THE THOUSAND DAYS OF ALLENDE: FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY?
OR TYRANNY AND HUNGER?
Editor: J ohn Hart Circula tion Director: Philip Moran Translator: J ohn Spann
CONTENTS The True Friends of the People Are The Traditionalists, I St. Dunstan Brings Justice and Peace to a Kingdom, 2 I nauguration of the Auditorium of the Brazilian TFP, 3 St. J erome, Doctor of the Church, 4 News 6 and 7 Spani'sh Priests Enter t he Resistance, 11 Whatever Budapest Wants. Plinio Correa de Oliveira, 13 I ntroduction to T FP Report on Chile, 14 After the Thousand D ays of Allende, the' P eople Give Their Testimony, 17 First Words from the Streets of Santiago, 17 Special Interview I, 21 Special Interview 2, 22 Special Interview 3, 23 Special Interview 4, 24 The Chilean Experiment, 25 Special Interview 5, 27 Special Interview 6, 29 Special Interview 7, 37 Crusade's Tribute to St. Michael, 4 1 Special Interview 8, 46 Special Interview 9, 49 The Autodemolition of the Church : Chief Factor in the Demolition of Chile, 54
DEPARTMENTS Forgotten T~uths, I M edieval Wisdom, 2 Special TFP Event, 3. ¡ Prophe ts, M a rtyrs, S:imts, and Heroes, 4 News of the R evolut1on, 6 News of the C?untcr-Revolution, 7 The F il ial Res1stanc_e, ! I p]ini<J Correa de Oliveira: Column, 13
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THE TRUE FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE ARE THE TRADITIONALISTS " ... Let them be persuaded that the social question and social science were not born yesterday; that at all times, the Church and the state, in happy accord raised up fruitful organizations for these ends; that the Church, which has never betrayed the happiness of the people in compromising alliances, does not need to free H erself from the past, it being enough for H er to take up once again, with the help of the true artificers of social restoration, the organisms that have been broken by the Revolution, adapting them, with the same Christian spirit that inspired them, to the new ambiences which have been created by the material development of contemporary society; because the true friends of the people are neither the revolutionaries nor the innovators, but the traditionalists . . . The same thing holds for the notion of fraternity, whose foundation they place in the love of common interests, or, beyond
all philosophies and religion, in the simple notion of h umanity, embracing thus, in one same love and equal tolerance, all men with all their m iseries, both intellectual and moral as well as physical and temporal. Now, Catholic doctrine teaches us that the first place of charity is not in the tolerance of erroneous convictions, however sincere they may be, nor in theoretical and practical indifference toward the error or vice in which we see our brother sunk, b ut rather in a zeal for their intellectual and moral restoration which is no less than that which we have for their m aterial welfare. T he same Catholic doctrine teaches us also that the source of the love of our neighbor is to be found in the love of God ... and other love is an illusion or a sterile and passing sentiment." ( Pope Saint Pius X, Apostolic Letter, . "Notre Charge Apostolique, Agamst the Errors of Sillon," of August 25, 1910.) CRUSADE
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St. Dunstan Brings Justice and Peace to a Kingdom From : R ohrbacher's, Lives of the Saints, Vol. 9, pages 5-54.
Upon one occasion, King Edgar of England, while going by a convent in Wilton, gave in to the inspirations of the devil and violated the viginity of a yo ung girl from a noble family, who was there and who in a short time was going to take the veil to become a nun. St. Dunstan, who was Archbishop of Canterbury, upon learning what had happened, went immediately to see the King, who, as was his custom, came forth to meet him, taking him by the hand to ma ke him sit on the throne. Snatching his hand back, the Saint fixed the King with a terrible look and said: "Dost thy impure hand dare to touch the hand of a priest? H ast it not just now robbed from God a virgin destined for Him? After thou has corrupted the spouse of the Creator, dost thou believe that thou mayst pacify the friend of the outraged Spouse with a courtesy. I don't want to be a friend of an enemy of Jesus Christ." The King had thought that Dunstan did not know a bout his sin, and 1.he censure struck him like a bolt of lightning. Throwing himself at the feet of the Archbishop, he confessed his crime with tears, and humbly begged pardon. St. Dunstan made him arise, feeling tears rolling down his cheeks as well. H e softened his look and spoke in a fatherly way
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with the King about the salvation of his soul, painting for him. the gravity of the sin he had committed in the most vivid colors. Seeing that he had sincerely repented he imposed on him a penance df seven years, during which he would not use the crown, would fast two days of the week, and would make great almdeeds. H e would, _in addition, found a monastery of sisters in order to consecrate to God many virgins in place_ of the one he had robbed from Him ; he would expel the bad priests from the churches; and he would make only laws that were just and agreeable to God. . The King did everything which was prescribed for him exactly. A t the end of the seventh year, St. Dunstan called together all th~ barons, Bishops, and abbots of the realm, and in their presence and that of the whole people, he repla~ed the ~rown on the head of the penitent King.
