Chile: Better Let It All Hang Out

Chileans must decide what is more important: short-term political stability or a thorough housecleaning of their horrific recent history.

All of South America’s revived democracies have struggled over whether to investigate the political killings and forced disappearances that occurred during their years of dictatorship. If President Patricio Aylwin zealously probes Chile’s years of terror, he will anger the still-strong military. But if he doesn’t, Chile will live in fear that its now-dormant terror apparatus can one day stage its own return.

Military strongman Augusto Pinochet, who last year lost Chile’s first election in two decades, refused to relinquish control of the security forces. He probably never intended to give up the presidency, but wrongly believed himself popular enough to win a plebiscite.

That left Aylwin free to get on with the business of democratic governance, to wit: changing Chile from the way Pinochet’s cohorts ran it. To date Aylwin has governed admirably, but continuing discoveries of mass graves dating from the 1973 military coup that brought Pinochet to power have revived the debate over rights versus tranquility.

As Chile’s neighbors held elections and transferred power from generals to civilians, each new government approached the risk of offending the military differently. Brazil’s legislators chose as their first civilian leader a man with strong military ties. Five years later, direct elections were held. Uruguay’s civilian leaders enraged citizens by pardoning the military. A dubious referendum was held, and the amnesty was upheld. Argentina had the most problems with its peacefully deposed generals: Earnest attempts to prosecute the heinous crimes of the Dirty War have sparked unsuccessful, but unsettling, coup attempts.

Aylwin should press ahead: It may not be possible to punish the Pinochet-era death squads, but the catharsis of setting the record straight could cleanse the national agenda and leave that industrious country free to pour its soul into the social reforms that will truly end Chile’s era of tyranny.