On August 19, on the eve of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the military coup headed by General Augusto Pinochet on September 11, 1973, the Chilean Senate voted unanimously to eliminate the date from the roster of national holidays. They voted to replace the September 11 holidaywhich was instituted in 1981 by a decree signed by Pinochet and the other members of the military junta-with a “Day of National Unity,” to be celebrated the first Monday of September starting in 1999. The vote came in the wake of backroorn negotiations between Senate President Andrés Zaldvar from the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) and Pinochet, who is now Senator-for-life.
The historic Pinochet-Zald’var Pact, as the agreement was billed in the Chilean media, is arguably Pinochet’s most politically adept maneuver since he relinquished power in 1990, After all, it was sectors within the ruling Concertación coalition that had been pushing to eliminate the September 11 holiday since the outset of the transition. Many Concertación politicians, especially from the Socialist Party (PS) and the Party for Democracy (PPD), saw the official September 11 celebrations of Pinochet supporters as a slap in the face-an insult to those who march each year on this date to mourn the victims of the Pinochet regime. In fact, Concertación-sponsored proposals to eliminate the holiday had been voted down on two previous occasions by an alliance between the right-wing opposition and the nine designated senators appointed by Pinochet.
The perverse irony of the situation is that it was Senator Pinochet who made the elimination of the holiday possible. By spearheading the agreement, Pinochet managed to usurp the Concertación.v discourse of national reconciliation and fulfill one of the coalition’s most symbolically significant promises. With their own language turned against them, it was simply impossible for anyone in the Concertacitin to oppose the agreement- Pinochet, meanwhile, came off the great conciliator-the generous and patriotic elder statesman who rose above the bitter conflicts of the past in what F1 Mercurio called “the first act of national reconciliation.”
The Pinochet-Zald’var Pact, however, is not just a politicat compromise over the meaning of the past. It has serious implications for the upcoming 1999 presidential race, particularly in the context of an already intense dispute within the Concertación over who the coalition’s candidate will be in next December’s election. When the coalition was formed in 1988, the PDC and Socialist-PPI) block agreed that the two main forces within the coalition would take turns at the presidency. Ricardo Lagos, from the SocialistPPD block, was slated to be the coalition’s candidate in 1993, but the Christian Democrats reneged on the alternation agreement, calling instead for an internal primary that was won by Eduardo Frei, the country’s current president. Lagos, who until recently served as Minister of Public Works for the Frei Administration, has consistently led public-opinion polls as the favorite in the upcoming presidential race, and once again the Christian Democrats are insisting on primaries. Their candidate is Andrés Zald’var.
In this respect, the signing of the agreement was also a victory for the Christian Democrats. The message was clear: If Pinochet’s approval is required to get things done, it is only the PDC that can broker it. Zald’var’s posturing is a clear attempt to shut Lagos out of the presidential race by showing that he is incapable of dealing with Pinochet. While Pinochet was still in power, Lagos gained widespread popularity after he chastised the dictator on national television for the crimes of his regime-a gesture appropriate for its time but certainly not suitable credentials for the country’s next president, particularly with the presence of a kinder and gentler Pinochet in the Senate.
Whether the move will have its desired political effect remains to be seen. What is clear is that it is part of a concerted campaign on the part of the PDC to marginalize Lagos. The agreement came on the heels of Lagos’ removal from Eduardo Frei’s cabinet on July 31. As the two camps dig in their heels for what promises to be a bitter political struggle, the conflict over the Concertación’s next presidential candidate could very well lead to the coalition’s dernise.
In this context, the image of Zaid’var embracing Pinochet on the Senate floor evokes images of the last time the Christian Democrats and the right joined forces in the National Congress. Exactly 25 years ago, the PDC and the National Party were waging an all-out war against the government of Salvador Allende in the Senate, blocking his every attempt to govern and openly calling for a military coup. This is the historical precedent of the Pinochet-Zald’var Pact. Today, however, the stakes are different. The Chilean left has been largely domesticated and Lagos is a devout neoliberal. Twenty-five years after the overthrow of Allende, what is at stake are subtle differences in the administration of neoliberalism.
ABOU THE AUTHOR
Marcial Godoy-Anativia is the Associate Editor of NACLA Report on the Americas.
