Chileans Pay Homage to Allende on 48th Anniversary of the Coup

On Saturday, human rights activists took to the streets in Chile to recall ex-President Salvador Allende and victims of forced disappearances on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the coup that began a civil-military dictatorship (1973-1990).

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Activists walk to the General Cemetery to leave floral offerings and pay homage to the fallen during the dictatorship led by coup leader Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006).

Representatives from the Communist Party (PC), the Socialist Party (PS) and the Party for Democracy (PPD) held acts of commemoration for Allende at Morande 80 and at Constitution Square in front of the presidential palace "La Moneda."

"This is a date in which Chileans from the heart demand all truth, all justice because we believe that these situations should not be repeated in the country....there must be memory, reparation, all truth and all justice for that not to happen again," Communist Party member Samuel Navarro said.

The meme reads, “{Social processes are not stopped either with crimes or with force. History is ours and the peoples make it.}...Last words of Salvador Allende, 48 years ago, when a coup attacked democracy and ended his life. The Chilean people remember."

While these acts of remembrance for September 11 were taking place, Carabineros reported different clashes with demonstrators who were repressed with tear gas and water cannons.

"It is a painful September 11, because we are once again experiencing human rights violations, but also hopeful because Chile and the world are plagued with commemorations so that these violations will never happen again," the Chilean Association of the Detained and Disappeared President Lorena Pizarro stressed. 

It is estimated that over 35,000 people were victims of human rights violations, political and sexual violence during the dictatorship. At least 2,095 people were executed and the location of around 1,102 disappeared detainees has not been established.