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Political opposition accuses Piñera administration of whitewashing Chile’s history.
Chile’s government has decided to replace the term “dictatorship” with “military regime” in the nation’s school curriculum, referring to the brutal 17-year rule of right-wing Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). The measure, approved by the Executive, applies to school children between first and sixth grade.
Political opposition accuses Piñera administration of whitewashing Chile’s history.
Newly-appointed Education Minister Harald Beyer expressed his support for the decision, made by the National Education Council (CNDE) on Dec. 9 and brought to media attention by Chilean daily digital El Dinamo on Wednesday.
Yet the change in terminology has been strongly criticized by left-wing opposition members and the general public as a way to re-write the nation’s troubled history.
Sen. Jaime Quintana, president of the Senate’s Education Commission, called the decision “an aberration.”
Sen. Isabel Allende, daughter of President Salvador Allende, who was overthrown and took his life during Pinochet’s 1973 military coup, was quick to add her condemnation.
“It goes against all common sense, because the whole world knows that for 17 years what we had in Chile was a ferocious dictatorship with the most serious violations of human rights,” she said.
“It is important that future generations do not make the same mistakes,” she added.
More than 3,000 Chileans were “disappeared” or executed, and nearly 40,000 more were tortured, during the Pinochet regime, according to Chile’s National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture Report.
President Sebastián Piñera is Chile’s first conservative leader since the country’s return to democracy in 1990.
Critics have pointed to the destination of the change -- textbooks and lesson plans for primary school children -- as a sign that the right-wing government is trying to veritably rewrite the dictatorship out of Chilean history.
Piñera’s political coalition and majority in parliament, moreover, depend in large part on the right-wing Independent Democratic Union (UDI), which supported Gen. Augusto Pinochet and was founded by one of his top advisors.
Harald Beyer, who began his time in office on Dec. 29 after the decision was made, defended the decision to use “a more general term,” saying that “it is about using the same expression that is used around the world.”
Loreto Fontaine from the National Coordination Unit of the Ministry of Education said the change signified a desire “to teach thinking” above all else and encourage discussion and debate. Ultimately, Fontaine told press, the issue is “not serious.”
The proposal itself seeks “to compare different views on the breakdown of democracy in Chile, the military regime and the recovery of democracy in the late twentieth century” and be able to consider “the different actors, experiences and points of view and the current consensus regarding the value of democracy.”
Minister Beyer supported his colleague’s statements and said the decision was purely “an invitation to debate.” He said teachers could still use the term “dictatorship” in their classrooms.
The minister added that he personally “had no problem” in recognizing the period from the 1973 to 1990 as a “dictatorial government.”
Attempts to quell fallout have failed to calm public outrage, however, as the Pinochet dictatorship is still a raw memory in the country’s collective consciousness.
Social media networks erupted in response, with comments on Twitter ranging from accusations that the government was “provoking the people” to others who considered the change to be “futile” in the age of the internet.
As former President Eduardo Frei, who governed Chile from 1994-2000, put it: “History cannot be changed by a decree or a law.”
“Chile is still a very sensitive country,” Fernando Araya, a 30-year-old graphic designer from Santiago, told The Santiago Times. “The scars of the dictatorship are still present, and having a right-wing government in power for the first time, the country is more divided than ever.”
“It’s not good for Chile, it’s not good for coming generations, it’s not good governance and above all, it's not good for people who suffered under the dictatorship,” Araya concluded.
By Olivia Crellin (editor@santiagotimes.cl)
Copyright 2011 – The Santiago Times
Chile’s government has decided to replace the term “dictatorship” with “military regime” in the nation’s school curriculum, referring to the brutal 17-year rule of right-wing Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). The measure, approved by the Executive, applies to school children between first and sixth grade.
Political opposition accuses Piñera administration of whitewashing Chile’s history.
Newly-appointed Education Minister Harald Beyer expressed his support for the decision, made by the National Education Council (CNDE) on Dec. 9 and brought to media attention by Chilean daily digital El Dinamo on Wednesday.
Yet the change in terminology has been strongly criticized by left-wing opposition members and the general public as a way to re-write the nation’s troubled history.
Sen. Jaime Quintana, president of the Senate’s Education Commission, called the decision “an aberration.”
Sen. Isabel Allende, daughter of President Salvador Allende, who was overthrown and took his life during Pinochet’s 1973 military coup, was quick to add her condemnation.
“It goes against all common sense, because the whole world knows that for 17 years what we had in Chile was a ferocious dictatorship with the most serious violations of human rights,” she said.
“It is important that future generations do not make the same mistakes,” she added.
More than 3,000 Chileans were “disappeared” or executed, and nearly 40,000 more were tortured, during the Pinochet regime, according to Chile’s National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture Report.
President Sebastián Piñera is Chile’s first conservative leader since the country’s return to democracy in 1990.
Critics have pointed to the destination of the change -- textbooks and lesson plans for primary school children -- as a sign that the right-wing government is trying to veritably rewrite the dictatorship out of Chilean history.
Piñera’s political coalition and majority in parliament, moreover, depend in large part on the right-wing Independent Democratic Union (UDI), which supported Gen. Augusto Pinochet and was founded by one of his top advisors.
Harald Beyer, who began his time in office on Dec. 29 after the decision was made, defended the decision to use “a more general term,” saying that “it is about using the same expression that is used around the world.”
Loreto Fontaine from the National Coordination Unit of the Ministry of Education said the change signified a desire “to teach thinking” above all else and encourage discussion and debate. Ultimately, Fontaine told press, the issue is “not serious.”
The proposal itself seeks “to compare different views on the breakdown of democracy in Chile, the military regime and the recovery of democracy in the late twentieth century” and be able to consider “the different actors, experiences and points of view and the current consensus regarding the value of democracy.”
Minister Beyer supported his colleague’s statements and said the decision was purely “an invitation to debate.” He said teachers could still use the term “dictatorship” in their classrooms.
The minister added that he personally “had no problem” in recognizing the period from the 1973 to 1990 as a “dictatorial government.”
Attempts to quell fallout have failed to calm public outrage, however, as the Pinochet dictatorship is still a raw memory in the country’s collective consciousness.
Social media networks erupted in response, with comments on Twitter ranging from accusations that the government was “provoking the people” to others who considered the change to be “futile” in the age of the internet.
As former President Eduardo Frei, who governed Chile from 1994-2000, put it: “History cannot be changed by a decree or a law.”
“Chile is still a very sensitive country,” Fernando Araya, a 30-year-old graphic designer from Santiago, told The Santiago Times. “The scars of the dictatorship are still present, and having a right-wing government in power for the first time, the country is more divided than ever.”
“It’s not good for Chile, it’s not good for coming generations, it’s not good governance and above all, it's not good for people who suffered under the dictatorship,” Araya concluded.
By Olivia Crellin (editor@santiagotimes.cl)
Copyright 2011 – The Santiago Times
About the writer
Olivia Crellin
Olivia recently graduated with a degree in English Literature from Cambridge University and has ventured to South America to improve her Spanish and dip her toes in the murky waters of overseas journalism.
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