 A friendly welcome to a desperate topic, Dabino Mellum visited friends in South America in Chile and experienced in a situation that has not been put to media in Europe in that scale. The fight for the fight of the Chilean people for dignity and justice. She eyewitnessed the uprising in Santiago de Chile and I wish you give her a warm welcome. Thank you very much. My name is Sabina Mellum and I will talk about Chile. Chile Despeto. Chile's awakening has been the slogan of the protests in Chile. To understand what is happening there we have to take a look at the past and here we see on the banner of a protester in Santiago in Plaza Italia which was renamed by the demonstrators in Plaza de la Dignidad, Place of Dignity. We see the picture of Salvador Allende and there's written Venceremos. We will win. In 1970 Salvador Allende was elected as the first socialist president in Chile. Allende and his unity of political parties, the unidad popular, planned to reform the country. They want to nationalize the carpent industry which belongs to American companies, nationalize the banks and do a land reform. The USA sees Allende as a threat and fears the rise of a second Cuba. Then Secretary of State Kissinger says, I don't see why we stand by and watch a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people. The Nixon administration provides the right-wing elite in Chile with a lot of money and help by the CIA. On September 11, 1973 the military led by General Augusto Pinochet launches a coup d'etat against Allende and his unidad popular. The military bombs the presidential palace La Moneda and Salvador Allende who refuses to resign as elected president died in the flames. By the way, I highly recommend everybody to listen or to read the last speech of Allende, which is a great speech and also very political. The soccer stadium in Santiago becomes a concentration camp of torture and death. The very beloved singer Victor Rara is murdered there. Thousands of people are killed by the military. Others disappear. The so-called lost death are parasitos. Prisoners whose fates are unknown. According to the concept of the American economist Milton Friedman and with the help of a group of his students, Chilean students, the so-called Chicago boys, the dictator Augusto Pinochet begins a radical privatization of the country. More or less everything is privatized. And Jaime Guzman, the dictator's intellectual right-wing consultant, changes the constitution in a way that the concept of radical neoliberalism is deeply embedded in it. Though Chile is celebrated as an economic miracle, the truth is that very few people get richer and richer while the middle class gets poorer and become slaves of the banks. In 1988, a referendum finishes the dictatorship of Pinochet and the transition to a democracy takes place. But the neoliberal constitution is not changed and it is in use until today. Today in Chile, everything has been privatized, even the water. This affects the health system, the education system and the pensions. Public schools are in bad shape, such as the public health system. People die being on waiting lists for essential surgeries. Others are drowning in debt to try to pay for medical costs. The pension fund AFP is privatized and nearly all Chileans are forced to pay into it. Exceptions are the military and the carabineros de Chile, the police. These organizations have their own much better systems. On October 18, 2019, a group of young high school kids jump over the turnstile in the metro station in Santiago. It is an act of civil disobedience and a protest against a fair increase of 30 pesos. But the protest does not limit itself to the fair increase. It spreads quickly to include the entire neoliberal system as the root of Chile's extreme social inequality. The demonstrations begin with the slogan, no son 30 pesos, son 30 años. It is not 30 pesos, it is 30 years. All of a sudden, the whole country seemed to be protesting in the streets with cazarolas that is beating pots and pans and honking car horns. You have to imagine that as an incredible noise, Santiago was really, really noisy with these cazarolas. Here we see the Plaza de la Dignidad, place of dignity, the new name for Plaza Italia. Plaza Italia or Plaza de la Dignidad is located in the center of Santiago. And here you see the monument of General Bacchedano, which the demonstrators tried to tear down and they were not capable of that. So they changed it daily. This photo shows also the slogan of the protesters, renuncia piniera, resign piniera. Piniera, whose nickname is piranha, is the right wing president of the country. And his eye is falling out here on the banner. And that refers to the brutality of the police, who shoots out the eyes of demonstrators. The movement gets bigger and bigger. And the president, Sebastian Piniera, holds a speech in which he declares war against his own people. As Tamos and Guerra, we are at war. And he sends out the military in the streets. He probably thought this would be a good idea because it worked so well in 1973. And my guess is he thought this would intimidate the Chilean people. Well, the opposite happened. On 25th of October, nearly 2 million people were peacefully demonstrating in the streets of Santiago. With the slogan, no tenemos miedo, we have no fear. And a symbol of the protest became the Mapuche flag, which you see here on this picture. The Mapuche flag has this sun in the middle and the Mapuche are indigenous people who live in the south of Chile and are persecuted by the Chilean government according to anti-terrorist laws. And the conflict is about land and, I mean, who owns the land and who can use the natural resources. Here we see demonstrators playing at the monument of General Bacchadano. In Santiago, this monument became the epic center of the protests. And there were musical bands playing. And this one played songs by Victor Hara. Victor Hara, the one who was the singer who was murdered in the soccer stadium. And his song, El Direcho de Vivir and Paz, The Right to Live in Peace, became one of the hymns of the movement. Here we see a demonstrator. You see he has the Mapuche flag and wears glasses as protection against the tear gas. And he wears a mask, which says, yo