LETTER TO THE CHILEANS

Prevented from returning to my country and undergoing the harshest and most unjust experience of my life, I wish to thank my fellow-countrymen for their noble gestures of affection and support for me, without which these hours of trouble and isolation would be incomparably more painful for me and for my family. I would like to express my gratitude with a few thoughts that have come to my mind during these distressing days and that may help to uncover the truth and justice of the tale under trial.

The nation knows that I never sought power for myself. That is why when I exercised power I never clung to it and when the time came to surrender it, under our Constitution, I did so loyally. No historian, no matter how biased or lacking in objectivity, can today or could tomorrow contend in good faith that my public actions stemmed from alleged personal ambition or any motive other than the good of Chile. Quite the contrary, I always thought that I should direct the call to serve my country, which beat in my heart since childhood, through a military carrer. I always knew that the oath I swore as a youth before God and our flag would be kept. Precisely because of our solid moral training, we soldiers learn to discover early in life how much pain and what irreparable losses are caused by wars. That is why when I was head of the government, I was tireless and undaunted in my determination to avoid armed conflicts and to seek peace for Chile always, even when all manner of threats loomed over us.

Facing the dramatic crossroads where our country was placed by the administration of the Unidad Popular, I held back until the end, notwithstanding the clamour of the citizens who pounded on our barrack doors crying for our intervention. I waited, not from fear but with a secret hope that such extreme institutional crisis, which had been denounced by the Supreme Court, the Chamber of Deputies and other bodies of our institutional order, might be peacefully resolved. No one knows better than a soldier how uncontrollable armed confrontations can become when the opponent is not a regular army. lt proved impossible to avoid the confrontation and we eventually had to take over the government of the country on that fateful 11th of September, having first entrusted the success of our mission to God and Our Lady of Carmel, Patroness of our Armed Forces and Queen of Chile. I have always held and will always hold deep in my heart, together with my gratitude and admiration,the memory of those men of the army, navy, air force, and police force who shared that patriotic day and made such heroic sacrifices.

Just one thought on that saga. The Armed Forces and the Police did not destroy a model democracy neither did they cut short a process of development and welfare, nor was Chile at the time a model of liberty and justice. Everything had been destroyed and the military were the moral reserve of a nation which was disintegrating in the hands of those who sought to subject it to the Soviet orbit.

I believe firmly in the unity of the nation. Whatever I have done in the course of my life has had no motive other than to bring about the reunion of all Chileans with their common higher destiny. I am profoundly convinced that a nation that fails to discover the historic mission it is called upon to fulfill has never had, or ever will have, a future. I am certain that a nation that forgets or disowns its history has never understood or will ever be able to understand the challenges that the future brings. A people easily seduced by preachers of hate, vengeance, or division will never be happy or enjoy a flourishing future. I belong to a certain historic time and to very specific circumstances. The expiring century may well be described as one of the most cruel that mankind has ever known. Two heinous world wars and an ideological struggle that subdued half of mankind scarred it deeply with the confrontation of opposite views. The choice was either the western Christian concept of existence to ensure that respect for human dignity and the fundamental values of our civilization will predominate worldwide, or the materialistic atheist view of man and society, under a system implacably oppressing the freedoms and rights of man.

In the course of the century efforts were made to exterminate an entire nation, under alleged ethnic ideals.

Communism, that true anti-religion, cost mankind the loss of millions of human lives all over Europe, as well as the lives of dozens of millions of children, women, and men in the various countries of Asia. In America too, Marxism scattered death and destruction. Not only with attempted revolutions but also with universal preaching of hate and class struggle, in addition to export of guerilla warfare and terrorism. For that huge genocide, for the most brutal oppression, the worst that mankind can remember, no one cries for justice and justice will very likely never be done. On the contrary, the authors of such evils, those who in our countries had the benefit of Soviet weapons and funding, who promoted and preached to our peoples the sinister ideology of Marxist Socialism, are the ones who have set themselves up as my judges today.

What I did as a soldier and as a ruler was done thinking only of the freedom of Chileans, their welfare, and national unity, higher goals to which all those who acted on 11th September devoted our unceasing efforts. We made no promises. We only set ourselves the task of transforming Chile into a democratic society of free men and women, where the rights of citizens freely to create and pursue their undertakings would be respected, to be in possession of their own destinies, not enslaved by the state or, worse still, by other nations. We resolved to make of Chile a great nation and we firmly believe that we helped to achieve this, although some countries in the world have yet to appreciate it, as they have yet to appreciate the fact that our country, following a peaceful transition, enjoys today a truly democratic regime, where all institutions are operating fully.

Times changed, however. Communism collapsed. "Real Socialisms" were uncovered and mankind became aware of a tale of crime, injustice, hunan exploitation, failure, and lies such as not even the bitterest adversary could imagine. In Chile, the result was that a distant, little-known country successfully overcame the most exacting test it has had to face in this century. In what was a true feat, which their agents will never forgive, we showed before anyone else did that the "empire of lies and hate" could be defeated. We ensured our freedom and began travelling early and with a visionary approach the hard and difficult road to national reconstruction and establishment of a free and modern society. In close to two decades, and thanks to the sacrifice of an entire people who recovered faith in their ideals of progress and justice, a different country was built. No one can deny today that 11th September opened up paths of hope and opportunity for all: it is for Chileans to conserve them and make them fully fruitful over time.

