The Chilean Protests – A Reality too Dystopian to Perceive.

October is the month of fright and wonder – of scary demons and killer clowns, of mystical princesses and evil dolls. October is adored just for this reason – it’s when all the scary movies are playing on TV – from classics like The Shining to box office hits like It. It’s when we can dress up in crazy costumes and collect free candy. The adrenaline spiking, heartbeat racing, goosebump-inducing feeling is one that many people crave.

But it’s November, you say, why are we still discussing horror?

October’s comforting horror fest may be over, but the world’s very real, very scary horrors, unfortunately, didn’t end with the passing of the sun, nor the flip of the calendar month. 

All around the world, at any given moment in time, atrocities of varying degrees are being committed. If all these acts of atrocities glowed in the dark, Earth would be one lit up a glowing sphere in space. Like anything that glows, the light emitted from the glowing object isn’t centralized – it spreads outwards, lighting up the hands that hold it, the faces that stare in awe. The very real atrocities occurring around the world tend to be centralized; however, the message can spread and increase in magnitude, and with enough dissemination of news and awareness, it can be witnessed around the world. Open up for a revolution, change, and justice. 

On October 24th, Gabi Mondaca, a doctoral student and representative of the collective Diaspora en Lucha, initiated a peaceful protest in solidarity with Chile, at the University of Windsor.

At a surface level, the Chilean protests arose from an increase in subway prices, however; the protesters’ slogan, “It’s not about 30 Pesos, It’s about 30 years!” highlights that there is so much more at play. 

 “Although 30 Pesos was the increase in the metro fare that sparked the movement,” explains Mondaca, “it is not what this movement is about. The slogan has been adapted to retrospectively reflect the historical reality to 46 years of oppression, rather than 30 years, marking the beginning of the dictatorship in 1973. This movement represents the fight against 46 years of Neoliberalism.”  

In order to understand the magnitude behind the Chilean Protests, you need to understand the dynamics that strung together this movement. From the first democratically elected Marxist President to the current Neo-Liberal president, to the breakdown of transparency and rise in dissent, to the recent spike in Metro prices leading to massive outbreaks of protests initiated by middle schoolers and an ever-increasing body count – it all began in 1970 when Salvador Allende was voted into office as president. 

Allende was the first-ever democratically voted Marxist president in the world: a feat in itself. It was heightened by the fact that this occurred during a period in time where many nations utilized revolutions to overthrow their governments. From leading aggregate reforms to promising a gallon of milk for every child and pregnant woman, Allende was a fresh, new representative. 

This did not last long. A strong opposer of Marxism was (and still is) the United States. After several attempts to discredit Allende and slander his character with propaganda, the CIA engineered a coup d’Etat in 1973 which saw Allende and his Marxist platform overthrown. Neo-Liberalism replaced Marxism as the new economic system, and again, Chile became the first Neo-Liberal country. See this as a sort of experiment of the CIA, to gauge how a Neo-Liberal country would fare. 

The country saw a progressive break-down of what once was a transparent government. A commando group of the Chilean police was created, called The Grupo de Operaciones Policiales Especiales (The GOPE). The GOPE, an elite branch of the militarized police trained outside of Chile, overtook Indigenous lands, establishing bases where tanks and military people patrolled the streets. This sparked the establishment of the Mapuche Land Defenders, a group dedicated to attaining autonomy for the Indigenous people. Of the Land Defenders group, Camilo Catrillanca was a prominent name. He was a weichafe (which is the Mapuche word for warrior) from the Temucuicui community. Married to an Indigenous woman, the father of a five year -old son, and expecting a daughter, Camilo was a strong fighter for the rights of the Mapuche people. To this day, the Mapuche have never received their land back, not even a treaty.

He was on his way home from work on November 14, 2018. Accompanying him was his 15-year-old cousin. At that exact time, a raid took place out of nowhere and during that raid, The GOPE shot Camilo in the back of the head twice and illegally arrested his 15-year-old cousin whom they beat and detained. Emergency vehicles were then systematically delayed – and Camilo succumbed to his injury. Tragically, this isn’t an isolated event – the Chilean state has targeted and murdered 15 Mapuche weichafe since 1990, and over a dozen Mapuches are held captive as political prisoners. 

When Camilo’s murder became public and the Chilean president Sebastián Piñera was forced to speak upon this, he reassured the country that he would investigate the issue and dismantle The GOPE. Not only did these promises not occur, but Piñera would also go on to falsify evidence by claiming that Go-Pro Cameras, that are a part of The GOPE’s uniforms, were not working – they had not been able to record the killing of Camilo. 

Later,  the same Go-Pro videos that Piñera has stated were non-existent were released – with The GOPE admitting they had recorded over the footage. With the evidence, Camilo’s death was now cold-blooded murder. 

“Chile is looked around the world as a democratic and stable country,” Gabi says, a perception disseminated by President Piñera’s televised comments made prior to Camilo’s death, claiming that Chile was a safe place to live in; an Oasis. “But it isn’t,” Gabi rejects, “You can’t go around and assassinate people who are defending their rights [in an Oasis]!” 

