CREN: NUESTRA VERDAD EN INGLÉS

Estimados:
Adjunto tengo el agrado de enviarles Nuestra Verdad en inglés, a fin de que puedan enviarla a todos sus amigos extranjeros que hablan ese idioma, con el objeto de ayudarnos en la sensibilización para lograr una verdadera justicia.
Atte.,
Pablo Gran


CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
THEME
Our Truth: Members of a Generation of Armed and Order Forces bear their Witness
ORIGIN
Crusade for National Reconciliation, 2 July, 2008
Analyzing the causes and effects of the pursuit to the Chilean military men, it is obvious that our society has a slanted and false vision about the facts – that were due to the reaction of the people against Marxist brutality - that motivated the intervention and behaviour of the Armed and Order Forces in 1973, leaving aside the responsibility of the State of Chile in both situations. It is in this respect that the historical context in which the military movement of 1973 is described, proving that it was a consequence of the cold war and of the strategies used by the several groups, with no military responsibility at all.
On setting up the conceptual frame of the military’s action, it is evident that it followed the doctrine established by the National Defense Policy, under a strict discipline and obedience to the State of Chile.
Considering the actions and motivations of those that were and, most regrettably, still are adversaries unable to eliminate the hatred inculcated by their ideology, it is clear that the real intention is to conceal the shame of their defeat and to separate the Armed Forces from the Chilean people, all this under the cloak of justice.
From a military point of view, the risks that the future entails for the peace of our nation are examined, a peace threatened by unwanted effects of globalization, the revival of revolutionary movements and the lack of a real State vision from our rulers in terms of allowing hatefulness and divisions among the Chilean citizens.
Finally, it is posed that the future of the nation depends once again on the capacity of politicians to timely understand and neutralize the weakened factors of peace, among which we find the coward situation that affects numerous retired Officers and Master Chief Petty Officers of the Armed and Order Forces, today prisoners of war in the concentration camps that the Concertación administration have set up for these Chilean citizens.
This document finishes by invoking the end to the great national discrepancy that has been active since the revolutionary decade of the 60s. It is also stated that the time has come for us Chileans, civilians and military, to recognize our own mistakes and gather the lessons of our own national history, not to trip over the same stone again.
A. INTRODUCTION
To briefly summarize the experiences of a landmark in our history, from the perspective of those of us who, at that time, were young members of the Armed and Order Forces, becomes a major challenge, particularly if the period in question coincides with one of the major crises of our recent history and for which we are now unjustly charged, resulting in the progressive imprisonment of a large number of armed forces comrades and the perpetuation of hatred that once divided the Chilean citizens.
1 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
We will allow ourselves an exposure of the events occurred before, during and after September 11, 1973, in an attempt to transmit to you the ordeals endured by those of us who, by 1973, were members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros. By then congratulated and cheered by our fellow citizens; today persecuted and offended by the indifference of the very same who praised us yesterday.
With the intention to establish the historical truth, today threatened by those who generated the conditions that forced the military intervention, this generation of CREN (Crusade for National Reconciliation) Chileans will bear witness before you, by no means excluding neither our seniors nor the youngest generation, to whom we profess permanent loyalty, specifically to those that, like us, were protagonists of History.
We will first try to extract the real reasons, responsibilities and consequences from the historical facts, of a conflict that the inexhaustible persistence of the adversary still keeps alive.
Secondly, in a succinct way, we will set forth the different forms of participation that our generation had in the said conflict and its constitutional and moral foundations, identifying those who were our adversaries and even today continue to insist. In doing so, we will reveal the real reasons of the animosity they conceal under the disguise of justice and human rights defense.
Well aware of the elements that shape a conflict, we will give a glance into the future in an attempt to demonstrate which are the threats that hover over the Chilean nation.
Finally, we will conclude with some reflections that –as a way of conclusion- let us submit to you a renewed vision regarding the unworthy situation that affects Soldiers, Sailors, Aviators and Carabineros from 1973, cowardly attacked by the revolutionaries from the past and unfairly deserted by an important part of the society, that once again turns its back on those that saved their life.
B. REAL REASONS BEHIND THE CONFLICT
The events that gave origin to our current situation go back to the years that followed the Second World war and the War of Korea; those days when the Cold Ward was beginning, and the world was deeply divided into East and West; when the big confronting blocks used to openly intervene in the political life of countries to dispute their ideological domain, treating them as pieces of a chessboard, where any procedure that served their purposes, was considered legitimate, no matter how immoral it was.
