Chile's far-right proposes a 'Museum of Truth' on the Allende era to counter coup memory
Key takeaways
- The text calls for instructing the Ministries of Cultures and Public Works and the National Monuments Council to install it and to collect testimonies and documents from the period.
- The coup led by Pinochet ousted Allende and began a 17-year dictatorship (1973-1990) in which thousands of people were killed, disappeared or tortured.
- The right has voiced reservations about the MMDH since its creation, during the first government of socialist Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010).
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Seven of the eight deputies of the National Libertarian Party (PNL), the far-right group founded by Johannes Kaiser, presented a resolution in Chile's Congress asking President Jos Antonio Kast to create a Museum of Truth devoted to what they describe as the abuse, hunger and humiliation of the Popular Unity government, led by Salvador Allende from 1970 until his overthrow on September 11, 1973.
The initiative, submitted on Monday —the same day Kast delivered his first state-of-the-nation address— is a resolution, so that, if approved, it would only reflect the chamber's position and ask the Executive to promote the venue. The text calls for instructing the Ministries of Cultures and Public Works and the National Monuments Council to install it and to collect testimonies and documents from the period. According to the document, the aim is to preserve the complete and true historical memory of the victims of shortages, political violence and the economic chaos of the period, and to educate new generations without ideological bias, without convenient omissions and without the monopoly of a single narrative.
The proposal seeks to reduce the weight of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights (MMDH), which for 16 years has recounted the 1973 coup and the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet through the experience of the victims, and whose work was recognized in early May with the King of Spain Human Rights Prize. The coup led by Pinochet ousted Allende and began a 17-year dictatorship (1973-1990) in which thousands of people were killed, disappeared or tortured.