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Once when a very pO\verful count had united himself illicitly to one of his relatives, St. Dunstan admonished him three times, and finally, prohibited him from entering the churches. The offender went to im plore the protection of King Edgar, and the latter beseeched the prelate to leave
the count in peace. Surprised by the e~ e with which the King allow:d lmnself to be seduced, the Saint paid no attention to him but instead dedicated his efforts t'o making the count come back to his senses. And seeing him become more and more obstinate, he excommunicated him. Out of his mind with anger, the count went to R ome, where with the help of some Romans he obtained letters . from the Pope ordering the Archbishop to reconcile him with the Church. St. Dunstan answered: "I shall b: very happy to obey the Lord Pope, Just as soon as thou hast repented." O ve~come by the inflexibility of the Saint, by the shame of his excommunication, and by the fear of ? ~ll? the count finally renounced the 1lhc1t marriage. And when St . Dunstan convoked a general council of the whole realm, the count appeared before the assembly barefoot and dressed in rough wool, and he threw himself weeping at the feet of the Archbishop. All of those who were present were deeply moved, and St. Dunstan more than any_of t hem, but he dissinrnlated his feelings for a certain time showing a severe. face until, giving' in to the exhortations of the whole assembly, he let his tears flow and absolved the penitent, to the great happiness of all those who were present.
GENERAL SOUZA MELLO INAUGURATES AUDITORIUM OF BRAZILIAN TFP
In a memorable event, dignified and splendid, General Humberto Souza Mello inaugurated the auditorium of the Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition , Family, and Property in Sao Paulo City (population 6 million) . This event, sponsored by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira, President of the National Council of the Brazilian TFP and the National council, was generously attended by the many friends of the TFP and was flanked by the idealistic militants for the TFP. Some of the high Ecclesiastical and civil dignitaries present at the inauguration were Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, Bishop of Campos General Humberto de Souza Mello, former chairman of the
Brazilian Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dr. Miguel Colasuonno, Mayor of Sao Paulo City, Chief Justice Gentil da Ci']rmo Pinto, President of the Sao Paulo Court of Justice, and Dr. Tomasz Rzyski, Minister of the Polish Government in exile. At the high point of the ceremony, General Souza Mello in vited Bishop Antonio Castro de Mayer, Professor Plinio Correa de Oliveira, and Mayor Colasuonno to join him in the cutting of the symbolic ribbon. In accordance with the esta blished program , immediately thereafter the Bishop of Campos celebrated Mass and proceeded to bless the auditorium, which received the name, The Auditorium of St. Michael. The meeting was opened with an allocution by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira, president of the National Council of the TFP, who made a eulogy to General Souza Mel lo and to Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, saluting the other authorities who were there as well. Immediately afterwards Tomasz Rzyski spoke, giving to General
Souza Mello the great cross of the order Polonia Restituta - the highest Polish decoration. General Souza Mello thanked him, saying: "It is with great satisfaction and even pride that I receive such a high distinction as to put me among the remarkable figures which stand out in world history; the Duke of Kent, Lord Mountbatten, General Montgomery, Marshal Foch, General De Gaulle, General Eisenhower, and among others, the ardent and tenacious anti-communist, Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira here present. "I am even more moved ," he added, "at receiving this decoration in the sumptuous and sober salon of the fearless organization Tradition, Family, and Property, a true fortress in resisting the ideological onslaughts of the diversified forms of penetration and proselytism which Internationa l Communism uses as a powerful instrument of action in its single world-wide and permanent war to conquer and enslave the free peoples."
Gen. Mello, Prof. Correa de Oliveira, and Bishop Mayer cutting the symbolic ribbon.
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PROPHETS, MARTYRS, SAINTS, and
HEROES
"After studying all the sciences and applying himself to the imitation of monks who were wellformed, he overthrew, with the sword of his doctrine, many monsters of heresy. Finally, advanced in years, he rested in peace, and was buried near the Crib of the Savior. Later, they took his body to R ome and placed it in the Basilica of St. Mary Major." So it is that the Roman M artyrology refers to St. J erome, priest, confessor, and doctor of the church.
RICH STUDENT St. J erome was born in 345 in the small city of Striden, located close to the borders o{ Dalmatia and Pannonia, of Catholic parents be-
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longing to the rich bourgeois. When he reached the proper age for beginning his studies, his greatest desire, in accordance with the style of t he times, was to study in Rome, which was then the greatest cultural center in the world. His parents permitted the journey to the capital of the Empire, where the young man became a disciple of the celebrated grammarian Donatus, who taught him to esteem the Latin classics, principally Virgil and Cicero. Being a brilliant and industrious student, he progressed rapidly in his studies, and put together an excellent library. Unfortunately, under the influence of the cosmopolitan student milieu, the future Doctor of the Church gave himself up to the easy pleasures that were offered to him in abundance, though he kept the
fai th he had received from his parents. At th at time, the crisis caused by th7 Arian heresy was reaching its heights. The defenders of orthodoxy, ~ - ~thanasius, St. Hilary of Poitiers, s~ms of Cordova, and Pope Li~enus, were suffering the persecut!ons of the Emperor a nd the heretics, who appeared to be the victors, as St, .Jerome himself verified later, d eclanng that the world suddenly woke up to the fact that it had becom A¡ . e nan. H owever, Providence raised up the Fathers of t he Church who transformed the defeat into a splen~id victory. Having an outsta.ndmg place among them was our Samt, whose conversion took place when, touched by grace he abandoned Rome and after going through various citi~ as a pilgrim,
he went to weep for his sins in the desert of Chalcis.
Then St. Jerome was terribly scourged, and cried out loud begging for pardon, swearing never to read profane works again. He was released immediately, and returned to earth. When he woke up, his eyes were filled with tears, and he felt the wounds on his body. "From that time on," affirms the Saint, "I read the divine books with more care than I had previously read the works of mortals."
