Santiago Part Dos

Santiago is big, and there is much to explore, so we set out on our second day to do just that.  Our first stop was to the west of our hostel, in a different direction than the way we had been the day before.  The architecture continued to vary greatly from block to block.

Nice, Euro-style building.  Almost castle like.

And... a less Euro-style building.  There are just as many of these, if not more.

Our first stop of the day was to get some culture at the (free) Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (or, for us gringos, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights).  The museum is dedicated to human rights abuses during the years of the Pinochet dictatorship, during which 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared", and over 100,000 were tortured or detained.  I didn't know much about this until we got here, other than a general idea that Pinochet = evil.  Of course, as always, it is a lot more complicated than that.  In particular, in Chile Pinochet doesn't = evil for everyone.

The Museum was stark from the outside, similar in some ways to the holocaust memorial in Berlin, and very interesting inside - despite the fact that only about 1/3 of the exhibits were in English so we had to piece together what the rest was all about.  Of particular note were the recordings of Salvador Allende in his final address to the nation - as the military coup was happening and the parliament was being shelled - and of Pinochet's introduction to his new government/dictatorship.

The museum is in the green part of the building that appears under construction (it's not).  The UN's universal declaration of human rights is imprinted on the right hand wall.

A Chilean guy contemplates the square filled with pictures from the Pinochet era (or, more likely, checks his email on his cell phone), including identification of victims from their remains, decades later.

[Note from Chad: what I learned is that Salvadore Allende won the presidency as a Marxist in the early 1970s, at the head of a left wing coalition.  Many working-class people in Chile were quite downtrodden, and he began trying to improve their lot, including through nationalizing many large resource corporations and making other changes.  However, the government overspent itself and the economy got into trouble with inflation, etc.  The country was split roughly between the working classes that welcomed changes, and more conservative upper/middle classes who didn't want to lose their wealth.  Pinochet, leader of the army, headed a well-organized coup with the cooperation of all branches of the military and national police force - tanks rolled into the streets and shelled the parliament, as did air force aircraft.  The president said he would not abandon his post, and shot himself before the army took over the building, rather than being tortured/killed or being forced into exile.  Allende's off-the-cuff last speech (subtitled along with a recording), over the telephone to one of the few radio stations not controlled by the army, while the parliament was under seige, is an amazing piece of oration and I can't believe how someone under that kind of pressure could be so eloquent.  This was September 11, 1973.  The speeches by Pinochet and the other coup leaders (navy, police, etc.) said that they felt bound to save the country from the terrible direction they were being taken by the communist president - and remember this was the height of the cold war.  In fact, it appears the CIA had an $8 million budget dedicated to destabilizing this duly elected government, such was their paranoia of the left at the time.  Many right-leaning citizens celebrated the coup by dancing in the streets and drinking champagne (being the class who could afford champagne) while their fellow citizens were being killed in the takeover.  The following year saw the regime's forces sweep through the entire country, capturing and killing any perceived opposition to the regime, mostly left wing political figures, trade unionists, etc.  Pinochet began a long period of austerity and economic reforms that lifted controls and allowed freer market access, which after about a decade bore fruit and resulted in a more robust economy.  But atrocities (including secret imprisonment, murder and torture, all outlined in the museum) continued regularly through a secret police force, and the country was tightly controlled by Pinochet until he stepped down in the late 1980s - but not before passing a law ensuring he was immune from any prosecution.  (Though it's hard to believe any "law" passed by decree, by a dictator without any official mandate from the people governed, could be considered legitimate in modern times.)  Apparently Chileans either love Pinochet or hate him; personally, I can't see how the means could possibly justify any ends.]

Afterwards, we took a stroll through a huge park across the street.  It was Saturday and there were many people out and about.

Most of these paddle boats looked like they could sink at any moment.

Chad is teaching me about science using these ancient looking satellite-dish thingy's outside the science museum.  [Note from Chad: parabolic sound reflectors!  Classic.]

A point of note is that Chile is full of dogs.  Some of them are pets, some of them are strays, the vast majority of them are really, really cute.  Sadly, none of them can be pet - our travel medical nurse tells us that we should act as if all of them have rabies, and it is readily apparent that most of them have fleas.  Their ubiquitous presence also means you always need to watch where you step, as the sidewalks are full of their waste.

This guy was wandering around like he owned the place.  So cute!  So potentially rabid!

Another fine example of colourful Santiago - just a little corner store.

Back at the hostel we tried another kind of Chilean beer as we did some travel planning.  Escuda is not as good as Cristal, but still better than our low benchmark (Turkish Efes).

More wandering in the evening, this time past the Moneda Palace where the 1973 coup took place, which is the official seat of Chilean government.  Beautifully lit up at night.

The oldest remaining building in Santiago, the church of San Francisco, from the 1700s.

As advertised in every guidebook I read, Santiago isn't the most exciting city in the world.  But it's a great introduction to Chile and a nice place to spend a few days.