This great global conflict severely affected the political life of the American continent and of our nation; thus we became a battlefield where forces and strategies used by both blocks were confronted and ultimately dragging into the 1973 institutional crisis.
Both the Soviet Union and the USA, as leaders of antagonistic extremes, used their strategies to expand their domain worldwide. On the one hand, the Soviet Union used the revolutionary war, to which the USA raised the counterrevolutionay war. All that was not developed in their own territories but in countries where economic underdevelopment, the weaknesses of their government systems or the internal conflicts of any type were the best scenario to promote the establishment of a political regime allied to the interests of the sponsoring power.
The Socialist revolution used very different means from those used in a classic war, among
2 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
which were political resistance, subversion, guerrilla war, terrorism, and an absolute lack of human rights as conceived by their enemies whom they contemptuously called "bourgeois". In opposition, the counterrevolution used counterinsurgent and counter guerrilla operations. All this, in the middle of profuse intelligence and counterintelligence activity.
On the other hand and while the Soviet Union was rapidly advancing in their mass rebellion, subversion, and guerrilla campaign, the USA was concentrated in developing counterinsurgent and counterguerrilla operations. Thus, Special Forces known as "Green Berets" arose in the USA, constituted by highly specialized units, intended to advise and train military units of allied countries in their fight against subversion and guerrilla warfare, but also intended to support rebel forces in hostile countries, in order to organize, train, and direct the guerrilla war.
C. THE UNITED STATES IN LATIN AMERICA AND IN CHILE
Just as Moscow was creating Schools and Universities to train subversive leaders all over the world, the United States, having created in 1942 the Interamerican Defense Board (JID), organized in 1946 the School of the Americas in the Panama Canal Zone, in order to level up the military doctrines of Latin American countries and thus neutralize the increasing Soviet influence. In the following years, numerous Chilean Officers and Master Chief Petty Officers -our generation in particular- attended the School of the Americas where the theses of counterrevolutionary war were discussed. This even happened under Salvador Allende’s government, when the highest number of Chilean students attended the said School.
In 1947, two years in advance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Agreement (NATO), the United States subscribed the Interamerican Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (ITRA) integrated by most of the OAS country members and whose statutes established the commitment to jointly act against armed attack to any of country member.
In 1952, the governments of Chile and the USA signed a bilateral agreement that gave origin to the Pact of Military Aid (PMA), whose major influence materializes in 1960, while Kennedy's Alliance for Progress was in full cry. It is then that the transfer of combat material takes place, to reequip army vehicles, aircrafts and naval vessels, together with training consultancy and new combat tactics for the Chilean Armed Forces. This is when the specialty of Commandos and the Army’s Airborne and Special Forces School were established.
The Army’s former instruction methodology of Prussian origin, is replaced by the New Modality of Instruction (NMI), containing new approaches to combat techniques including topics such as management of prisoners of war, riot control, and others directly focused on counterinsurgency. An important number of American military move into the top floor of the Ministry of Defense, today the Armed Forces building, from where they provide Chilean institutions with their counsel.
D. STATE AND DOCTRINE
It is worthwhile wondering if those changes in the Armed Forces doctrine –something that today would be considered serious foreign intervention– might be exclusively attributed to the initiative of the military authorities of the time, considering that they the result of international treaties and agreements signed by the Executive Power and duly ratified by Congress; in other words, having not only the approval of the Government of Chile but fell within the National Defense Policy, and met the doctrinaire determination of armed institutions.
3 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
We were taught that the enemy now was also the one that acted against the Internal Security. We also learned that combat against this new type of enemy demanded new forms of confrontation, as was the case for the fight against the guerrilla war or combat against urban terrorism, where irregular forces are confronted, forces that wear no uniform or have a responsible authority in charge in whose case, if an enemy was captured, that enemy did not have the right to be treated as Prisoner of War. This is what we were taught and it is likewise considered by the Geneva Convention, created to humanize that which, like war, is naturally inhuman.
We also learnt -and later lived the experience- that of all the classifications of war there is none more cruel than Subversive War, that in which the adversary camouflages among population and attacks in a treacherous way, from between the shadows, choosing the time and place of aggression, and there are not enough forces to detect the thousand possible targets intended to provoke terror in the population and thus subdue their will to their own benefit.
This tough but real vision of internal war, never before considered by any Justice Court, forms part of the official documents that governed the military instruction of the Armed Forces of those times, such as the Bylaws and Primers of Military Instructions, Rules of Engagement for Troops, Rules of Commands, etc., all of them printed and published by the State of Chile, bearing the seal and coat of arms of the Ministry of Defense, under fully democratic administrations and much earlier than 1973.
