Luz Arce And Pinochet S Chile

Since the demise of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1990, collaboration and complicity - both in the torture chamber and civil society - have been taboo topics not only for the Chilean left but also for society at large. By revisiting the experience of Luz Arce Sandoval - a leftist militant turned collaborator with Pinochet's secret police - Luz Arce and Pinochet's Chile raises urgent political and ethical questions about how nations carry out unspeakable violence in the name of "progress" and "democracy." Juxtaposing interviews, legal documents, and academic analysis, this book probes the personal and collective dimensions of torture, collaborationism, truth, justice, reconciliation, and memory, issues that resonate in Latin America and beyond.

Luz Arce's testimonial offers the harrowing story of the abuse she suffered and witnessed as a survivor of detention camps, such as the infamous Villa Grimaldi.

Boldly breaks new ground in studies of Latin American postdictatorial memories by tackling a taboo topic--civilian complicity with the Pinochet regime--that Chilean society has strategically avoided.

Since the fall of General Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship (1973-1990), Chilean society has shied away from the taboo subject of civilian complicity, preferring to pursue convictions of military perpetrators. But the torture, murders, deportations, and disappearances of tens of thousands of people in Chile were not carried out by the military alone; it required a vast civilian network of support. Some actively participated in the regime's massive violations of human rights for personal gain or from a sense of patriotic duty. Others supported Pinochet's neoliberal economic program while ignoring the crimes of that era. Michael J. Lazzara boldly argues that today's Chile is a product of both complicity and complacency. Combining historical analysis with deft literary, political, and cultural critique, he scrutinizes the post-Pinochet rationalizations made by politicians, artists, intellectuals, bystanders, former revolutionaries-turned-neoliberals, and common citizens. He looks beyond victims and perpetrators to unveil the ambiguous, ethically vexed realms of memory and experience that authoritarian regimes inevitably generate.

Since the demise of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1990, collaboration and complicity - both in the torture chamber and civil society - have been taboo topics not only for the Chilean left but also for society at large. By revisiting the experience of Luz Arce Sandoval - a leftist militant turned collaborator with Pinochet's secret police - Luz Arce and Pinochet's Chile raises urgent political and ethical questions about how nations carry out unspeakable violence in the name of "progress" and "democracy." Juxtaposing interviews, legal documents, and academic analysis, this book probes the personal and collective dimensions of torture, collaborationism, truth, justice, reconciliation, and memory, issues that resonate in Latin America and beyond.

" Il fallait collaborer avec la Dina ou mourir. Moi, je voulais vivre. " Arrêtée en 1974 pour avoir poursuivi ses activités de militante socialiste après le coup d'État qui renversa le gouvernement de Salvador Allende, torturée, violée, menacée de représailles contre sa famille, Luz Arce est placée devant une alternative impossible. Il s'agit de sauver sa vie en envoyant les autres en enfer. Elle choisit de vivre et sa vie devient un enfer. L'ancienne membre de la garde rapprochée d'Allende se voit contrainte de trahir ses anciens amis et de travailler pour la tristement célèbre Dina, la police politique de Pinochet. Si elle parvient à quitter cette organisation en 1980, il faudra plus de dix ans à Luz Arce pour trouver la force de raconter son histoire. Depuis, ses nombreuses dépositions auprès des tribunaux ont joué un rôle déterminant dans l'inculpation de plusieurs hauts responsables de la police chilienne. L'intérêt de ce témoignage dépasse largement le cadre du Chili et de son histoire. Par-delà la violence des régimes totalitaires, il révèle une face cachée de la condition humaine.

A gripping account of daily life as a political prisoner by a former Chilean cabinet minister, offering personal insight into the political climate and historical events of 1970s Chile under military dictator Augusto Pinochet.

When she is captured and tortured by agents of the Chilean repression during the darkest years of the Pinochet dictatorship, Lorena, a leftist militant, must either forsake the allegiances of motherhood or betray the political ideals to which she is deeply committed. 5,000 first printing.