THE PENITENT IN THE DESERT
In a very beautiful letter to the virgin Eustaquia, St. Jerome describes his life as an anchorite, filled with heroic penances, as well as temptations that were always defeated and always reborn: "How many times," he says, "installed there in the desert, in that vast solitude burned by a blazing sun in that horrible dwelling place off;red to the monks, I imagined that I was assisting at the pleasures of Rome. I would sit there, solitary, because bitternes.5 had altogether invaded me. My deformed members covered with sackcloth, my darkened skin calling to mind the epidermis of a negro, daily I wept, daily I groaned aloud .... Well then, I who for fear of hell had condemned myself to such a harsh prison, without any other company than that of the scorpions and savage animals, yes, I myself, many times believed I was assisting at the dances of the young Roman girls.... Irritated with myself hard in the treatment of myself, I ~ent even further into the desert. Coming to a deep valley, a rough mountain, an abrupt cliff, I established there the place of my prayer and the jail of my miserable flesh. The Lord is my witness: after having wept much, after turning my eyes toward heaven for a long time, it seemed to me that at times I had legions of angels for company; at the very height of my joy and my happiness, I chanted then: "We run after Thee O Lord, attracted by the aroma of Thy perfumes." (Canticles of Canticles, 1, 3.)
TIIE
FAMOUS DREAM
After expiating his sins in the desert St. Jeronlie dedicated himself to' the study of Hebrew, in order better understand the Sacred to . t he Scriptures by rea d'mg t h em m ¡ginal. In a letter to the monk, :~fino, he related the difficulties he
COURAGE
St. Jerome encountered in learning "that tongue of rude and sibilant words " and confessed how painful it was for him to accustom himself to the reading of the Bible.
In spite of his will power, St. Jerome could not manage to free himself entirely from his attachment to pagan culture, until one day, when he was gravely ill, Our Lord, made him understand better what He wanted of him. His funeral services were already being prepared, when suddenly, he had a spiritual ecstasy, appearing before the tribunal of the Judge. The Judge asked, "What is the condition of the accused?" "I am a Christian," responded St. Jerome. "Thou liest," said the Judge, "Thou art a Ciceronian and not a Christian, because where thy treasure is, there also is thy heart." ( cf. Luke 12, 34.)
The courage with which St. Jerome defended Catholic doctrine is well known. On fire with the love of God, he could not bear for heretics and pagans to insult the truth taught by Our Lord Jesus Christ. With his biting answers, full of verve and scintillating with intelligence, he knew how to proint out the moral defects in an adversary which had led him to defend error. And the Saint implacably analyzed and dissected them, preventing his defeated adversary from covering his tracks with new apparently honest arguments in order to persist in his fight against orthodoxy. From thence arose the hatred for him which overflowed in insults, persecutions, and everything which human malice knows how to invent when it finds itself unmasked. St. Jerome, already prepared for this, did not lose any such new opportunity to put the imprudent enemy of the faith in a bad way, by denouncing ahead of time his violent and treacherous reaction. St . .Jerome was the most knowledgeable man in the Sacred Scriptures in all of Christendom. By order of Pope St. Damasus, he undertook the translation of the Bible, which the Church still uses today under the name of the Vulgate.
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WAR CLOUDS LOOM War has now been prophesied by the editorial pages of The New York Times· Kurt Wald~eim, Secretary General of the UN; King Hussein of Jordan; President Luis Echeverria of Mexico; conditionally by Henry Kissinger; an~ by others. When personages of this level of influence and political power are predicting war, should anyone be surprised if war does come!
WAR: AN INSTRUMENT Of U.S. POLICY! The New York Post (January 8, 1975). The columnist Jack Anderson points out that a blue-ribbon commission selected jointly by Presidents Nixon and Ford, and by leaders of th_e Senate and House, is circulating a limited number. of confidential numbered copies of its draft study, "The Future World Environment_." Anderson, who has obtained a text, quotes the following from if: "War becomes a major instrument of policy in countries of the Third World." And, " Some U.S. intervent!ons ?ccur,. most li~ely in_the Caribbean, possibly in Latin America (with) military units of 40,~00,, or larger, resembling occupation arm1e~. ~ho do these,, ecological planners have m mind for these occupation armies"!
NUDITY GROWS ON THE BEACHES . The N_ew York Times. Nude bathers appeared m growing numbers last summer. Police and public . authorities have reacted in different w~ys; m som~ places with well-deserved imp_nsonments, m others with shameful concessions. Today they are on the beaches, where will they be tomorrow!
the Marxist regime in Peru, were arres1ed by the ~ulhorilies. According to the Ministry of Interior, 400 were apprehended, and their cars confiscated to pay for the damages caused by the incidents. The Soviet Union's Embassy was stoned by the demons1rators. A military court opened procedures against the demonstrators. The government warned that "the police will use their guns" if the incidents which look place in the boroughs of Miraflores and San Isidro should be repealed, and prescribed "public manifes1ations of any nature." Openly defying the government's warnings mothers and wives of the arrested persons' came out !n mourning clothes, and began ~ demonstration to protest the merciless violence of the leftist dictatorshhip. But they were stopped by the police. The old saying is confirmed: Violence is the argument of those whose position is unjustifi• able.