apuebo, I consent. And this refers to the demand of the demonstrators for a new constitution. Because the new constitution and the creation of a new constitution is a key element for the demonstrators. And with the creation of a new constitution, they mean a constitution which is free from neoliberal elements. Many Chileans demand a basic change in the system, the right for living life in dignity. This old man has a sign which says, gracias, valiente juventud. Thank you courageous young people. At the end of a long working career, people have ridiculously low pensions. Very often around 200,000, 250,000 pesos. That is something about 200 or 300 euros. And you have to know, Chile has very high life costs. So it is not much cheaper than Germany. I saw the slogan of a demonstrator who said, I have more fear of my retirement than I have of the cops. As a consequence, Chile has a high rate of old people who commit suicide because they can't make a living. And you see also many old people in the streets who sell little things. Just forget by. Very soon the artists joined the protest. Here we see street art. And this shows the very popular singer, Mon La Fert. Mon La Fert is well known in Latin America. And this picture refers to a situation in November 2019 when she won at the Latin American Grammys award. And she walked bare breasted on the red carpet. And on her naked breast is written in Chile. They torture, rape and kill in Chile. And this street art poster is a reference to that. The whole protest has been organized through social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. There are hashtags on Twitter, for example, like Chile Desperado, Chile's Awakening, or Renoncia Peniera, Resine Peniera, and they are filled with information about the protests. The official media in Chile, such as the TV, does not report about the movement. If they report at all, it surely is in a criminalizing and discriminating way. The answer to the protest from President Peniera is, first, his answer was to send out the military in the street, which I already told you, and then he sends out the police. The Carabineros de Chile. The Carabineros de Chile is a highly militarized police force. Here, you see them using tear gas. The tear gas is very often employed with chemicals. And when I was there in November and in February and March, it was often mixed with caustic sodium hydroxide. That is the stuff if you get hit by the tear gas, your eyes burn like crazy. You start coughing. Sometimes you can't breathe anymore and your skin gets burned. By the way, this picture was taken more or less right in front of my hostel. My hostel was located in the so-called zona zero, the ground zone, where nearly daily protests were happening and where still protests are happening. And here they are, the Carabineros de Chile, nicknamed Pacos. They are hated by the people. I saw situations where there was, for example, not at a protest, but a normal street situation and a police car was driving by and all of a sudden, the whole street started screaming assassinos, murderers. And so far, more than 40 people died in these protests. More than 460 people have lost one or both eyes. They fire bullets directly at the faces of the demonstrators from a very short distance. Well-known in Chile is the case of the then, a year ago, 21-year-old psychology student Gustavo Gartica, whose eyes were shot out in November 2019. His bad luck was that he's tall and so he was a target for the cops. And he was, when one cop shot first one and then the other eye out, he was taking pictures. Amnesty International is right now doing a campaign asking justice for Gustavo Gartica. Another case which happened recently was a 16-year-old kid, a demonstrator, that happened in the beginning of October 2020. And this kid was violently pushed by a cop, head first seven meters down from the Pionono Bridge into the Mapacho River. And he barely survived. Here you see the night scene, the green light are laser pointers. The demonstrators tried to block the view by using the green laser pointers and trying to prevent the cops from firing bullets. At night, the attacks of the police were much more brutal and aggressive. And my guess is they thought that the night, the dark night would protect them because the demonstrators always make films. They film police, they film police attacks, they film whenever police is there, you can see people standing with their cell phones and filming that. And so many of the abuses of the state of the police are well documented. I think it's interesting to remember that right now in France, President Macron wants to prohibit the filming of police actions during demonstrations. Street art in Santiago. This art refers to the violence of the cops. This is a collage. The pacos come from a photo. The woman is taken from, I think it was a French artist, I'm not sure. And this refers also to cases of sexual violence and rape at police centers. Here we see a lady, a neighbor lady who helps the protesters and provides them with bio carbonate spray for the throat and the eyes. And there was a little line, people were standing in line for getting her help. This picture, street art, shows what the Chileans call a social explosion in one picture. You see in the left corner, up in the left corner, you see the people who lost their eyes, the bleeding eyes. In the right corner, you see three blindfolded women dancing. These women are from the performance, a rapist in your way. This is a performance by the group, Lastesis from Valparaiso. And they created this performance as an accuse against sexual violence and the whole patriarchal system. And within few weeks, it became a viral hit worldwide. And all over the world, women did and do this performance. For instance, in New York, they did it in front of the Harvey Weinstein trial. You see also in the picture, you see the fear of the people, you see a paco firing, and you see a black dog in the middle. And this black dog is called El Neco Matapacos, the black cop killer. And this was a real street dog who lived in Santiago and accompanied, I think it was in 2011, the then happening protest of college kids who were fighting for a better education. And this stray dog was always fighting