“Today, as those before me have said, we commemorate a date that is painful and undoubtedly a turning point in our history, a shared history that brought death, suffering, persecution and poverty,” said the young president.
Boric reiterated his call not to relativize the coup and criticized those who insist that there was no other alternative, stating that “of course there was another alternative and tomorrow when we experience another crisis there will always be another alternative that implies more democracy.” and no less.”
The president’s words sounded like an allusion to the statement issued hours before the event by the Pinochet party Independent Democratic Union (UDI), where he stated that it was “something inevitable” due to the supposed “breakdown of democracy” carried out by the Allende Government.
The Chilean president stated that democracy must always be respected, regardless of “the color of a regime” and that what happened in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile “must hurt those that happened to them and those that did not happen to them, because at the same time At the end of the day we are a community, that is why the pain of other countries also hurts us.
Boric appreciated that together with living former presidents in Chile, the manifesto “For Democracy Always” was signed, since that “diversity among those who think differently is with whom we can build a better society,” he said, raising his voice after mentioning Sebastián Piñera and that boos will begin to be heard from the public.
Along these lines, Boric recalled the progress made in previous governments regarding missing detainees and assured that his Government intends to leave the National Plan for the Search for Truth and Justice as a legacy.
“It is the institutional milestone that we wanted to give to this commemoration,” said the authority.
Greetings from Alberto Fernández
Before taking the floor, Boric shared with the attendees a video with a message from the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, who apologized for the scheduling problems that prevented him from participating in the event and stated that the day of the coup d’état was also the day where “the tragedy began in Chile.”
“The authoritarian regime of (Augusto) Pinochet ended many, with the lives and tranquility of thousands of Chileans and served to make all of Latin America see in him a cruel dictator, who definitely did a lot of damage to Chilean democracy” , said Fernández, who regretted that “there are still voices that defend and remember that day” and expressed his concern that in Chile and Argentina “the anti-democratic gaze is once again surfacing.”
The leaders of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador; from Colombia, Gustavo Petro, from Bolivia, Luis Arce, from Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, and from Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
At 11:50 in the morning (the start time of the bombing of the Palacio de la Moneda) and after a minute of silence, the socialist senator Isabel Allende Bussidaughter of the former president and national guest to speak at the event, gave a story of her experience on that fateful day, when her father died, and noted that “memory is a first step to reaching the truth.”
For that reason, the socialist leader added, she subscribes to the motto “memory is democracy and the future.”
Allende criticized the opposition for trying to reverse the responsibilities of what happened 50 years ago and stated that “the real people responsible are those who broke the institutions, bombed this palace (La Moneda) and murdered thousands of Chileans.”
Estela de Carlotto: “Never again, that’s the word”
The Argentine president of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Carlotto’s Stelewas invited to open the event, where in the same vein she stated that “we must not stop remembering for a moment” about the events that occurred during the dictatorship and that both Chile and Latin America “have to continue with present democracy” in “memory, truth and justice.”
“Never again, that’s the word,” was the emblematic phrase that the Argentine leader chose to close her speech.
Prior to the event, while foreign presidents and special guests entered La Moneda, parliamentarians and supporters of leftist parties paid honor to the late President Salvador Allende as they passed through the historic door on 80 Morandé Street, one of the sides of the Palace.
Then they went to the statue of Allende in the Plaza de la Constitución, where with red carnations and raised fists they shouted “comrade Salvador Allende, present, today and always.”
Gabriel Boric Chile.jpg
Next to the statue of Allende, which has the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights behind it, There are floral arrangements with the flags of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and each guest who passes by salutes the ousted socialist president with a raised fist.
When the special guests and foreign presidents entered the citizen event in the Plaza de la Constitución, the biggest ovation went to former president Michelle Bachelet.
The second biggest applause was when the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, entered, who greeted the president with a hug. Bachelet, Isabel Allende and Baltasar Garzónall the guests and present gave a standing ovation.
Source: Ambito