BISHOPS SUPPORT THE PERUVIAN REVOLUTION Lima (0ESP). Peru's Episcopate renewed its support of the " revolutionary process and of the socialization of the press," according to General Zavaleta, head of the National System of Support for the Mobilization (SINAMOS). The support was given in an eight-hour meeting of the 40 Peruvian Bishops, the Minister of the Interior, and the director of SINAMOS. General Zavaleta commented: " The dialogue with the high Catholic hierarchy was fruitful. In the meeting, they ratified for us their support of the Peruvian revolution and the measures taken to restructure the press." With this, the entire Peruvian Episcopate lent its authority to help Peruvian Communis1s take their own people Into the chains of an anti-christian slavery.
PAUL VI INTERVENES IN FAVOR OF
mmrs
Santiago, Chile (0 Globo). The Chilean daily ne,wspaper, la Segunda, protested against Paul ~I s requeSt for a pardon for four leftists who ad been arreSted by the country's authorities under tclharges of political subversion Sub· sequen Y, th e United Nations' Gener~! Assemb!y made a resolution against Chile on the question of political liberties.
NOW, THE SORCERER'S MASS · The Spanish priest A. Alapont missionary resolved to adapt the c a.ss O rituals of African witchcraft. As a n~asC~~~e~li~e s~se~ ~-drhess of l?opard skin, with r t bl . m O , t e chalice Is a wooden d~~~gr;, i;de;tic~I to those of !he tribal witch the teeth of ~P oys ~.ecklaces made from The altar clott~imals to ward off evil spirits." during the const\made of animal skins, and strange sounds. era ion, horns and drums blow
MBul~wa~o, Rhodesia,
Everything is in fh black magic. e most genuine style of
THE VATICAN DIALOGUES WITH SATANISTS AND WITCHES (International Fides A . Spanish edition) E _gency, Vatican 8-14-74, 1 look place in ·Uar ~ in August two meetings between Catholicsgan a and the Ivory Coast can religions. Both a~d ~epresentatives of Afri0 the Secretarial for Nt em ~e.re promoted by presided over by M on-christ1ans, and were Secretary. sgr. Pedro Rossano, the Participating in th nuns, and Catholic e meetings were priests, from the "Africa laym~~· as well as delegates Rossano declared n lr~dit1onal religions. Msgr. with African relig/~~!. 11 was their first dialogue The prelate s ·d we want to car;' 1to fhe, ~atican Radio: "If name accordin ou a m1ss1on worthy of the to respect thi ~o th~ Gospel, if is necessary cultural and reli~~I er ~cutors in their whole . •. if would be aiou~ integrity, for otherwise The monsi n vu ~ar proselytism." (sic!) able personaiil;r f continued: ,,A very respect• that before goin rom Uganda • . . declared 0 consulted the the meeting .• . he had go . .." Plrl1 and if had told him to
NUDISTS APPEAL TO THE U.N.
FREEDOM FOR THE CHURCH IN RUSSIAf
Paris (0 Globo, Rio). The International Federation of Nudis1s sent a request to the United Nations in order that "the right of man to undress every time the use of clothes is not ~ompulsory, particularly on the beaches, be recognized."
Moscow (0ESP). A Ukrainian Catholic priest was sen~enced in the city of Lvov for violating Comll!unist laws by trying to teach religion. The information was reported by the local Party newspaper, lvomkaya Pravda, which did not _reveal what punishment the priest will
ALVARADO'S VIOLENCE SMASHES ANTI-COMMUNIST REACTION
sentenced to several years' Imprisonment in forced labor camps. There are thousands of Al the end of th Catholics, Including priests, who are confined sorcerers and e meeting with wizards, In Russian concentration camps for religious ' warlocks, one of the conclureasons. (Continued on page 66)
Lima, Peru (OESP). Peruvians, most of them students, demonstrating against the policies of
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receive. If is known that cases like this are usually
s9, ~
TFP'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST CASTRO'S CUBA BEARS FRUIT All of the TFP's in the Western Hemisphere joined together in a militant educational campaign to prevent the admission of Cuba into t~e OAS and the lifting of the ec~morruc _blockade of that island - . d1plomat1c ll:nd economic moves wh1c~ were . bemg of n templated at a special meeting co . Q. the OAS last Novemb er m u1to, Ecuador. . Several weeks before the meeting, h e T FP's of nine countries,d including th . 1 United States, promote a spec1a t ;ort on Cuba, which, with perfect r~m,·ng had just been published in t1 ' · . th TFP magazines of t h e respective ~·ons. (See Crusade for a Christian 1 cf-vilization, Sept., 1974.) This special • t e proves that Cuba is still export1ssu . • L . . the Marxist revo1utlon to atm rierica and th~t <?ast_ro's. <?ommunist dictatorship 1s mtrms1cally wicked. , Some of the TFP s exerted preses on their governments to vote sur •nst Marxist Cuba. For example, ag·t\ants for the American TFP 11 ~ -ted Washington, D.C., walking v1s1 h the C ongress m . t h e1r . capes, h Ug tfO dh ·1·issue here they presente t e spec1a wf CRUSADE on Cuba to conserva0. congressmen. Shortly before the uve the editor of CRUSADE disvotehed a letter to President Ford, pat~ g that diplomatic relations not urginpened with Cuba and that the 0 be omic blockade be continued, ec<?n ting out that the opening of dippoin tic relations with Cuba would Io~~\ate "a network of Communist fac~I ssies (given the influence of the erll a throughout the Americas V.S.) for the spreading of subversion ba;\he weakening of the defense ?f an hemisphere. Rather than do th1s, the hould demand the withdrawal we.~ d by an international control veri e ·ttee - of all Russian troops cornrn'rrnarnents on the island, the and. a of concentration camps, and ciosinfOsing of all guerrilla training the cl in Cuba. Instead of ending 5 sch 00 onomic blockade, we should the ec
work to make it more effective in order to lift the economic misery from the shoulders of the people by hastening the fall of the Castrist regime.... It is here that the course of honor and duty lies." During the day of the critical vote on Cuba, the American TFP maintained a constant vigil of prayer, asking Our Lady to defeat this attempt to bring the Cuban tyrant into the OAS. In some countries, several congressmen made speeches about the TFP articles. The outcome of the campaign is now a matter of record. At the Quito meeting, the admission of Cuba to the OAS was vetoed. The TFP sent cables to the Presidents of the countries who voted against Castro, congratulating them. It is worth noting that in Quito, the leftist and Communist press, fearing that the TFP would try to "sabotage" the m eeting, began a noisy campaign, asking the government of Ecuador to stop the organization. They said, ridiculously, that the TFP was preparing a bloody "Quitazo" similar to the Communist "Bogotazo" (a bloody riot organized by the Communists in Bogota, Colombia in 1948 leaving thousands dead and injured)'. Naturally, the TFP denied these absurd charges. The government ignored them, and nothing occurred in Quito, except the defeat of Cuba's entry into the OAS.