Even more, if Chilean diplomacy documents of those years were revised, such as diplomatic notes and Ambassadors’ speeches delivered before multilateral organisms that stated Chile’s position within the developing global conflict, there is a perfect symmetry between Chile’s International Policy and the above stated Defense Policy.
Strictly speaking, the above mentioned defense policy was just an expressions of a State Policy that also resulted in a Foreign Policy. Of course none of the Ambassadors or diplomats of that time have been persecuted.
Then, we can assure that it was the State of Chile that incorporated a new behaviour for the Armed Forces, adapting its doctrine to face the new type of conflict being developed, in perfect correspondence with its Foreign Policy and with the counterrevolutionary strategy advocated by the United States.
That was the situation at the moment we initiated our military career, after receiving a solid and full instruction frameworked in the terms defined under the above National Defense Policy. You may now understand why we claim that nobody has the right to accuse us of inventing the concept of internal enemy on September 11, 1973 or having fought him. It was the State of Chile itself that, through its constitutional powers, conceived and endorsed the idea, from the 40s onwards.
In synthesis, we can categorically state that the Chilean military did not ask or created this strategic model, but it was imposed on us as a consequence of the policy devised and maintained for years by the State of Chile to confront the bipolar ideological fight that sprung up at the end of World War II.
4 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
E. PARADOX AND CONTRADICTIONS
Nevertheless, when least expected, this strategic model under full implementation in Chile, was confronted to a paradox rarely understood and assessed. This happened when the National Security doctrine of the State of Chile suddenly discovers with its conceptual enemies -the revolutionaries– had took over government in 1970 by popular vote and were leading the destinies of the same State that had once and clearly qualified them as enemies of the constitutional order.
Therefore, it is easy to imagine the big contradiction that the military leaders had to face when the subversive and paramilitary movements of late years, were now part of the government and the political resistance or insurgents changed sides and was exercised by the common population who resisted the imposition of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.
In the end, this paradox was cleared by the Popular Unity Government (Unidad Popular) by replacing its constitutional responsibilities by instructions coming from Moscow and Havana, in an unwise attempt to expedite the implementation of the socialist revolution in the “Chilean Style”.
All too soon it was demonstrated that they had no doubts of what was to come and the later facts proved that their intention was to assume total control, with fire and sword, just as publicly stated in the Congress of the Socialist Party, held in Chillán in 1967.
F. HUMAN RIGHTS AND LEGALITY
This was how we met that September day in which the Chilean nation -overwhelmed by the chaos and by the systematic violation of human rights– demanded from us the fulfillment of our pledge before God and the Flag. We eagerly accepting the mission assigned to us, in full exercise of our military duty and wholeheartedly respecting that part of the sacred oath that compels us to "obey with readiness and punctuality the orders of our Superiors … ", which is the only possible attitude of a real soldier in combat.
We will take a pause to express a fundamental concern in this respect. Today, when we see the Armed Forces submitted to enormous pressures to instill in our comrades the doctrine of respect for human rights and to fulfill orders set up in a framework full legality only, we wonder if it is possible so much previous reasoning in the middle of the action, without debilitating the psychological structure of the combatant.
Let us imagine for a moment a Seaman receiving the order from his Lieutenant to take by assault an enemy position from where fire is being shot and who, instead of having an almost instant reaction, stops to ponder on its legality or convenience. Even worse, let us imagine that Seaman evaluating the order received long enough for him to completely certain that executing that order will not cause him legal problems … .in say 20 or 30 years ahead.
God save our Armed Forces from such circumstance!; we might forget about state-of-the-art tanks, aircrafts or best equipped vessels, going to failure straight ahead which, in military terms, is only known as DEFEAT, for the moment a subordinate stops trusting the order received from his superior, the foundations of discipline cease to exist and therefore the synergy arising from it which allows unbalancing a combat situation in own benefit.
5 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
It is not a question of picturing an unreflective military who only sticks to orders, but its is unacceptable that the necessary practice of respect to human rights reaches the point of limiting the military action, making him hesitate before an order; otherwise, he would jeopardize the mission as well as the life of people.
We might analyze how both needs can interact better in the mind of a military, but we believe that responsibility must be left in the hands of the authority and never frighten the subordinate with eventual faults, since the person in charge has the obligation to keep control on the tasks performed by his subordinates, support him or rectify him, if necessary. That was our thought in our time and this is how we hope it will remain in our institutions for ever, in spite of the ill-intentioned actions of our adversaries and the naivety of others.
