Issue and Opponent: The target of this Dilemma Action was the dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet came to power after a coup in 1973, which ended the life of the elected socialist leader Salvador Allende. Pinochet continued to have a strong hold on the country, using fear and intimidation to scare people into compliance. In 1983, after an economic crisis that made the unemployment rate spike to 30%, people decided to push back against the regime. Unionized copper miners were the first to openly oppose the dictator.
Dilemma Action: In the first ten years of Pinochet’s rule, there was never an active opposition. Nobody had ever openly protested in the streets. At the time, the copper miners were the best-paid workers of all of Chile’s workforce. Copper mining was the country’s most lucrative export and, therefore, very important for the regime. Rudolfo Seguel became President of the National Labor Congress and the leader of the movement opposing Pinochet’s harsh dictatorship. He noticed that in ten years there had never been open signs of opposition against Pinochet’s regime. He planned to mobilize the rest of the copper miners and encourage the rest of the workers in various industries to hold a nationwide strike. However, a week before the strike was to start, Pinochet’s army surrounded the mines. Seguel knew that if the strike were to happen it would turn violent so he, along with other miners, decided to change course. They started a National Day of Protest. Citizens walked or drove incredibly slow on one designated day. As one participant stated, it was impossible to tell if someone was just driving their car or walking slowly or if they were participating in the protest. This brought many cities to literal halts in a way that the regime could not retaliate against.
Outcome: After the success of the first National Day of Protest, they decided to have a protest every month. This continued for ten months. Since the protests began every month, each month the number of participants grew. There was a sense that mass demonstrations would bring down the dictatorship. The dictatorship responded with intense and increasing violence. During the fourth month, a police report openly states that 17 civilians had been killed. Due to the number of people involved in the protest, Pinochet could not ignore the opposition. In response, he instated Sergio Jarpa to begin a dialogue. Jarpa allowed for the opposition to achieve small victories, such as the return of exiles and urns to book censorship. The violence by the dictator caught the attention of the Cardinal of Chile’s Catholic Church, who insisted that the dictator should negotiate with the opposition. This is significant as the Cardinal was an important leader in a majority catholic society. The larger campaign was to bring down the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.