AMERICAN TFP QUESTIONS U.S. BISHOPS ON CUBA, CIIlLE, AND BRAZll. The American TFP sent an open letter to the U.S. Catholic Conference, Executive organ of the U.S. Bishops, expressing surprise and perplexity over its Document No. 9 of Feb. 13, 1974, on Brazil and Chile. ( T o S ee . . . to Judge . .. in order to A ct, October 1974.) Concerning the documents request for a conditional economic blockade of Brazil and Chile, the TFP observes that the U.S. Bishops have applied a different standard in the case of
Cuba, where they ask for a lifting of the economic blockade. The American TFP asks: "Why two weights and two measures? Toward anticommunist governments, an inquisitorial and ferocious suspicion is shown ; toward the Communist tyrannies, optimism, confidence, and the 'one-eye closed policy' are the predominant attitudes." The interpellation is signed by Philip B. Calder president of the American TFP. I; has been published in the United States, Brazil, and Chile with very good repercussions.
RESISTANCE MANIFESTO GAINING MOMENTUM IN THE UNITED STATES The TFP's historic manifesto proving that a filial resistance to Ecclesiastical decisions opposed to the doctrines of the Church is true obedience, is gaining momentum in the United States. The manifesto called "The Vatican Policy of Detente with Communist Governments. The question for the TFP: To Take No Stand? or to Resist?" has been published in English in to See . . . to Judge . . . in Order to Act, Crusade for a Christian Civilization, and th e R emnant. The manifesto has been promoted by militants for the TFP in major cities in New York, California, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and Louisiana, as well as by the two caravans of TFP militants which are traveling constantly through the United States. To date, over 80,000 copies have been distributed in the U.S. alone. Recently, the American TFP published a special edition of the Resistance Manifesto in Ukrainian. The militants for the TFP have distributed thousands of these manifestos in front of Ukrainian rite Churches in ~e:V York and New Jersey, always rece1vmg a warm and enthusiastic reception from the people who feel that "the manifesto states a difficult question in a perfect manner, always respectful of the Church and the papacy."
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The Brazilian TFP parading in honor of the victims of Communism.
ROMAN SYNOD WORRIED ABOUT THE TFP One of the commissions of the World Synod of Bishops which met in Rome, and which studied "evangelization in the world," pointed out in its final report that the "movement Tradition, Family, and Property is attracting many young men in Latin America." The progressive Bishops say in their report that "this movement worries the Bishops because it does not accept any reform in the church."
CRUSADE BECOMES A BIMONTHLY Beginning with this issue, Crusade for a Christian Civilization becomes a bimonthly. Subscribers will receive s:X issues a year. Regular departments in the new expanded CRUSADE include Forgotten Truths, Medieval Wisdom, Ne~s of the Revolution, News of the Counter-Revolution, The Filial Resistance in Defense of the Catholic Faith and the Papacy, and Prophets, Martyrs, Saints, and Heroes. 8 CRUSADE
HEROISM OF LITHUAMAN PRIESTS REVEALED BY SAMIZDAT JOURNAL Kaunas, Lithuania ( R eligion in Communist Lands, London ) . In a special development in the samizdat (underground newspaper) activity of the Roman Catholic Church in Lithuania, a regular journal has m~dc its appearance, called the_ Chromcle of the Lithuanian Catholzc Church. Its first number concentrates on the trials of Fr. Juozas Zdebskis and Fr. Prospcras Bubnys, sentenced in I 971 to one year's imprisonment for catechizing children. . Fr. Zdebskis was arrested m August 1971, charged with gathering children for religious instruction ( illegal by Soviet law) . His trial was prepared in secret, but on O ctober 11 , the news leaked out that it would be held the next day in Kaunas. Thousands of people came to the courtroom, but were forcibly prevented from entering. Fr. Zdebskis admitted that children had come to him for catechetical instruction. Asked if he had groups as large as a hundred, he answered "joyfully" that, yes, it was so.
