Why will Lula be in Chile in September?

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has accepted an invitation from his Chilean counterpart, Gabriel Boric, to participate in activities on September 11th commemorating the 50th anniversary of the military coup by dictator Augusto Pinochet against socialist President Salvador Allende, sources from both governments told Brasil 247. On that day in 1973, Pinochet led bombings against the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago. President Allende was inside and killed himself with his own weapon in the palace. The information was confirmed by Senator Isabel Allende, daughter of the former Chilean leader (who is a cousin of the writer of the same name), and by experts following investigations conducted in 2011 – almost 40 years after the coup that changed the course of the country's history.

 The images of the lined-up tanks, led by dictator Pinochet, on that September 11, 1973, marked Chile's trajectory with weapons and bombs. Testimonies from victims of that dictatorial period (1973-1990) can be seen at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago. The museum was inaugurated in 2010 by former socialist president Michelle Bachelet. I recommend a visit. Bachelet's father, General Alberto Bachelet, linked to Allende, was imprisoned and tortured by the regime and died at age 50 from a heart attack in prison. Alberto Bachelet was the target of attacks by former president Bolsonaro after she stated, in her capacity as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, that Brazil was losing "democratic space" in the face of innocent deaths at the hands of police. "We have seen a marked increase in police violence in 2019 amidst a public discourse that legitimizes summary executions (...)." Bolsonaro then stated that Chile "is not a Cuba only thanks to those who had the courage to put a stop to the left in 1973, among those communists his father, a brigadier at the time." 

 During the military dictatorship, Chile recorded 3.218 victims who disappeared or were murdered, and more than 38 cases of people tortured and imprisoned, according to truth commissions established in the country.

 Current President Gabriel Boric celebrated Lula's election. On his social media, he wrote: "Lula, Joy." And last January, during the anti-democratic attacks in Brasília, he also stated: "A condemnable attack against the Three Branches of the Brazilian State by Bolsonaro supporters. The Brazilian government has our full support in the face of this cowardly attack against democracy."

 Former student leader and former congressman, Boric, 37, was elected after widespread demonstrations in the country. The demonstrations called for greater social inclusion and a new constitution – the first in the democratic era since the one drafted under the Pinochet regime. During the democratic period, the Pinochet-era Magna Carta of 1980 underwent several reforms to try to eliminate what in Chile became known as "shackles" – constraints – that hindered the fluidity of democratic institutions. Last September, Chileans rejected (62% of those who voted) the text of the new constitution. It would have been the first born in the democratic era. Boric addressed the nation and said he understood the message from the ballot box and called for a coalition, involving the National Congress, for the creation of the new text. At the end of last year, after a political and party agreement, it was agreed that the drafting of the Charter would be done by an Advisory Council made up of 50 members elected by popular vote. This work will be done in conjunction with Congress and will be reviewed by legal experts. Chileans must return to the polls in November for a new plebiscite to say, once again, whether they approve or reject the new constitution. Overcoming Pinochet's legacy now depends on the power of the ballot box.