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Article Excerpt
Abstract
Military regimes throughout Latin America used a variety of tactics to instill terror in the population. In the case of Chile, the military dictatorship used torture, assassination, disappearance, exile and relegacion, or internal exile, in its quest to weaken social movements and control social and economic processes. This article will discuss the effects of relegacion on the families and communities that the relegados left behind, drawing on human rights literature and interviews of persons in the Santiago shantytown of La Pincoya.
Resume
Les regimes militaires partout en Amerique latine ont employe toute une variete de tactiques pour semer la terreur au sein de la population. Dans le cas du Chili, la dictature militaire eut recours a la torture, l'assassinat, la disparition, l'exil et le "relegacion", ou exil interne, dans ses efforts pour affaiblir les mouvements sociaux et controler les processus sociaux et economiques. Cet article discuteta des effets du "relegacion" sur les familles et les communautes que les "relegados" laisserent derriere eux, en se basant sur la litterature traitant des droits de l'homme et sur des entrevues avec des gens du bidonville de La Pincoya a Santiago.
Introduction
During the twentieth century, human rights violations and political violence ran rampant in Latin America, as in other parts of the world. (1) The political violence unleashed by military regimes throughout Latin America led to immense and profound suffering throughout the continent. The military regimes used horrifically brutal techniques to subjugate those whom they considered subversive, or just to instill profound fear and insecurity in the population. These techniques included all forms of torture, mass detentions and arrests, exile, assassination, disappearance, arbitrary search and seizure operations, and internal exile, also known as relegacion. Poor neighbourhoods and rural peasant communities were especially affected and afflicted by these practices. Life was disrupted, families were torn apart, and whole neighbourhoods and communities were physically and psychologically destroyed. Such was the situation in Chile.
This article will specifically address how the human rights violation of relegacion in Chile affected families and the social fabric of communities. Relegacion, or internal exile, was the practice used by the military regime in Chile of sending someone, usually a well-known community leader, to a remote part of the country, effectively cutting her/him off from their natural systems of support. At the same rime, relegacion left many opposition organizations without their leaders, thereby weakening the opposition to the Pinochet regime.
The topic of relegacion has not been widely studied and there are scarce references in the literature to relegacion. This article will attempt, using information gathered in intensive interviews in the Chilean shantytown (poblacion) of La Pincoya, to contribute to the literature to understand the effects of relegacion. A number of key leaders in La Pincoya were subjected to relegacion during the military regime. Their neighbours and family members remember the personal and communal loss this relegacion had on the community and its organizations.
Review of the Literature
And there they were, numbed in their millennial and captivating pain. They were there, inclined, dangling in an invisible net of suspended time. I approached them. I wanted to speak with them, but what could I ask them? How could I comfort them? By what right could I enter lives sealed by political violence? How to ask then what it means to be the mother of a disappeared? Of a political prisoner? Why should 1 see them cry? (2)
The above quotation from noted Chilean author Marjorie Agosin captures the essence of the consequences of human rights abuses across systems levels. "Dangling in an invisible net of suspended time" is how many people discuss the effects of relegacion; they felt that while their loved one or neighbour was internally exiled, life was on hold. In La Pincoya many feel that the advancements of their neighbourhood were brutally and violently truncated by the military coup on 11 September, 1973, and with that they feel like they are stuck in time, that their lives are sealed by political violence. The regime of Augusto Pinochet "attempted to desarticular (3) the former society" (4) and erase its former social and economic achievements, including those achievements of the residents of La Pincoya. A variety of methods were used by the Pinochet regime to desarticular the community, including the human rights violation of relegacion.
There are a number of ways to conceptualize the legacy of human rights violations.> These include addressing the issue from the perspective of trauma and examining the literatures of trauma and disaster." Another way to conceptualize this issue is to examine literature that relates to psychological effects including self-concept and the way an individual conceives of her or himself. (7) Grief and guilt are a third way to examine this phenomenon. (8) A fourth way to conceptualize this area is to look at the loss of community ties and social capital that one may experience after a trauma. (9) And a fifth perspective is that of examining the survivors' ongoing participation in society. The focus of this study is informed by all of these perspectives, with a special emphasis on collective action and community involvement, particularly with an eye on how communities demonstrated resiliency despite the incredibly harsh conditions under which they lived. Much research and writing have been done examining how human rights violations might affect an individual's functioning; however, the literature is sparse when looking at community in the...
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