_Some children were brought in as witnesses, and all of them testified to tl~e high moral quality of his teachmg. In his final statement Fr. Zdebskis declared路 路 ' tried for fu l. 路 " I am b emg fiC1 lhng my rightful duties . . . If the ourts do not 路 d . h . JU ge us priests now, t en our. nation will judge us! And fi nally will come the h tru . d our f or the . e JU gment by the Supreme Be1~f May God help us priests to fear t is more than your judgment." Fr. Bubnys' trial was held on the sa~_e day in Roseinai. He made a spmted defense, concluding with the ~o rds: "If today I must state publ~c(y whether or not I taught religion, I can neither deny it nor repent ?f it, since this would be to go agamst my conscience. At this solemn hour allotted to me dust of the earth, I cannot renounc~ our belo~ed Jesus who urged tha t little ch1l~ren should not be stopped from ~om~ng to Him. I want to say: Praise be to Jesus Christ'."
ness to create a School tor the Gregorian Chant. Meanwhile, choirs for the medieval chant are springing up in the countries of Northen Europe, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. There a re recent reports that the Gregorian chant is cultivated in Japan and even in Africa. Conductor Olivier Toni, director of the Music Department of Sao Paulo University in Brazil, stated that an overflow crowd of young people attended a lecture on the subject in the University. The monks of Solesmes Abbey in France have already recorded over 30 records.
TFP speaking to poor people in Northeastern Brazil.
IDSTORIC HOUSES IN BRITAIN ATTRACT MILLIONS OF TOURISTS London (Journal do Brasil). In England, aristocratic houses attract 43 million visitors a year. The country now has more than 900 houses and castles open to the public. This total includes private properties still inhabited by their owners, and innumerable houses and castles under the care of the Department of the Environment or the National Patrimony.
PEASANTS ATTACK NUDISTS Paris, France ( OESP ) . Over 15 people were hurt when peas~nts usin" sticks attacked 200 nudists sun ba~hing on a beach at Erveden. The infuriated peasants fought for about one hour with the nudists and other bathers who came to help them. The local inhabitants complained that they are scandalized by the spectacle of public nudity on their beaches and said that they want to expel the nudists._ After a similar ¡nciden t the previous summer, the ~olice set aside a special section on
-On St. Clement's island: Marching toward the monument of the cross.
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the beach for the nudists, but the peasants did not agree with the solution offered by the authorities.
INTEREST IN THE GREGORIAN CHANT IS ON THE RISE
¡,can TFP begins pilgrimage to A rner ' .I d st. Clements IS an .
(OESP, 9-1-74). While Catholic authorities and organizations forsake the Gregorian chant, there are many indications that youth the world over are becoming enthusiastic about it. The recent festivals of Avignon and Paris had special performances of it, and the French Ministry for Cultural Affairs expressed its willing-
St. Clement's island: American TFP raises standard at site where colonists said the first Mass.
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GOD'S LAW FORBIDS THE KILLING OF HUMAN LIFE Paderbom, Germany (Deutsche Tagepost, 12-13-74.) The General Vicariate of Paderborn has published and sent to all Catholic hospitals of that Archdiocese the following document: "A Catholic hospital cannot put into practice the present possibilities of abortion granted by the law. We ask all doctors, nuns, and nurses ... not to take advantage of the possibilities generated by the law, not even under the fear of reprisals, threats, defamations, or economic losses. "We ask you to obtain copies of this statement and distribute it to all ejllpioyees of your hospital . . . It is painful to consider how seldom such measures are taken in these times, even though no authority whatsoever, especially an Ecclesiastical one, is entitled to neglect them .
ABORTION MAY LEAD TO EXCOMMUNICATION H artford (0 DIA, Rio de Janeiro, 8-14-74). Three Catholic Bishops from the State of Connecticut have warned Catholic doctors and nurses of that state that they will be excommunicated if they participate in abortions.
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Bishop Mayer receives the Great Cross of the Order Polonia Restituta.
BISHOP CASTRO MAYER AND PROF. PLINIO CORREA DE OLIVEIRA DECORATED Sao Paulo, Brazil (TFP Press S ervice) . The Polish Government in Exile, represented by its Minister Tomasz Rzyski, awarded the Great Cross of the Order Polonia Restituta to His Excellency Antonio de Castro M ayer. Bishop of Campos, and Prof.
Plinio Correa de Oliveira President of th ~ Brazilian TFP's' National Council. At the ceremony the Polish Government ·m E x1·1e expressed ' • . its gratitude over the anti-communist struggle carried on b th two leaders. Y e
. r~râ&#x20AC;˘t .~ .. In Defense of the Catholic Faith And the Papacy "St. Peter, the first Pope, had taken disciplinary measures regarding the continuity in Catholic worship of some practices remaining from the old Synagogue, and St. Paul saw in this a grave risk of doctrinal confusion and of harm to the faithful. He then stood up against St. Peter and "resisted him to his face" (Gal. 2:11). In this ardent and inspired move of the Apostle of . the Gentiles, St. Peter did not see an act of rebellion, but rather one of union and fraternal love. Knowing well in what he was infallible and in what he was not, St. Peter submitted to the arguments of St. Paul. The Saints are models for Catholics. Accordingly, in the sense in which St. Paul resisted, our state is one of resistance." THE TFP RESISTANCE MANIFESTO
SPANISH PRIESTS ENTER THE RESISTANCE
The Covadonga Society, an a ssociate of the TFP, is waging a campaign throughout Spain to spread the TFP manifesto calling for a Catholic, filial resistance to the Vatican's policy of de tente with the Sovie t Union and other Communist countries. The Covadonga Society has distributed over 200,000 copies of the manifesto. When more than 700 conservative priests of the powerful "Hermandad Sacerdotal Espanol Santo Antonio Maria Claret" received the manifesto at the end of their national convention in Cuenca, they spontaneously burst into a strong reaction. The militants of the Covadonga Society answered the applause by singing St. Louis Grignon d e Monfort's hymn "We Want God."