G. INEVITABLE INTERVENTION
While the supply shortage of and the misrule increased people’s discontent to unbearable levels, the paramilitary type of terrorist organizations, created a few years earlier, such as the MIR, the Vanguardia Organizada del Pueblo, the Movimiento Obrero Campesino, etc. gained public relevance, all of them organized, equipped and trained to impose the socialist revolution through violence, as established by their revolutionary doctrine.
In a parallel way, the government supporting forces including the Orgánicas Internacionales Soviéticas y Latinoamericana de la Solidaridad (Fidel Castro's OLAS) were organizing the popular fight in broad light, creating combat units, such as the industrial belts, intended to choke Santiago.
Abundant armament and explosives were smuggled into the national territory provoking no effective reaction on other State Powers who contemplatively observed how the Executive prepared actions for the "popular militia" or "new Armed Forces" conceived to substitute those they called "fascist" or "totalitarian" forces; that is, us.
In spite of our youth and non-participation at all in partisan politics, we believed that the Armed and Order Forces were firstly due to the State than to the present-day government that was leading it into destruction. This feeling was based on the fact that the constitutive elements of our State –Territory, Nation, and Sovereignty- were being systematically violated, through smuggling of illegal weapons and foreign instructors; the Chilean society increasingly divided; and the attempt to impose a foreign ideology against the sovereign will of the majority of the people.
While these events were taking place, our simple life of barracks was moving away from the one we had imagined, overwhelmed by doubt and immersed in increasing confusion and frustration, particularly when the authorities began to use our services in law and order tasks, as it was in the October 1972 strike. In this way, the government was separating us from our principal function and unintentionally, we were becoming familiar with a combat scenario of combat till then unknown to us.
At long last, in view that politicians were unable to control the escalating crisis, on May 26 1973, the Supreme Court of Justice and on August 22, 1973 the Chamber of Representatives finally issued a ruling, formally stating the illegality in which the Executive Power was operating, clearly demonstrating the irreversibility of the crisis, leaving military intervention as the only possible alternative.
6 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
H. INITIAL ACTIONS
When chaos was reaching unbearable levels, civil rights were harassed by the government and society cried for the intervention of the Armed Forces, we did not hesitate, on that unforgettable day, to follow our leaders when the citizenship hoisted our flags, threw flowers at us and waved handkerchiefs to express their happiness to see Chile, once again, free and sovereign, rescued from the yoke nearly imposed on us and from civil war.
We never had any intention to confront our own compatriots. As experts in History, we knew well enough how painful the 1891 Revolution had been, when a fratricidal fight confronted military heroes against each other after fighting together only ten years earlier, in the Pacific War.
In spite of it, the Marxist ideology, brutally contrary to our national values, constantly reminded us that those who confronted us were the State’s enemies, hence our enemies, whose insane criminal intentions we had scarcely anticipated. This inevitable feeling was solidly endorsed by the popular massive support from the citizenship, ratifying the confidence that we were acting by and for the State of Chile.
As subordinate personnel, we had to fulfill all kinds of tactical tasks, in order to shortly reach the control of the country, and as a result, reach a state of calm, preventing the adversary from materializing their threats of bloodshed resistance. As expected, military operations were developed under a strict disciplinary frame and the legality proper to a constitutional states of emergency that permitted the legitimate use of force.
From the first moment, the promulgation of bans ordering the immediate execution anyone carrying weapons and / or resisting the military actions was of public knowledge. Then, we wonder, what can be the value of an extemporaneous justice that today takes the liberty to pursue criminal liabilities from Officers and Master Chief Petty Officers of that time, for actions performed under the aforementioned parameters?
In this phase of the battle, the only way of acting was that we had been taught which demanded from us the use of weapons to break the enemy’s will to fight, which -in military terms– can only be reached by capturing or causing wounds to put the person out of combat, even if that means death, which today is viciously presented as murder.
I THE LONG IRREGULAR WAR
During the months and years to follow, some changes modified the way in which we wedged fight and we soon passed from an initial combat to a regular, typical condition of war whose main purpose was to consolidate the State of Law only recently regained. This stage included the necessary disarticulation and neutralization of those subversive groups that, heavily supported by foreign organizations, were active within the country. This arduous task was entrusted to the Armed and Order Forces and those specially created by the government such as Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA, National Information Center) and, later on, Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI, National Intelligence Directorate).
All these groups were of military nature and were run by both Officials and Master Chief Petty Officers from the Armed and Order Forces and among whom many of our generational peers can
7 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
be found and who had the most dangerous and least recognized mission in the battle for peace which was facing a vicious and relentless enemy who lay concealed among an innocent civil population in total contempt of the risks they exposed them to.