with them in the front line and attacking the police. And of course, the kids loved him for that and named him El Neco Matapacos, the black cop killer. This dog died in 2017, a natural death, and has become one of the great icons of the Istayido social. You see pictures of him everywhere and many Chileans identify with him. A reaction to the repression of the state was the creation of the Primera línea, the front liners. And this is street art and shows a front liner couple. You see the man with a gas mask and Primera línea is written on his breast and the woman is holding like she is holding a drink, but it's a mullet of cocktail. And the Primera línea, the front liners, fight directly against the police and stand in their way and enable the other protesters to make their demonstration. So you have to have a big peaceful demonstration in Plaza de la Dignidad with live music, with theatra, with carnival and there's a picaccio and there's a clown and there's a crocodile. And from time to time, frogs of tear gas are coming and that's the Primera línea fighting against the cops and makes the demonstration happen. The other important volunteers are the Brigadas de la Salud that are volunteers from the healthcare sector who provide first aid to the injured demonstrators. The women play a key role in the protest and I personally think this would not be possible without the women. Here we see a young girl and she's obviously very mad and she is masked with a green bandana and this green bandana is the symbol for the fight for the right of abortion. Abortion is in most Latin American countries illegal and the women are fighting for a legal and a safe abortion. On the poster is written The repressive state is a macho rapist and that is a line directly taken from lastesis on violador and to camino. Here we see a young college girl in her school uniform and she got badly hit by a bullet. Her blood is dripping down her leg. There is written And when I was there in November in Santiago, the carabineros de Chile made an announcement that they would only use rubber bullets which of course nobody believed. And I think it was the Universidad de Santiago they made a research and the result was that the bullets the carabineros de Chile use are made out 80% of metal and only 20% out of rubber. This picture was taken on Plaza de la Dignidad on a Sunday afternoon in March and it was a car rally that showed up demanding a new constitution. And there were lots of cars with flags and honking and they were driving around the Plaza and the young lady is dressed in the Mapuche flag and street art again. This is the classical motif of the Madonna in a very unlikely way. This Madonna is in Capuchada she's masked and by the way that was I think it was in November when the government did forbid it. And this Madonna also has a baby in her arm but this baby is a Paco baby. You see it wears a little it wears a Paco uniform and instead of nursing it she puts spikes in it. On her left hand is written a cup all cops are bastards. On her right arm you can see the negro Matapacus the black cop killer. And yeah personally this is one of my favorite street art posters. This young lady was out in the streets in front of my hostel fighting in the Primera Linea. I took the picture in the yard of the hostel and I had been out before like she was I took pictures outside when I was badly hit by tear gas and couldn't see anything more was coughing like crazy and stumbled to the safety of my hostel. My hostel was surrounded by a big metallic fence and I knew that I would be safe there and she was following me and in the yard we both got treated with bio carbonate spray and after we both got better we prepared for going out again and that is when I took the picture. She wears on a right arm a green bandana the symbol for the fight for the right of abortion and she is in Capuchada and she where she holds a rock in her hand and here he is a negro Matapacus that's how he looked the black cop killer one of the biggest icons of the movement and a symbol for freedom and fighting. This is a movement without leadership. This movement organizes itself through social media so when you go to a demonstration nobody holds a speech which I personally found very refreshing. A movement without leadership but is also hard to deal with for the government because you can corrupt leaders you can bribe them you can kill them but what do you do with the movement which doesn't have any leaders only icons like a dog so here he is a negro Matapacus. This is my last picture for today and here you see the stray dogs in Santiago and in the middle of course el negro Matapacus the black cop killer. The writing says yo apuebo I consent which refers to the referendum about the change to a new constitution. That referendum should have taken place in April 2020 but was postponed because of corona on October 25th in 2020 78% of the Chilean people voted for a change of the constitution and nearly the same number voted that this change should be made by elected citizens and not by politicians. This was a great victory. They say Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism and it will and it will be also it's great. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you to the CCC team for giving me the possibility to talk. Thank you to my friend Jali here who helps me with the technique and thanks to my husband who was deeply scared to let me go and to let me travel alone to Chile but let me go and a big big big gracias Santiago Manuel who worked with me to many demonstrations despite his bad knee and to Claudia who is giving everything for teaching me the difficulties and problems of Spanish grammar. Thank you very much and I hope we have some time for some questions. Well it seems that your talk has stunned the audience. No questions. Which I understand. So far just occurred one question the name of the dog but you mentioned it after it so Negromaca Paco will be remembered. What I would find interesting is to hear a little bit about your you how did you come to visit South America? You didn't go there out of out of reasons that you are a riot terrorist tourist. No no no no no no no no. I had been to Chile before several times and I had taken their