Chile today is a very different country from the one that several generations of young people faced when life was gloomy, pessimistic, and hopeless. Under our administration, the poor and neglected began to have true opportunities for development. We always knew that this social priority should be our main moral commitment. Today I cannot conceal my gratification on knowing that in order to return to the past many generations would have to pass before Chileans are again a losing, fatalistic, depressed, and discouraged people, as we came to be in the seventies. People suffering from ideological blindness sought to destroy our country. They failed. They had not counted on the spiritual reserve and natural dignity of a peaceful, friendly nation that has nonetheless never allowed itself to be subdued or dominated in any way.

I would be less than fair if I failed at this time to give special acknowledgement, as testimony of my deepest gratitude, to everyone who shared in the saga of reconstructing the country; to that generation of men and women, military and civilians, who devoted their lives to the service of their country, and who bear witness every day to their patriotic ideals; the youth of Chile, who inherited a country strengthened by a destiny of greatness that they must continue to build with a will and true patriotic responsibility.

I also thank those who were not part of my administration, who were indeed its opponents, but who today, rising above pettiness and difference of opinion, have set a high value on the defense of Chile's sovereignty and dignity.

It is likely that the mysterious ways of the Lord with each people may keep many Chileans from realizing the truth of what our country has undergone. I tell them that nothing can prevent peace and good sense from returning one day, perhaps in a not so distant future, to those spirits who are still blinded by passion; in the serenity of a future time, when history shall have vindicated our common task, they will eventually recognize the worth and merits of that task. I shall most likely not be here by then, Nonetheless, that will be the hour of victory, the time when the ideals that lit our dreams will be shared by all Chileans.

Today I feel that fate has again placed on my shoulders the immense responsibility of helping to sow seeds of peace, to make possible the greatness and unity of my country. Beyond physical pain and the wounds I bear in my soul caused by the unjust and offensive treatment of which I have been a victim, and the indignation that I feel as I see my country, a sovereign independent state, shamefully treated and denied the respect it deserves, I wish to state that I accept this further cross with the humility of a Christian and the courage of a soldier, if by doing so I can serve Chile and the Chileans. I wish for nothing more intensely than to see the end of divisions and sterile rancours among us.

As I near end of my life, despite exhaustion and the sufferings caused by so much injustice and lack of understanding, I wish to add that even though I might have to undergo even greater adversities, my spirit will never feel defeated. Nothing can turn my convictions nor my firm will to serve my country, as I swore to do the day I joined the Chilean Army. My most fervent desire now is to prevent our beloved land from suffering over more victims, more sorrow beyond what foreign ideologies already brought about to Chilean families. May mine be the last sacrifice. May my pains and the affronts I am suffering help to gratify insatiable feelings of vengeance and aid to those who are still anchored in rancour to find peace for their consciences. May they no longer live such disturbed lives and may the revolutionary preaching that caused so much violence and dissent among Chileans never more be heard in our country.

Those of us who behave in forgiveness and true reconciliation must continue working hard for the future. The day is not far off when a new generation of our countrymen, looking at the history of their native land, will discover the truth of the saga that led to the construction of a society of free and worthy Chileans, a better country for all rather than for a single sector or one party, as we were on the verge of becoming so many years ago.

I have been the object of a perfidious, cowardly, political-judicial machination of no moral worth. Whereas on this contment, specifically in the countries that condemn me in spurious trials, Communism has murdered many millions of human beings in the course of the present century, I am persecuted for defeating it in Chile and so saving the nation from civil war. This meant three thousand dead, close to one-third of whom were military and civilian victims of extremist terrorism.

I am wrongly judged in many European countries in an operation led by those who call themselves my enemies; there is thus not the slightest possibility that those who prejudge and condemn me will ever understand our history and the spirit of what we did. I am absolutely innocent of all the crimes and events with which I am irrationally charged. I fear, however, that those who accuse me were never, nor will ever be, prepared to see reason and acknowledge the truth.

In the face of such aberration and in spite of my suffering and powerless condition, may I give my fellow-countrymen a word of hope. Do not falter or ever surrender in the face of adversity and misfortune. Never stop fighting for the greatness and power of Chile. May our present condition of a weak, small, and far-away country be soon left behind so that never again a Chilean citizen, of whatever status, may suffer the offences and humiliations that I am undergoing today, precisely because we lack the strength to demand and receive respect in the concert of nations. I shall never falter. I have not faltered in this difficult period nor did I ever falter in all my life, when I had to face other hazardous times: for that reason I wish to tell my comrades-in-arms of my readiness, my confidence, and my profound recognition for the way they have acted under these difficult circumstances.

I keep intact my faith in God and the guiding principles of my existence. I nourish the unswerving hope that the Lord in His infinite mercy will accept my innermost suffering for those who did not deserve to die in those years of confrontation. Any who believe or contend that grief for the blood shed in our country pertains to one side only are wrong. We have all grieved for the victims. I know that sorrow is greatest among those who did not bring about the confrontation, did not seek it, much less wished it, and yet ended by becoming its innocent victims. A soldier will always seek to protect his countrymen. I have never desired anyone's death and I feel sincere grief for all Chileans who lost their lives in past years.

I have begged God humbly to grant me until the last second of my life the resignation and lucidity to understand and accept this cross and that this pain that I carry in the depths of my spirit may become a good seed in the soul of the Chilean nation. lf my suffering can help to put an end to the hatred sown in our country, may I say that I am ready to accept all the designs of fate with the fullest confidence that God, in His infinite love, will bring forth fruit from the sacrifice that I offer Him for the victory of peace; as a new century dawns, may Chileans become a united and reconciled people, such as I dreamed of seeing in my lifetime.

I love Chile above all else, and not even the most painful circumstances that I may have to face can prevent me from repeating a thousand times, from afar, with all the strength of my soul, Long Live Chile.
 

Augusto Pinochet Ugarte

London, December 1998