Towards the later years of the military government, the subversive fight took the shape of selective sabotage and targeted protests, a fact that compelled the Armed and Order Forces to incorporate especially organized and trained troops in order to reinforce their operations and better protect critical facilities while keeping riots under control.
Regardless of the type of unit we were called to join in those days, there was no position or destination susceptible of being accepted or refused of our own accord but they were the result of a formal and scheduled procedure whose eventual rejection would have meant a serious breach of military discipline and even treason against the nation considering the state of emergency the country was going through.
Under such scenario there is no plausible excuse to invoke the “criminal conspiracy” figure which is nowadays used to judicially attack those who –under performance of military duty- fought terrorism and subversion but today are described as plain citizens colluded to commit crimes. This condition, frequently resorted to by certain judges- is being conveniently reverted the moment a remediation claim is filed against the State of Chile in whose case the same military are recognized as “agents” of such State.
J. A MILITARY “MISSION”
We are in a position to determine that, in general, no member of the military acted on their own behalf and every action undertaken during that period or any type of action described was in the performance of military duty which, under our professional codes, means these missions were duly ordered by a Supreme Command, had a clear-cut goal and conformed to strict time and space limits.
And when the opposite did come to be judicially established, unpleasant though as it may be to recognize the occurrence of facts under these circumstances especially when viewed from a distant and different perspective, it becomes impossible to free institutions from their responsibility since, had the author acted on its own behalf, the military justice would have repressed his acts immediately. Moreover, his own life might have been at stake which was the case of two intelligence agents, convicted and executed, granted no amnesty, as the case has been for so many people in the history of our country.
K. THE SO-CALLED “EXCESSES”
Regarding the above, let us make a pause at this stage and take a look at the so called “excess” situations, a term that –though it might well be applied but to a handful of facts in which reason was obscured by passion and pressure- is used carelessly against Officials, Master Chief Petty Officers, militia, enlisted personnel and Carabineros who kept loyal and obedient to their orders of defending their threatened nation.
Even the blood actions which have come to be called “horrendous” were set in a scenario of hostility, psychological, and sometimes physical, stress. However this context does not turn them into criminal acts, undeserving of attenuating circumstances or prescription, particularly when
8 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
for more than thirty years memories have haunted the minds and consciences of those who were forced into those regrettable occurrences.
An aspect that cannot be disregarded is the fact that these “State agents” have never been proved to have participated in subsequent criminal acts as is the usual case of the so called “idealistic youngsters“ who embraced violence as their fight strategy and who, despite the guarantees provided by the “democratic” governments, make frequent appearances on the public stage as the plotters of assaults, kidnaps and other violent acts that once again have innocent people as their main victims.
L. EXTERNAL THREATS
In this turmoil of internal security, our generation was faced to two serious internal threats: in 1975 when our country had to cope with a tense impasse with our North neighboring countries, and later on with our Eastern neighbors when the threat of imminent war led us to the verge of a major conflict. In spite of the exhaustion caused by antipatriotic and subversive actions and thanks to the strong and cautious leadership exerted by our Armed and Order Forces, we were able to withstand and deter the imminent aggression on our borders and thus a major conflict that jeopardized our future development was fortunately stopped.
Once again we were called to our positions in the chain of command, this time with captains and sergeants, once Sublieutenants and Seamen, to share a special destiny with our superiors and subordinates while leaving behind our wives and children to go to the border and willing to surrender our lives for those fellow citizens that today turn their back on us.
M. BACK TO THE HEADQUARTERS
After long years of honest, daily contribution to the commitment of recovering and refunding the State of Chile, the Military Government came to an end and, though we knew the future would not be easy, we set our minds to return to the lifestyle we had dreamed of when we first joined our institutions.
With the ease of mind derived from the sense of accomplished duty, we accepted the possibility of being targets of revenge from an opponent we thought had been left behind. Wrongly enough, we thought political instances would be in charge of suppressing and neutralizing menaces and that the new administration would keep them under control and thus prevent that somebody’s vindication meant dignity for others.
Unfortunately, we made a mistake and since power was handed over to the Concertación parties we have witnessed and suffered relentless persecution where we are blamed for such absurd actions as described above and made responsible for a conflict that, as it will be proved, we were far from provoking.
The revengeful attitude of a few, in the face of a past we refuse to live again, finds no opposition in the careless weakness and indifference of others and our reputation is tampered with by those who would like to rekindle the remains of unity flame they have left.
