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by Dan Morgan / December 15th 2006

Teargas in Santiago

An eyewitness report on the attack by Chilean police on the thousands of people who gathered to celebrate the death of Pinochet.

When someone dies, there is usually some sadness, recognition of the loss of some human qualities, even in one’s enemies.  Not so in the case of Augusto Pinochet, a totally inhuman, ruthless and cynical dictator, where it is hard to find any positive human qualities.

That is why I, along with tens of thousands of Chileans, went to the centre of Santiago to celebrate his death.  What happened there has been misreported in almost all the media I have seen.  The crowd, in a carnival mood of celebration, had marched along the Alameda, the main street, to the part next to the Moneda presidential palace which is one block away across a fenced-off square.

I was standing within 100 yards of the square, among people standing, singing and chanting in celebration.  It is possible that a very few people next to the square tried to enter it, and struggled with the police guarding the place (although I had been there fifteen minutes before and saw no-one with their head covered, the usual sign that violence is planned).  It is equally likely that the police started to push back the crowd and use water cannon as a provocation, as I have seen several times in the past few years in Santiago.

The New York Times published this picture above the misleading caption: 'Demonstrators began pouring onto the main avenue in the center of Santiago after the news of Augusto Pinochet's death circulated. Confrontations broke out and the police used tear gas and water cannons'

Whatever, we saw several water cannon attacking the crowd and entering it from various directions.  Such was the feeling however, on this occasion the crowd did not disperse but stood there, chanting.  A few bottles of water were thrown at the water cannon in response.  Any other police force could easily have controlled the situation by arresting a few people, or simply by holding their line (not difficult with water cannon to help).

The Alameda where I stood, within 100 yards of this, was totally calm and the crowd stationary and good-natured, chanting that we would not be moved.

Suddenly a ‘skunk’, an armoured vehicle that shoots teargas, passed rapidly up the Alameda among us, shooting enormous quantities of disabling teargas.  Almost in panic, we all had to rush across the central reservation of the avenue, and seek refuge in side streets.  With lungs burning, eyes red and inflamed, we escaped with difficulty.  I saw a young woman who had collapsed being dragged along by two friends.

This was, purely and simply, a chemical attack on a totally peaceful crowd.  It was, I may say, typical of the Chilean police who seem to hate the sight of crowds in favour of justice, human rights, labour rights or other demands contrary to Pinochet’s legacy.

This legacy still runs deep in the forces of ‘law and order’, 16 years after the end of his dictatorship, but only 8 after he retired as Commander in Chief of the Army.
 
Dan Morgan, Santiago, 10 December 2006.