Trust deteriorated.

The inequality of Chile’s economy – the drastic income differences between the elite and the lower class is astonishing – an issue further aggravated by comments from José Ramón Valente Vias, the Economy Minister of Chile. He commented that since the Metro is cheaper in the morning, passengers ought to ride the metro in the mornings. A statement that undermines everything that Chileans have been fighting for and ignores the magnitude of the protestor’s slogan.

 Transportation is a vital necessity, thus the spike in Metro prices was the final straw that pushed people out of their comfort zones. Gave them the reason and a purpose to speak out against the injustice. 

It is astonishing that once again, Middle Schoolers were the driving force behind this massive movement. They used the age of Social media to their advantage to spread awareness. Organizing with the strong Worker’s Movement, collaborating with Professors and Indigenous people, a revolution sparked. Riders refused to pay for the subway, jumping turnstiles instead, each leap a statement of their passion. Over a million demonstrators gathered for this cause. 

Amazingly, President Piñera’s response to this was to declare a state of emergency, illegally enforcing The State Security Law for five days, claiming that Chile was facing a dangerous and powerful force – of which the government should fight back accordingly.

He declared war against his own people – for defending their rights – leading to streets being filled with tanks, soldiers, violence. Peaceful protests turned to bloodshed – innocent lives taken. 20 people have been killed since the start of the protest and 7000 have been arrested. Thousands have also been hospitalized – some with fatal injuries, others being left with the devastating effects of rubber bullet attacks – blindness or partial blindness being a prevalent issue. What’s more, many have been reported missing. Reports of rape by The GOPE have come forward amidst all this turmoil. 

To add fuel to the fire, Piñera refuses to have a dialogue with the people – refuses to listen to their demands. They demand he resign from his position as president, he answers by reshuffling the cabinet and firing members when, in reality, the only member the people want gone, is him. 

Unfortunately, many atrocities are blindsided by censorship, the spread of false information, and lack of awareness around the world, or, simply put, being deemed underwhelming compared to celebrity scandal counterparts. Whatsapp and other social media were blocked during this tremorous time curbing any communication from outside of Chile. Many news outlets reported false information in favour of President Piñera. 

The state is under curfew – the citizens are being controlled in every way – by what they do to what they can believe. Those who refuse to be controlled under the curfew are arrested promptly – many ending up dead in the fight. 

Becoming an advocate is what sparks the dissemination of true facts, which in turn can create a movement to bring about justice or change. We’ve seen it many times in the past – The Civil Rights Movement in America led by Martin King Luther Jr. with eight other activists, The Peace Protest led by Betty Williams in Ireland and hundreds of thousands more. 

In order to start a movement, knowledge of injustice must be disseminated. These past weeks, I have seen many countless magazines in store racks. 95% of them about celebrity issues – 5% about politics or other. None about global issues. As a first-world country with enough resources to ignite change, it’s preposterous that information about unrest in other countries is not made more accessible to citizens than Kim Kardashian’s divorce with Kanye. (Do NOT leave this article to go ‘google that real quick’!) 

 They say humans are inherently evil, which perfectly explains the hundreds of thousands of atrocities committed around the world. But according to Thomas Hobbs, they are also inherently good; a statement reinforced by the hundreds of thousands of peaceful protests and monumental movements that have caused change around the world. 

All it takes is one person to start. 

Fueled by a passion for justice.

An idea to form in their mind. 

An idea that leads one to plan and initiate two peaceful protests within the span of a week, create a social media presence with more than 300 posts, and reach out to local resources for dissemination of information. 

The force behind this is our very own Gabi Mondaca. In less than 24 hours, Gabi planned and held a Snap Solidarity Protest at the University of Windsor, in parallel with the popular movement in Chile, where a guest speaker from the Windsor Peace Coalition, Margaret Vilamizar, was present to deliver a speech.  

“We want a complete transformation of the Economic system, so we stand for Chile,” Gabi says. Present at the demonstration were students for whom it was their first time going to a protest. “This shows that as students of sociology and social justice, we are putting into practice what we are learning at the University of Windsor. We are engaging with the theoretical knowledge we are acquiring in our classes into practice. This is regarded as praxis. If we, as academics, along with other sectors of society do not step out of our comfort zones, we will never witness social justice changes. Academia has to be at the forefront of this struggle!”

Gabi urges students to use their voice, use their resources and technology, to make sure the news is getting out there and making connections with Canada. “We can’t have solidarity without contextualizing what’s going on in Canada as well, right?” she says, “as of right now, there are strong relations between Piñera and the Canadian government, when in fact Canada should be condemning what is going on in Chile.”

The stronger the awareness, the greater the chance for change. 

Join the Hashtag movement at Diaspora_En_Mucha on Instagram and let’s make this a thing!

One like, one follow, even one view can make a world of a difference collectively. 

After all, it’s not just 30 pesos on the line. 

• 2019
• chili