Bloody eye sockets, defaced statues: the visual legacy of Chile's unrest

[Judi Lynn]

Camilo Vergara

Tue 25 Feb 2020 06.00 ESTLast modified on Tue 25 Feb 2020 08.06 EST

I arrived in Santiago in December of 2019, two months after the start of mass protests that have rocked the nation’s largest cities. The unexpected burst of anger and violence has left much of the country bitter and uncertain about its identity and future.

Unlike other photographers whose main interest has been crowds of protesters, I have photographed the cumulative effects of the events: the diversity of graphic expressions, damage, makeshift repairs, and the armoring of doors and windows of commercial establishments with steel plates and plywood in the urban centers of the 11 cities and towns that I visited.

The downtowns I documented were chaotic and in disarray. I saw a cathedral’s front covered with tin. Sealed department stores welcomed people to shop by entering though tiny openings surrounded by signs saying “abierto”. Empty pedestals and defaced statues were pervasive.

Monuments such as the statue in Concepción of Pedro de Valdivia, the first royal governor of Chile, have been toppled and are waiting to be repaired or discarded, while many others have been almost completely graffitied over. The protesters are selective, however; statues honoring a voluntary fireman in Valparaíso and Santiago have been spared.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/25/chile-photographs-protest-statues-graffiti

[NoDakLinda]

1. Another fake coup d'tat

Charles Horman was an American journalist and documentary filmmaker. He was murdered in Chile in the days following the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. Horman's death was the subject of the 1982 Costa-Gavras film Missing.

Frank Teruggi, Jr. was an American student, journalist, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World, from Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the victims of General Augusto Pinochet's military shortly after the September 11, 1973 Pinochet coup d'état against Socialist President Salvador Allende.

These two American supporters of President Allende were killed in Chile during a savage military coup that led to the death of a president, and more than 3,000 political opponents were assassinated or “disappeared.

The US supported Allende's opponents in Chile during his presidency, CIA and White House cover-up obscured American involvement, in the Chilean coup of 1973, Augusto Pinochet rise to power, and the murder and overthrowing of President Allende.

I think there is a book and a movie about the coup and murder of Charles Horman it was the subject of the 1982 Costa-Gavras film Missing,

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Interesting that a population such as Chile can grasp the

basis of inequality, but most Americans can't.