Growing protest rocked Chile’s
major cities on March 8, Interna-
tional Women’s Day. More than
1000 women and men turned this
day of commemoration into a
series of overtly anti-dictatorial
demonstrations.
The National Women’s Coor-
dinating Group, in conjunction with
other above-ground resistance
groups, solicited official authoriza-
tion to call a large meeting for
March 8. The Chilean Writers’
Society also requested permission
to pay public homage on that
same day to internationally
renowned Chilean literary writer
and popular heroine Gabriela
Mistral. Predictably, the Pinochet
government denied permission to
both.
Undaunted, the organizers
varied their tack, deciding to hold
dozens of small neighborhood
meetings simultaneously in San-
tiago, the coastal city of Valparaiso
and other urban centers where op-
position activity has been growing.
By decentralizing their demonstra-
“tions, the protesters hoped to dif-
fuse the military’s repressive
response.
On March 8, several of the local
meetings became packed with
community residents, eventually
causing a spillover into the street.
The slogans reflected the
demands of Chile’s poor women
and men: equality, freedom, jobs,
food, release of all prisoners and
clarification of the whereabouts of
the thousands of missing persons.
In Santiago and Valparaiso the
police moved in on the
demonstators, arresting 111 in the
capital (44 women and 67 men)
and 30 in the seaport town. Among
those arrested were leaders of the
outlawed National Trade Union
Coordinating Body, a federation of
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the major opposition trade unions.
Also detained were members of
the Association of Relatives of the
Disappeared and Political
Prisoners. All have been charged
with violation of the Internal
Security Law.
This situation has been de-
nounced by human rights activists
in Chile. They report that many of
those held were tortured, in a style
reminiscent of 1974-75 when the
ruthless DINA operated without
restraints.
The March 8 protest occurred
just days after three armed ac-
tions were successfully carried out
by organized units of the under-
ground resistance. A total of
$15,000 was expropriated from
the “Polla Gol” (Chile’s Football
Lottery). Following these actions,
the Pinochet government in-
creased its attacks against the
MIR, a leading resistance
organization, accusing it of having
perpetrated these “crimes”. The
regime also intensified its manhunt
against MIR Secretary General
Andres Pascal Allende.
Pascal Allende dealt a
humiliating blow to the military in
January 1979 when he successful-
ly slipped back into Chile
undetected, and then again in July
when he narrowly escaped cap-
ture in a major gun battle in the
outskirts of Santiago. These two
feats, now added to an already
long list of similarly dramatic
escapes and evasions, have ap-
parently turned Pascal Allende into
something of a legendary folk hero
for Chile’s popular masses. In their
attempt to track him down, the
military have launched an all out
campaign to hunt Maria Isabel
Ortega, wife of a missing political
prisoner and former co-director of
the Huehecito Day Care Center
which takes in orphans and
children of political prisoners. The
military are accusing her of work-
ing closely with Pascal Allende
and of having led the attempted
expropriation of an armored truck
in Santiago on November 24, 1979.
The “Salvador Allende” Comman-
do claimed credit for the aborted
action. Her whereabouts at this
time are unknown.
The search for the two has led
to heightened attacks against the
most militant activists in the
resistance movement-the shan-
tytown dwellers. Following the ar-
mored truck action, hundreds of
people were arrested in raids on
various shantytowns. Upon their
release, demonstrations were
quickly called, protesting the
escalating repression and de-
manding the immediate restora-
tion of democratic rights.
Residents of Chile’s shanty-
towns-some of which are no
more than camps of flimsy lean-
tos -have been the most obvious
victims of the Junta’s economic
policy. On March 14, the Minister
of the Interior officially declared
the squatter camp “Nuevo
Amanecer” illegal, and served
notice that it would be evacuated
and dissolved. The 340 resident
families responded publicly that
they would resist the forced
evacuation to the end. (This par-
ticlar squatter settlement was
called “Nueva Havana” before
the coup, known to U.S. audiences
through the Chilean film, Cam-
pamento, as the focus of a MIR-led
land seizure and successful efforts
at community self-government.
Sources in the resistance mov-
ment report that all efforts are be-
ing concentrated on countering
this current wave of repression,
and building forces for the ap-
proaching May Day demonstra-
tions, historically a day when
Chile’s working class makes a
handsome show of force.
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