N. OPPONENTS FROM YESTERDAY AND TODAY
9 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
Back in the 70s, the internal enemy, clearly defined by the National Defense Policy, was represented by those who, by means of political subversion, threatened constitutional order and stability. Nowadays, when faced against our will to an extension of the 1973 conflict, we may well declare our opponents fall under the following categories:
1. Effective victims –direct or indirect- of the antisubversive fight held during the Military Government and who only searched for vindication and revenge with the excuse of harm received.
2. Opportunistic politicians who were unharmed and even used tricks such as self-exile, today they wave the HHRR flag to gain popularity as well as the electoral benefits that their self-inflicted victim condition might provide them.
3. An important segment from the political and civilian world that, bearing their own share of responsibility either direct or indirect in the violence spectrum that unleashed the 1973 events, hides behind a mask of horrified criticism, ignoring their role in building History.
4. Another segment of citizens that, on account of their short age, did not live through the events but still supports anti-military campaigns and want to play the psycho-political manipulation game of revengeful groups.
5. Citizens who invoked the Armed Forces help, gave their support to the Military Government and pledged unconditional friendship to the Chilean militia –when convenient for them- and whose promise has fallen into oblivion and now their silence has helped persecute Army members.
Unfortunately, to the above an important segment of our society should be added corresponding to those that, exhibiting an amazing level of naivety, has been brainwashed by the Marxist propaganda and have made it possible for a undeniable historical truth to be turned into a series of false and biased facts they themselves had to live, share and suffer.
O. THE DEMONIZATION OF THE MILITARY
Considering the relentless campaign against the military for over 18 years, with no apparent sign of ever finishing, we invite the reader to identify, from among the existing evidences, the true reasons for this strategy based on hatred and vengeance. Firstly, let us take a look at the worldwide, continental and domestic consequences the 1973 defeat inflicted on the revolutionary movement.
Being Chile an exception to the general rule of assuming the Presidency, the entire world and America turned their attention on the so called “Chilean Model to Socialism” which so enthusiastically gained the support of both Soviets and Cubans but at the same time the curiosity and affinity of many countries from the so called “free world” specially from those that eventually became the cradle of “eurosocialism”.
The end of the revolutionary dream in Chile took place some time after Che Guevara’s failed attempts in Bolivia and preceded the disarticulation of guerrillas in Argentina and Tupamaros in Uruguay. These achievements added up to the counterrevolutionary fight started as a result of its errors, the inevitable reaction from the population that saw no way out and the ITRA influence.
10 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
Due to the fact the military performed an efficient initial operation, the UP leading figures were unable to materialize the resistance the way it had been promised which was financed, trained and provided by its Soviets and Cuban sponsors.
Thus the need arose to magnify the military actions as a way of concealing the embarrassment of the revolutionary leaders and a propaganda crusade was launched to depict Chile as a blood-drenched country where a “genocide” was taking place as in notorious episodes of world history. Unfortunately, soon enough this strategy gained an overwhelming support from the socialist world as well as from Western nations where many well known agitators draw sympathy and solidarity.
However, the defeat not only touched the 1973 facts but it was even more painful when Marxists encountered a military government that refounded the State and carried out such radical changes that brought our country into levels of development never before experienced and laid such strong foundations for economic growth that have outlived the passage of time.
But image of revolution had yet to receive another blow: the so called Dictator not only held voluntarily a plebiscite but –pursuant to the decision of a slim majority of Chilean citizens- also handed the government over to those who had defeated him in the polls to the amazement of the world community and embittered victory of renovated socialists.
According to the above, the damage caused by the military action was greater than usually admitted, a fact that forced Marxists to keep the “genocide” and “horrors” ideas as the only excuse to justify their inefficiency.
Force ideas such as “systematic violation of human rights”, “crimes against humanity”, “terrorism as State Policy”, etc. constitute the perfect tool to penetrate the minds of Chileans and foreigners, reinforcing the psychological campaign with the help of a State Policy that turns the “no forgiveness, no forgetting” statement into an official motto and perpetuates hatred and vengeance.
P. DEGRADING THE NATIONAL IDENTITY
At the same time that efforts were made to maintain the satanic image of Chilean military, the revolutionary strategy focused on destroying the strong bonds between the Armed and Order Forces and the Chilean citizenship, basically the sense of national pride associated to Chile’s military background. To achieve this goal they resorted to different strategies that could replace pride for shame and made abusive use of the media to disseminate the abominable behavior conduct allegedly sustained by the military. Other strategies were progressive erosion of values inherited from our most important heroes as a way of “humanizing” them and, through public exposure of pretended weaknesses, undermine their value as unique examples for present and future generations.
