Allende

 Officials in Chile exhumed Salvador Allende’s body in an attempt to discover the truth about his death. If it is found out that Allende was murdered the impact of such a revelation would be tremendous, it would change the political and social landscape of  Chile. For people who have studied the coup and the mystery surrounding the events of September 11 1973 such news would not be a surprise. Chile is still a nation coming to grips with the coup and the military dictatorship that followed, the wounds are not healed and the revelation that Allende was murdered would bring up more issues and perhaps more divisions. For many countries in Latin America that underwent military coups and dictatorships it has been a struggle to reconcile with the past. In nations like Argentina, Uruguay, and El Salvador the military personnel have been given amnesty from being persecuted for human rights violations seemingly in an attempt to appease these powerful institutions. In Chile the process has been difficult to persecute military and government officials because of laws that Pinochet put in place on top of making himself a “senator for life.”

  There is no question that if it comes to light with certainty that Allende was indeed
murdered the problem remains as to what would happen next? Would there be a thorough
non-partisan investigation just to find out the facts or would there be a formal criminal
investigation where the purpose would be to find the guilty party and bring them to
justice. With the last option it would open out a huge set of problems because there
would be many people involved not just the person who fired the gun. Finally, would the
Chilean people actually want this? Do they want to continue to relive the pain; do they
want to know the truth, even if it may change they perspective.

 Chile has been going through a process of reconciliation and remembrance as a way to
deal with the Pinochet era. By looking at Chile and other cases in Latin America we come to see how socieities deal with the past especially in the era of human rights. Hopefully the investigation into Allende's death can provide some answers but we will see how Chileans respond.

Central America

Troubling news came out of the news cycle concerning El Salvador. Reportedly some soldiers were caught trying to sell grenades to gang members, there seems to be a troubling continuum in the uptake of violence in the gang crisis gripping Central America of which this is an example. This region has seen decades of civil war, strife, violence, but why? Why is this region (in particular Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua) so punished to a never ending cycle of violence? I will try not to generalize with the rest of Latin America but it is certainly important to point out some threads that reach through history into our current times.
  Inequality is certain a large part of the equation. From the start the Spaniards came to conquer and take the wealth of the Americas, they created very unequal systems of rule which was very hierarchical and static. Land was monopolized in the hands of a few and the majority of the population (mostly of mixed race, indigenous, and African) were violently suppressed. Even after they gained independence these systems of rule remained largely intact. Revolutions were attempted by the masses and a few in the middle class people but were suppressed by the militaries. Some basic structures of democratic institutions like voting were put in place but were seen as largely illegitimate by the masses because they were corrupted by the elites. The 1980's saw the outbreak of civil wars except in Honduras but civil strife still bubbled, in Nicaragua the rebels succeeded in overthrowing a dictatorship but they had to contend with a war by the U.S backed contra. El Salvador and Guatemala went through years of civil war that saw tens of thousands of lives killed. These nations are still contending with their histories and issues yet to be resolved.
 When we read or hear stories of the shocking brutality occurring in Central America we have to remember the context and the histories through which these nations have struggled to over come.