military helmet, Francisco Muñoz. The real dictator was the socialist Salvador Allende, who was democratically elected to office in 1970, or at least that is how Muñoz sees it: “Chile was destroyed economically and politically under Allende. And subversive guerrilla groups continued to operate. If we want to talk about reconciliation, we have to understand that there is not just one way of looking at things. It’s not like there was only one side killing here, there was a war here.”
The number of “Pinochetistas” has doubled
“Team Patriota” is the name of Muñoz’s ultra-right-wing group, which is currently the loudest in articulating what many more people in Chile think: According to a survey by the opinion research institute Mori, the number of “Pinochetistas”, i.e. admirers of the dictator Pinochet, has increased over the past ten years doubled – from 18 to 36 percent. The torture, the disappearance of people and the murder of thousands of people are downplayed as a necessary evil. The dictatorship was glorified as a time of economic boom.
Marta Lagos, who heads the Mori Research Institute, believes that a lot of frustration has built up in recent years. Politicians have hardly found any solutions to urgent problems such as blatant social inequality and the privilege economy. Even the left-wing President Gabriel Boric, once a beacon of hope for change who also pushed forward human rights policy, has disappointed many – after scandals and mismanagement in his government. “The parties no longer have any legitimacy. People see the parties as “delinquents” – as criminals. People today think, oh, if we had someone with a tough hand who could create order and security, that would be great. That had Pinochet, so we want to have a Pinochet,” explains Lagos.
Trend across the continent
The fact that negationism is now part of the political business is not only evident in Chile: in Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, a dedicated admirer of the military, ruled for four years – after his election defeat, his supporters stormed the government district in January 2023 to prevent a communist dictatorship.
And even in Argentina, which is seen throughout the region as a role model for coming to terms with the crimes of a dictatorship, Javier Milei, a man whose ultra-right running mate demonstratively questions the politics of remembrance, could be elected president in October, the social scientist Pablo Stefanoni concludes: ” In Argentina, with the libertarian Javier Milei, an alternative new right has emerged for the first time, which is primarily fueled by general frustration with the economic situation and the government. A government whose flagship has always been human rights policy. I think that is now mixed “A lot. I think this negationism, just like the denial of climate change, is a prop for Milei to build up his right-wing front.”
Presidential candidate Javier Milei at a campaign event in La Plata/Argentina.
No break after the end of the dictatorship
Unlike Argentina, there was no real structural break in Brazil and Chile after the end of the dictatorship. The constitution of 1980, which was passed under Pinochet and left former elites in transition largely in power, still applies in Chile. One of the demands of the social protests in 2019 was to finally abolish them.
“We have influence on social media”
But a first draft for a new social contract failed in a referendum in October 2022 – the leader of the “Rechazo” campaign, the “No”, was the ultra-right influencer Francisco Muñoz at the time. “We have a lot of influence on social media, maybe not enough to win elections, but at least to prevent things that betray our homeland,” Muñoz said.
The right now has the majority in the Constitutional Council, which is drawing up the second draft of a new “Carta Magna”, i.e. a constitution. Above all, the Republicans under José Antonio Kast, an admirer of Pinochet, Bolsonaro and Trump, who is predicted to have the best prospects in the 2024 presidential elections.