Chile Today

Juana Ramirez and Gladis Araya, visiting Ireland form Chile, in conversation with Madge Carberry of LASC’s Chile Desk.

Juana Ramirez , who was formerly a member of a religious congregation, dedicates her spare time to accompanying the families of political prisoners and also the families of those who were executed for political reasons by the military dictatorship. Juana outlined for Enlace some of her current preoccupations regarding the abuse of human rights being experienced in Chile.

"On the one hand we have the impunity of the criminals of the Pinochet dictatorship. On the other, we have the detention of young people (pobladores) involved in the continuing social struggle. These young people are being held in the high security prison where they are not allowed visitors or a proper legal defence.

"There are a number of Chilean people detained in Peru where they have been charged with treason and given life sentences. These people have little or no possibility of visits from their families and friends due to the cost of travel. In these cases we are soliciting repatriation through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that they can complete their sentences in their own country, this would also allow their families the opportunity to visit them. So for there has been no response from the Chilean government.

"There are women political prisoners who live under constant threat and endure terrible punishment. They have great difficulty communicating with the outside world. The present Government has shown no sense of justice or humanity towards any of the Chilean political prisoners, either in Chile itself or in Peru and Brazil."

Gladis Araya is a member of an interdisciplinary team offering alternative education to children with learning difficulties. Gladis believes that the Chile on display to the world today does not reflect the reality experienced by the majority of the Chilean people. The present neoliberal economic model permits Chile to show itself as the ‘tiger economy’ of Latin America with the corresponding signs of development. This is not the true picture.

"In Chile today the basic rights of health, education and housing exist only for a minority. These rights are protected for the 9% who are the rich and for another 11% made up by the military, the rest of the population remains on the margins.

Working people cannot afford to cover the cost of even basic medical attention. I know a woman from ‘La Bandera’ in Santiago, called Antonia Tarife–o. Antonia has cancer and we have had to organize a number of solidarity events in order to allow Antonia receive the chemotherapy she needs. This treatment cost 2,500,000 pesos (some £4,000), while her husband earns 100,000 pesos per month (about £170) with which they can hardly make ends meet for themselves and bring up their two children. This is just one example of what the situation is like for a majority of the working class in Chile.

"Education is the area I work in, especially with children of the ‘poblaciones’ who have learning difficulties. Under the state system parents would have to pay 60,000 pesos per month (about £100) for the extra their child needs, this is on top of what they already pay for education. As you can imagine even if they were earning £170 a month like the family I mentioned already, this would be impossible and the child would be pushed to the margins of the education system. Such children run the danger of ending up as drug addicts and delinquents.

"The housing situation follows the same pattern. At present the minimum wage in Chile is 65,000 pesos ( about £110) a month. Out of this a family has to save 14,000 pesos a month for 18 months before they become eligible for the housing schemes. From the remaining 50,000 ( about £80) they have to pay rent, water and light bills, feed clothe and educate their families. You can imagine how difficult that is."

Asked what we can do here in Ireland, Gladis had three tasks for us:

"The challenge for all of us is to continue to unmask the lie, the swindle, the hypocrisy of the neoliberal system. To directly support the alternative projects which show a different way of organising, and to accuse the Chilean Government of weakness in the face of impunity and the unjust treatment of political detainees."

The Chile Desk can be contacted at LASC at 01-6760435.