Above Photo: Resumen Latinoamericano, translation North America bureau
They have not been able to cope with this stubborn and brave people who for four months have not only gone out into the squares by the thousands but have also changed their names to beautiful words like “Dignity” and “Revolution”. It has torn down monuments of conquerors and traitors who were their disciples, it has suffered wounds in the eyes of many young people who had opened them up to look at their enemies, it has added thousands of rebels to the prisons and it has become furious with pain for their comrades murdered by those criminals in uniform, supporters of Pinochet, who are the Chilean carabineros.
But the evidence shows that this dictator named Piñera and his group of ministers and buffoons are increasingly surrounded by the anger of those who despise them for becoming ruthless and corrupt figures in a system that is falling apart and that in order to avoid the fall he is capable of resorting to killing these people in a thousand ways. By hunger, by misery or by a clean shot.
The same goes for that right or left bourgeoisie. The former because, like Piñera, they are “murderers like Pinochet,” and the latter because they were the main supporters of capitalist and repressive governments (against the Mapuche people, the students, and the workers) during the government of Lagos or Bachelet. They are the same ones who now agreed with Piñera on a constituent plebiscite that is empty of content, and not the one that those who fight day by day on the front lines against oppression want. Even if they make this lie effective, everything indicates that they are condemned to failure, since the rebellion is difficult to stop.
Four months are not a few months to continue fighting the repressive madness of the police, even though some ominous people continue to announce, like crows, that “it will soon be over”. They were wrong and they will be wrong again. Chile woke up and all the fears were lost. What sense would it make to renounce the freedom that the streets give to thousands of young people singing, dancing, fighting and responding to whoever asks them, that they are doing it for “dignity”. But also for the other one, for the old people with low pensions, for the 3,000 prisoners of today, who are very similar to those imprisoned by the Pinochet dictatorship in the Stadium. For Commander Ramiro, buried alive in a prison of terror, and for Mauricio Fredes or the Neko Mora of the Colo Colo fans, who died because of the terrorist carabineros repression. And without a doubt, for Víctor Jara, of whom they sing some of their emblematic songs in the middle of the barricade in the Alameda, just as they enjoy the feisty coherence of the rapper Anita Tijoux or the Bersuit, who this Friday will play from the balconies of radio Plaza de la Dignidad.
All these stories and experiences incarnated in a wonderful youth were installed again this Tuesday in the Santiago Square, in Valparaiso, Antofagasta and other protestant spaces. As always, the repression believed that it was dispersing them, intoxicating the air with its poison, but in their cowardice, they do not understand that this Revolt is unstoppable and by reoccupying their trenches again, with smiles, improvised rhythms, pots and pans and drums, they are showing the world that four months are nothing. What’s more, they serve to forebode that March is coming with great strength.