Five years of the social outbreak that dreamed of changing everything in Chile: “They want to eliminate the memory of what happened”

After touring for more than an hour the relics held by the Museum of the Social Outbreak of Chile, a space dedicated to remembering the largest wave of protests in the South American country Since the return to democracy, five students and their teacher sit in a circle and listen attentively to the guide who accompanies them, Nataly Navarrete, a member of the group that manages it, who breaks the ice: “What has taken you away from the experience?” What have you just met?”

This Thursday marks the fifth anniversary of the October 2019 protests, when high school students staged several simultaneous mobilizations against the increase in subway fares that led to a popular outcry for greater social rights. Some historic demonstrations, which lasted until the start of the pandemic and left around thirty dead and thousands injured.

The community and self-managed museum, today located in La Florida, a neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital, was created in the center of Santiago in March 2020 “in the face of the imminent scenario of erasure and whitewashing by then-president Sebastián Piñera,” explains to elDiario.es the curator of the space, Marcel Solá.

A huge mural of tin eyes commemorates the more than 400 eye injuries caused by tear gas bombsbut the house also houses many other objects that five years ago were part of the daily landscape of downtown Santiago: from decorated brass shields or protest canvases, to tear gas canisters, burned tires or protective glasses. There are no explanatory signs or descriptions of any kind. Observed everything, together, encapsulates the historical moment that Chile lived.

In the courtyard, which also houses memories of those months of protest, three German tourists take photos with the iconic Negro Matapacos (‘paco’ means ‘policeman’ in colloquial Chilean slang), a three-meter-high sculpture of a dog street that symbolized the fight against discrimination, racism and social abandonment. “I learned about the museum through an article published in the German press and it seems to me that it has a lot of value for future generations to learn about Chile’s past without it being distorted,” the only one of the three visitors who speaks Spanish tells elDiario.es while A photo is taken with the figure.

“A practice for denialism”

In December 2019, two months after the outbreak and still in the midst of the wave of protests, 74% of the people consulted believed that Chile would be a better country, however, today 68% believe that the social and political upheaval had negative consequences. , according to the pollster Cadem. The Center for Public Studies (CEP) also revealed that only 17% consider that the outbreak was “positive or very positive”, compared to 50% who see it “very bad or bad”.

“They want to show the social outbreak as something light and purposeless, to try to eliminate the memory of what happened,” Catalina Henríquez, who is 21 years old and one of the Public Administration students at the University, criticizes elDiario.es. Autonomous Community of Chile that visited the place and actively participated in the mobilizations.

The right-wing and far-right opposition speaks of a “crime outbreak”, “violence” and “destruction” and called on President Gabriel Boric – who came to power two years later – to withdraw the pardons and grace pensions granted to the victims. of the protests because they consider that they were “irregularly” accredited as such. The spokesperson for the Chilean Government, Camila Vallejo, responded that “the violence that occurred can be condemned and, at the same time, the demands (health, education, pensions)” that provoked the protests can be rescued.

Five years later, these demands have not materialized and reforms that improve these matters are still waiting in Parliament, controlled by the conservatives.

“There is a battle to impose narratives that interpret what happened: those who speak of a ‘criminal outbreak’, those who defend a social process resulting from the inequalities of the system and, to a lesser extent, those who romanticized it as a quasi-revolutionary moment,” he tells elDiario. is Mireya Dávila, political scientist at the University of Chile.

For Kenneth Bunker, an academic at the Faculty of Economics and Government of the San Sebastián University, “today the vast majority, including rather moderate, centrist and independent people, have taken a quite adverse position.” A change of story that, according to Navarrete, “is one more practice for forgetfulness and denialism in this country.”

“A space more necessary than ever”

Traces of the demonstrations – graffiti, murals, slogans – were erased from the city center and the memory of those days has become an uncomfortable topic. “Everything that was related to the explosion has been dying little by little,” says Bunker.

In recent days, the issue has returned to the public agenda due to the formal indictment of the former director general of Carabineros and other senior officers for their alleged responsibility in the police abuses that were committed then. The mobilizations left more than 10,000 judicial cases, but only 0.42% concluded the investigation. There have been 44 convictions, according to figures from Amnesty International.

In collective memory, says Dávila, it remains that Chile experienced a “clear and forceful” social protest for “a better quality of life,” but also “urban violence in certain sectors” and the “failure” of two constituent processes. The memory claimed by the museum, on the other hand, says Solá, is “charged with emotion” of the hopes of those days. For this reason, he concludes, “in the face of criminalization, this space is more necessary than ever.”