We wonder about the existence of a public or private institution that can handle the distortion inflicted on one of the fundamental values that embody the national power of any nation and thus promote national identity and pride. To this we should add the grotesque distortion of our national symbols, an attempt that seems to be focused on indicating we are subordinated to a “new State” created by them.
11 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
No doubt the heirs to the Marxist cause are but staging one of the tactics established by their revolutionary strategy in order to break one of the few strongholds our society still uses to resist the Gramscian degradation it has been forced to endure.
Q. SMALL JUSTICE
To the above action methods, another wrongdoing can be added which is the misuse of the Judiciary on the part of our adversaries; thus, from 1991 onwards, we can observe different segments embedded within the bodies in charge of judicial administration, save honorable exceptions, that exercise a most discriminatory conduct, and enforce judicial laws, treaties and principles at their own discretion when suing the military.
The singular and unfair vision of justice was launched during the first full-democracy government which managed to instate its own pool of court ministers and judges, skillfully maneuvering its control over the professional career of magistrates and the sectorial budget thus securing increasing subordination to their purposes.
Again we wonder how such situation can occur before the very eyes of those who have been entrusted to maintain the State of Law and a dumb society that just watches from the distance, in a kind of cynicism, bordering on immorality, which has allowed the coexistence of two types of justice: a persecuting and excluding type for the military and a permissive and indulgent type for criminals.
Though unverbalized, this model of justice is nothing but a new form of socialist revenge, clearly intended to deter any effort to reproduce similar facts in the future while deceiving themselves as well as the citizenship when concealing that the true reason of the past intervention were the foundations of National Security whose values will always remain on the heart and soul of a military who has a duty to his country.
R. NON RECIPROCAL GESTURE
Recently we learned, with a cynicism no longer surprising, of the stimulus to acknowledge the institutional responsibility on the blood actions occurred during the 1973 conflict, as a response to a misconceived “never again” commitment, accompanied by a humiliating indifference and the broken pledge to put an end to the persecution of military members. For this reason, nothing new, in form or content, was obtained to free the defendants from the responsibility for the actions included under that statement. On the very contrary, those in charge of the administration have used this unilateral acknowledgement to prove the actual existence of a State Policy that favored the violation of Human Rights.
Thus, based on the success achieved so far, our adversaries do not spare efforts or arrogance. However, History shows that abuse and infamy do not last for ever. This is why we appeal to the common sense that prevails in the best people of Chilean society and ask their support to put an end to this irrational vengeance which might seem to reap only more undesired hatred and revenge for our country.
On top of this odd way of justice administration, we find the complication which the 1973 military’s defense has faced which finds it origin in the ancient and noble tradition of Military Honor that would affront justice and prison before damaging the Armed and Order Forces.
12 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
S. A THREATENING FUTURE
Some years have gone by since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the world still keeps echoes from the past in the middle of new forms of conflict as recently stated by Nicolás Sarkozy, the French President, in identifying hyperterrorism and nuclear weapons proliferation as the main threats against world security –particularly for his country and Europe. He went on to qualify these threats and their response as of transnational characteristics.
Just entered the new century, a serious food crisis desolates the world, exacerbated by the high price of oil which increasingly encourages agricultural lands to change into producing biofuels. As in past periods, this dangerous combination of factors might lead the world to global-reaching effects which Chile could hardly escape.
As far as the continent is concerned, we can see the reemergence or relaunching of the revolutionary movements from the ’70s, this time headed by a new champion of socialism, though this time twice as treacherous due to the considerable economic resources that oil provides it with. Its main features are the antiamerican demagogy and the internationalization of its strategies, just like in the old times. But, where does this revolutionary revival stem from? All hints seem to focus on the discontent among most Latin American population who –once the socialist utopia vanished- has been unable to accomplish their goals on account of the ineptitude and corruption of the democratic governments that succeeded the military movements from the ’60s and ’70s.
In some Central and Latin American countries, this tricky neorevolutionary leadership has been able to gain important allies and threatens to continue to do so, openly confronting USA interests and jeopardizing the stability of the South American subcontinent. Chile might be a potential victim of this menace while the irresponsible attitude of some left-wing politicians exposes us all to the effects of this new fundamentalism.
T. A WASTE OF PEACE
In the meanwhile, we can see how in our country stability and progress, conquered through enormous sacrifice, inherited from the Military Government are being squandered by an ideological revival and the exhaustion of political forces. Uprising corruption as well as the absence of effective actions from those who should fight it have made people lose their interest and respect for contingent politics thus generating a non-participation attitude which might lead us anywhere.
