Baltasar Garzón: Open letter to the President of the Republic …

Mister President:

I am Baltasar Garzón, the Spanish judge who ordered the arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London on October 16, 1998.. I do not know him and I have not shown interest in doing so. Yes, I did it with all the other democratic presidents in your country, whom I love so much. It may be out of love for the Chilean people and for the defense of the victims, the original peoples and the most vulnerable that I have always defended, that I decided to lead this letter with indignation and sorrow for what is happening in Chile.

Mr President, it seems that Chileans and Chileans have said enough. And they say it loud and clear. It is a spontaneous social epidemic that is not led by any political party. A simple student demonstration against the rise of the metro ticket, severely repressed by the police, the Carabineros de Chile, was the detonator that ignited the rage and anger accumulated for nearly thirty years. They were the executors of a political measure ordered by their government.

Mr. Speaker, it will be with me that, Under the so-called economic miracle that many attribute to Pinochet, a model of development maintained by the Chilean transition and the ensuing democracy, hides the sad record of being one of the ten most unequal in the world., at the same level of Rwanda, according to the Gini index applied by the World Bank. It is true that there is development and wealth in the country, but only for a small political and economic elite. Similarly, Chile also has unbeatable macroeconomic figures, with steady growth for decades, but with gradual and steady impoverishment and indebtedness of the vast majority of citizens, who have reached their highest level of the year. according to the press and the Central Bank itself. . Mr. Speaker, your country also joined the rich countries' privileged club several years ago, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as a newly developed country with productivity levels. and high competitiveness. low wages for workers and almost total social protection.

As the supreme political body, be aware that the Constitution that currently governs Chile has been adopted in the midst of a military dictatorship., organizing a referendum that took place as Pinochet's leaders tortured, murdered and disappeared political opponents. This constitution has undergone several changes to allow the transition and then entry into democracy. It has been reformed many times over, but its spirit and orientation remain the same. There is no "social" and democratic rule of law, but a "liberal" or "neoliberal" or "subsidiary" rule of law. This implies that, with few exceptions, public services of the state are of poor quality, designed for people with very few resources or homeless people. Thus, anyone who wants to have access in proper conditions must engage them in the market. This is the case of education, health, pensions, transportation, etc. In fact, despite the efforts of some progressive governments, there is no welfare state. In neoliberal logic, the state must be small, as small as possible. If anyone wants to have access to quality services, he has to pay for them with his own resources., thus converting citizens into mere consumers of private services.

That is why, Mr President, in recent years the protests of secondary and university students, pensioners and workers demanding a living wage have been observed without their claims being duly satisfied. The discontent, the lack of expectations, the indifference of the authorities and their broken promises, as well as the corruption scandals of big companies, politicians, including the Army, of the Carabineros de Chile's own corps obviously did not show up. of yourself. You are accused of being illegally enriched under dictatorship and escaping property taxes for thirty years.. All this meant that a slight increase in the price of the subway was a drop that went beyond the glass, as well as a brutal and uncontrolled police crackdown on high school students.

Violence begets violence

You may not like it, but as president, you will face unprecedented social protest in democracy, and with the neoliberal heirs of Pinochet who currently govern the country, you have not find a better solution than to implement a strategy that you know very well: go to the military so that the military come out again to suppress the people.

Needless to say, violence breeds more violence, than it is impossible to fight the fire with gasoline, that with the army on the street, sooner or later there will be serious injuries and more deaths. The army is not ready to control public order, but to wage war, to bend the enemy or to destroy it. Whenever the army withdraws, even if it is "fighting" or "fighting" in a supposed war against crime, the situation only worsens. The crimes, looting and excesses do not stop, but they add to the violence of the state, which is exercised indiscriminately and is then concealed in the worst way to ensure impunity. But, Mr. Speaker, you and the government you lead are wrong about the goal: The people are not the enemy but the victim, and the people must be protected and not punished for exceptional measures.

"We have lost our fear!", Say Chileans and Chileans on social networks: "Chile is awake!" Is one of the slogans of this spontaneous social movement that is already beginning to s & # lt; 39; organize. "This is just beginning!", Say others. "We must go on!" Says a farmer, seeing how, in the face of the protests, the dry river flows yesterday after a major water company was unfairly seized by those who survive from agriculture.

For our part, we continue and will remain very attentive to what is happening in Chile. Be aware that human rights violations and crimes against the civilian population will not go unpunished this time because, besides the Chilean Procuratorate and the National Institute of Human Rights, there is universal jurisdiction, there is the International Criminal Court, the inter-American human rights system and a community international attention and vigilance, which will not allow Chile to repeat the horrors of the past.

Do not doubt, Mr. President, that We are not of the opinion of the Secretary General of the OAS, who attributes everything that happens in Latin America to Cuba, Venezuela, Rafael Correa, Lula da Silva, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner or to Alberto Fernández. and those who disagree with the neoliberal wave which, once again, with the patronage of the north, as in the 1970s, ravages the continent. This time, we will not be fooled or humiliated by those who want to once again overwhelm and put an end to the democratic resistance and the expression of the people.
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Former judge, member of the Latin American Council of Justice and Democracy.