Spanish courses. I wanted to study Spanish and I wanted to see South America and if you travel in South America you have to speak Spanish without Spanish I think it's not possible and I was booked for November 4th for four weeks in Santiago in 2019 when the protest what they call El Estajito Social the social explosion began and I was not sure what to do because I had I had read enough about the Chilean police to know yeah that they are capable of everything so my Chilean friends said don't come it's way too dangerous and well but I was curious I have to say I was curious I wanted to see what was going on and it was also clear it would be a historical moment. What I didn't do and what what was probably smart I didn't bring my good camera I have a good camera and I had seen before enough films how the police especially attacked people with cameras because they thought they were journalists yeah and so I thought it's too dangerous to show up there with a camera when I what I didn't what what was not clear to me was that it was really a war zone when I arrived after an 18-long hour flight from Santiago in Santiago and when the taxi drivers heard where I wanted to go they said immediately that's in the zona zero we will not bring you so it took me half an hour to persuade a taxi driver to bring me to my hostel yeah that's how it started and in the hostel I felt safe but out being outside was difficult it was difficult I several times police came to me and said stop taking pictures and of course in that moment I there's those moments I stopped taking pictures but yeah it was always it was difficult but on the other side the whole city of Santiago all the walls were sprayed with graffiti and all the walls were telling the story of Chile and I have never seen such a thing in my life so much art I've never seen it was a little bit like being in a museum yeah in a museum of contemporary art there was so much life and so many artists it yeah so that was the other side but of course it was it was difficult and the thing that annoys me a little bit is that I think that they are not there they are very sorry why is it going away there are very few good documentaries about Chile there are very few good articles about Chile for those who have access to the media take of the german french tv art I highly recommend to look in the and that media take the languages are german and french and there you find some very good documentaries about Chile so we have one question just come in somebody would be interested in what the current situation or momentum of the demonstrations are well the current situation is that one thing is that the movement tries to get out their prisoners there are many people are well arrested and it's not always very logical who got arrested or not yeah I'm not sure what's the right amount now but many we I think we're talking about about a thousand people 2000 I don't know many and that is one of the demands the other demand is justice because the the government so far did not take any responsibility for the action of its police so these are the demands in April will be a new referendum another referendum and then the Chilean people have to vote the they are called constituents that are the citizens who will write the constitution so this whole process is going on it is not over yeah the the referendum was 78 percent voted for a new constitution was a big victory but this is not the end there is a very small rich elite who I'm not sure whether they understand the situation in Chile the ex-health minister in the corona crisis he said I did I didn't have any idea how much poverty is in Chile and I think that was a very honest sentence so the middle class who is so much indebted the middle class who are slaves of the banks I think that they are very much through with the system and they want a change so it's widespread poverty yeah and the and it's the middle class yeah who is the the the so-called lumpen the ghetto the kids from the ghetto that are people where nobody cares but the middle class is the other people who are who who get poorer and poorer and the interesting thing is that on the streets are the kids from the ghetto and the middle class together yeah otherwise you would not have nearly two million people protesting like in october 2019 in the streets how many chileans are there in santiago i think it's seven eight millions and in the whole country 16 millions maybe 16 yeah oh what i didn't say but it's clear the protests are also in other streets yeah it's not only santiago yeah also in other in other cities there's another question from the irc do you feel that the protest could spread in neighboring countries in other countries in neighboring countries yeah i think so i think that the protest in peru where they where they recently um got rid of their of their um of their president that that was influenced by by chile's protest yes absolutely absolutely other latin american countries yeah encouraging yeah yeah yeah yeah encouraging and and i think and that's also and also and uh for me it was an interesting thing to to see that in 1970 when salvador allende and his unidad popular they wanted really another system a new system a socialist system but a free socialist system not not a not a soviet satellite system and um this this uh it seemed like the dictatorship of pinocchi had erased all this all these ideas they had and in this ester hito social you see that this that there's a cultural memory that this is everything is there yeah and the the fact that songs like el derecho de vivir en paz or this song um el pueblo unido jamás será vencido the united people will never be defeated which was which is a song from the times of the unidad popular that they are so so popular now shows that the cultural memory um of the the ideas of allende and is still there and it's it is also no coincidence that the only politician i saw at banners was salvador allende yeah and all the other politicians also do not go with was a very few exceptions don't go to the demonstrations and they better do not because the people are mad at them yeah they don't feel represented by them yeah i think that's a very nice closing quote thank you very much for the talk thank you thank you very much