Increasing street violence brings about mutual accusations between judges and legislators who blame each other for their degree of responsibility in the lack of effective justice to stop the insecure living conditions in Chile.
The long-dormant mapuche conflict has suddenly regained life thanks to international agitators and a few heirs to the Socialist revolution who somehow managed to escalate a situation that –devoid of any State vision and electorally focused- has been turned into a time bomb in terms of allowing a gap to open between mapuches and the Chilean people whom they helped in its formation. This conflict has dragged other indigenous peoples into serious dissociation which hopefully will not result into ethnic enclaves within our territory.
13 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
To the above potential conflict-triggering factors, other situations should be added such as the wrong way the energetic issue has been managed where the short-term vision of the last years has looked over the solution to this strategic aspect, essential to the economic growth and national security.
Finally, we find that, through persecution of the military –used as an obstinate dissociating action- the enemy has managed to keep alive an internal conflict the country does not need nor deserves.
Reinforcing the above, the highest State authorities spare no efforts in perpetuating the division between Chileans by promoting the creation of the “Route of Torture”, the “Institute of Human Rights”, the “Museum of Human Rights”, etc., etc., securing and breeding the seed to new hatred in the near future.
U. FINAL REFLEXIONS
No one has looked into the future but looking back on History can help us prevent making the same mistakes that drove us to conflict and that might as well take us to a new one in the future.
Having this purpose in mind, we reviewed the historical context in which the 1973 took place and we were able to prove that –though triggered by people’s reaction against Marxist brutality- this conflict arose as a consequence of both the Cold War’s extension and the strategies employed by the two sides, in which the military bear no responsibility at all.
In depicting the conceptual scenario in which our actions took place, we were able to demonstrate that our actions were set up in the doctrine established by the National Defense Policy, under a strict framework of discipline and its corollary: Due Obedience to the State of Chile.
In exploring together the different types of action and the motivations of our past and present adversaries, we hope we successfully managed to reveal that their true goals are to conceal the shame inflicted by their own defeat and to separate the Armed and Order Forces from the Chilean people, both of them under the disguise of pursuit of justice.
From our military viewpoint, we invite you to analyze the potential risks that might jeopardize our peace as a nation, threatened by the negative effects of globalization, the upheaval of revolutionary movements and the total lack of a real State vision from our authorities in favoring animosity and division among Chileans.
Once again, our future as a country depends on our politicians and their ability to understand and neutralize the underminers of peace among which is the reason to convene here and that affects a number of comrades in arms. Today, they are held prisoners of war in the concentration camps the Concertación administration have set up especially for this segment of Chilean citizens.
We entrust our faith and hope in the future to the intellectual ability and common sense of our elites; we invoke their patriotic collaboration in finally unveiling and exposing the truth and thus correct one of the worst iniquities ever committed in our country. This is why we request full and definitive solution.
14 de 18
CRUSADE FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
www.cren.cl
As CREN people we commit our efforts to carry on all the necessary actions towards national reconciliation, unity of all Chileans, and the release of those unfairly imprisoned. To achieve this, we invite you to raise this issue in the national debate, especially in the academic and judicial arena on the certainty that the analysis of it, in a quiet and reflexive climate will create the necessary foundations to stop the indignity that both the 1973 military and their families have been submitted to.
When we are two years from the Bicentennial, it is painful to realize that unless we act with the haste of a renewed patriotism, history might repeat itself, just as in the very beginnings of our Republican life, an ungrateful society turning its back on its soldiers. This was the case of General O’Higgins at the end of his foundational task; the Forgotten Battalions towards the end of the Pacific War; with the fratricidal confrontation they were sent to during the 1891 revolution; and, today, the indignity and abuse that the 1973 Armed and Order Forces have had to endure.
Considering the above reasons, we believe time has come to put an end to the national discrepancy stemmed as far back as the revolutionary ‘60s because our country must join an increasingly unsafe and risky world before it runs the risk of disappearing as a frustrated State that never came to be.
Time has come for us Chileans, military and civilians, to admit our mistakes and learn the lessons from our own History not to trip over the same stone.
We will continue to be the 1973 military till the day we die. We feel the deep conviction that we did what we had to do to defend the State of Chile, its institutions, intermediate organizations, and its families. In spite of ungratefulness and injustice, we are willing to forgive and continue to defend the whole of the Chilean Society. We pledge that -with the same faith in God that inspired the old crusaders- we will continue to fight this patriotic war until a real national reconciliation defeats the hatred and animosity endured by those whose only reason to live is to defend their country.
Santiago de Chile, July 4th, 2008
15 de 18