Chile: Struggle against a military dictator (1985-1988)
By Lester Kurtz
June 2009
Following General Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 accession to power in a bloody military coup, a movement in opposition to the dictatorship gained momentum over the next 15 years despite assassinations, torture, and the “disappearance” of over 3,000 political opponents and officials of the previous democratic government ...
A grassroots nonviolent movement mobilized during the years leading up to the 1988 plebiscite, organizing opposition especially within labor organizations, universities, and the church. Innovative strategic actions that showed the breadth of popular discontent empowered people to join the resistance movement. After nationwide mobilization of voters, poll watchers, and demonstrators, along with an effective use of the media, a popular “No” vote on the plebiscite defeated the Pinochet regime, forcing the general to step down from the presidency, although he remained in control of the military until his arrest in London in 1998 ...
Catholics and Protestants collaborated, along with the faith-based SERPAJ (Servicio Paz y Justicia [“In the Service of Peace and Justice”]), to support human rights work in the country, starting with the creation of a Committee of Cooperation for Peace, formed in October 1973 the month after the coup. When Pinochet dissolved the Committee of Cooperation for Peace, the Catholic Church organized the Vicaría de la Solidaridad that provided support for relatives of the disappeared and legal assistance to victims, soup kitchens and child-nutrition programs ...
President of the National Labor Congress Rudolfo Seguel inspired the first National Day of Protest on 11 May 1983 that made opposition to the regime more visible. Originally calling for a mine worker’s strike, it became clear to the organizers that such a protest would evoke a bloody response by the regime, especially after the government’s troops surrounded the mines. In an ingenious tactical move, the miners called instead for a nationwide, decentralized action for all Chileans who support them to walk and drive slowly, turn lights off and on at night, not buy anything or send children to school, and at 8pm in the evening bang pots and pans ...
Chile’s long democratic history prior to Pinochet facilitated the emergence of a “Vote No!” movement in a 1988 plebiscite in which voters rejected the military dictatorship, which led the way to presidential and legislative elections in 1989. Pinochet tried to retain his dictatorship, but was unable to do so because of high-level defections in the military. After the referendum results were in, Pinochet called in the junta leaders; one of them, General Fernando Matthei Aubel, admitted to journalists along the way that they had lost. As word of his statement spread, the opposition began to celebrate. Pinochet tried to impose martial law, but his own senior military official declined to cooperate; when given a protocol to sign that would have handed all power over to Pinochet, one general tore it up in front of him, throwing it on the floor ...
https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/chile-struggle-military-dictator-1985-1988/