The central headquarters of the Covadonga Society in Madrid is b eing flooded by an enormous number of letters. most of them in s upport of the manifes to. It is comforting to lmow that dozens of priests have already written in supporting the TFP document. One of these priests, a well lmown doctor in Canon Law and Theology and professor at a Catholic University, sent a long exposition justifying canonically and the ologically the TFP manifesto and its call for a strong but respectful resistance to Paul Vi's policy of Ostpolitik. It is inte resting to note that the liberal clergy has in general maintained a conspicuous silence about this campaign. One of the very few exceptions was Cardinal TarC RUSADE
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ancon of Madrid. He became notorious in Spain when in 1973 he forbade the going of the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima to his Archdiocese, saying that the devotion is "outmoded." In a press interview the Cardinal said that a Catholic has the right to disagree with the policies of Paul VI. But he insisted that one who expresses this right is not loyal to the Holy See . . . In saying this. the Cardinal was taking a stand against the position of St. Paul. St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Robert Bellarmine, Suarez. and many other Saints and theologians.
BISHOP CRITICIZES DETENTE (Diario Los Americas.) Bishop Eduardo Boza Masvidal. ex-auxilliary Bishop of Havana, Cuba, presently exiled in Caracas, declared that the process of detente with Russia and the Communist regimes, gives them an enormous advantage over the West, because they refuse to renounce their ideology whereas the West is pragmatic. And the Bishop observes: "This same relaxation of tensions is occurring in the case of the Church. Though the Church must continue its work under any type of regime, this must never lead to a vacillation on principles nor an attitude of friendly compliance, if not of a badly disguised sympathy or reproachable opportunism."
cnporu
Resistance Manifesto in Ukrainian.
12 CRUSADE
Cardinal Slipyi and Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira i11 th e TFP headâ&#x20AC;˘ quarters in Sao Paulo.
UKRAINIAN CARDINAL DENOUNCES SILENCE IN THE FACE OF PERSECUTION Cardinal Slipyi lamented that the Pope is silent in the face of the injustices committed in countries under Communist regimes. "The Synod has something to protest against in a loud voice," Slipyi maintaine d at a session of the Episcopal assembly. Speaking in the p resence of Paul VI. who was at the meeting, the Cardinal declared: "Many are the regions of the world in which the Church is not free. Many are the nations, such a s the Soviet Union, China,
and others. in w hich freedom of religion and of evangelization does not exist and where religion is even submitted to persecutions and difficulties." It is lmown that Cardinal Slipyi's intervention ¡ was summed up in a single line of the minutes of that session. According to obse rve.rs, this discretion is due to the deSire of Paul VI to improve re lations b etween the Vatican and the countries of Eastern Europe.
Whatever Budapest 'Wants By Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira
0
-;
..." 0
"'...,"" ..c " 0
...
On the basis of the memoirs of Cardinal Mindszenty published in The Sunday Telegraph I wrote last Sunday about the simultaneo~ moves of P aul VI and Nixon, carried out according to the imperative desire of the Communist government of Budapest, in order to uproot the glorious Prel_ate from Hun~a~ian soil. I described the sinuous negotiations whereby the Vatican reached an agreement with the Prelate, his journey to Rome, the warm reception which Paul VI gave him, and the first blow that he received from the semiofficial paper of the same Paul VI. Now we will continue this narrative, which is so crushing to one who, like myself, loves the Vatican from the very depths of his soul. P aul VI wanted Cardinal Mindszenty to concelebrate Mass with him before going on to Vienna. At the end of that Mass, he gave him, "as a symbol of love and respect," the Cardinal's cape which he used before becoming Pope. H e promised him support, saying in Latin: "Thou art and shall continue to be the Archbishop of Esztergom and the Primate of Hungary. Keep on working, if thou hast any difficulty, always turn back confidently to us." Afterwards . . . In Vienna, Cardinal Mindszenty began his normal activities, which he summarizes like this: "the pastoral care of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians in exile; warning the people of the world against the danger of Bolshevism, by the publication of my memoirs; and whenever possible, taking a personal interest in the tragic fate of the Hungarian nation." Then the persecution began: ( 1) Cardinal Mindszenty asked that the faculty to indicate priests for the Hungarian communities outside of H ungary be returned to him. The result, bitter disappointment. The Cardinal comments : The request was refused by the Vatican in order not "to annoy the regime of Budapest." (2) For the same purpose of not " annoying the regime of Budapest," the Holy See went ahead and decreed that all the public declarations of the great Prelate must be submitted to an adviser indicated by Rome. Cardinal Mindszenty came back sharply that he would submit them "only to the H oly Father when he explicitly asked for them." ( 3) As a help for the moves of Rome, the Magyar Bishops, named by P aul VI but entirely subject to the Hungarian government, began to multiply protests to the H oly See
against the anti-communist activities of Cardinal Mindszenty. Then a surprise bomb exploded. The apostolic nunciature in Vienna informed Cardinal Mindszenty that during the negotiations in 1971 the Holy See had given guarantees to the H ungarian government that, once freed, his Eminence would say nothing that could be inconvenient for Budapest. This guarantee, given unbeknown to the Cardinal, violat ed that which was most essential in the agreement being negotiated between him and the Vatican at that time. By making such a concession to the Hungarian government, Paul VI employed the authority conferred by Our Lord J esus Christ on St. Peter, in order to force the Cardinal not to oppose the plans of Communist imperialism. The keys of Peter functioning according to the desires of implacable atheist persecutors of religion: What is this, if not a bomb, probably the greatest bomb in the History of the Church, from Pentecost up to our day? (4) Immediately thereafter, the directives of the Hungarian government began to make themselves felt through the Vatican. In Portugal, a discourse was being printed for the Cardinal t o read at Fatima. Emissaries of the apostolic nunciature in Lisbon intervened at the printers in order - without the Cardinal knowing about it - to suppress a passage in which he was alerting the Catholics of the world against the policy of smiles for the Communists. ( 5) The worst was yet to come. Sometime later, Paul VI wrote to Cardinal Mindszenty, asking him to resign from his Archdiocese. The Cardinal refused. Paul VI deposed him. And then, a particularly bitter touch; the letter was handed over to the Cardinal precisely on the day that he was commemora ting the 25th anniversary of his glorious imprisonment by the Communists. ~he drama was ended. All during its course, from the be~inning to the end, the conduct of the Vicar of Christ was what Communist imperialism desired, that is, what the antichrist desired. Commentary? - What for? Only one remark : Since in its essence the "detente" of P aul VI is like this, obviously it must be the same in other countries, all over the world, ... and in the United States.
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Chilean TFP leading a peasant's procession agaimt agrarian reform durin g Frei's regime. Th ey carry the statu e of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patron ess of Chile .
CRUSADE'S INTRODUCTION TO THE REPORT ON CHILE DURING THE THOUSAND DAYS OF ALLENDE ' WHICH WAS PREPARED BY THE LATIN AMERICAN TFP An observer little given to methodical analysis ot the international situation, or confused by the avalanche of events and disoriented by the contemporary chaos, could be led to believe that the "new face" of "socialism a la Chilena" is an episode that belongs to the past, already relegated to deep archives, where sometime in the future some specialist in hi story may dig them up once again. Nothing could be more false. Even now the "Chilean Way" is one of the most important themes of international political thinking and maneuvering. Because Allende was overthrown by a military coup before he was able to demonstrate publicly the
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fullness o~ his intentions, the following points are
not unequivocally clear to the public:
(1) I~ the people of C~ile had expressed the de· sire th~t ~ommunism abandon its power in a const1tut1onal way, it would not have done so. (2) As soc:>n as Communism was able to despise and disregard the rules of fair play 1 ·t would do so. ,
(3) ~llende wo~ld n~ver have permitted the hold· ing of pres1dent1al elections in 1976 _ And the lack of understanding of these points in the
mind of the public is shown by the fact that the Communist Parties of France, Italy, and Portugal are each seeking a kind of "socialism a la Chilena." It a person ana lyzes carefully the Marxist propagan~a in each of these countries, he sees that the b~s1c ingredients are the same as those that Communism used in Chi le. So we have Europe confused by the siren chants of the three Communist parties whose song is the same as that of Santiago. In fact, the Chilean Experiment, pr~cisely beca_use it was an experiment, has had a contmu_ous fascination for world public opinion. From the first days, it has been studied in the same manner as a parable. The French and Italian ele~torates had _t~eir eyes glued to the Chilean experiment, examining_ each step t aken believing that soonor or later Pans and Rome might face the same horizons as Chile. Reali.zing this, lefti sts all over the world w~re fulsome in thei r praise of the government of Santiago. And great volumes of Marxist propaganda about the so-cal led Chilean way to socialism by democra~ic methods brought itsel_f !O bear upon the non-marx1st elements in public opinion. There were some sou ls who saw the Chi lean Exeriment as a ~ew phas~ _in a recurring struggle between atheistic col lect1v1sm and the Cross of Christ understanding clearly that Communism here, as els'ewhere, had as its goal the total destruction of t he Catholic Church and the Christian Civi lization. For the first time in the world, socialism was being a lied in "liberty." It was already genera lly ad~hed that socialism had tyranny as a corollary. A ~uccessful disassociation of these two terms would be highly effective prop~ganda for the Marxis~ cause. Accordingly, one question was: Is there or 1s there not freedom in Chile? In the case of many persons, â&#x20AC;˘f there were freedoms there, one could accept the hypothesis of a Communist government comi ng to ower by democratic means, whereas if there were ~o public freedoms, this hypothesis would be cut ff right on the threshold. 0 In the case of other persons, perhaps more numerous, the question was: Is there prosperity under that regime? Are there shortages? Is there hunger? Unfortunately, the leftist media and the great jourals of the toads * never provided the public with an n rejudiced a_n_swer to these two que~tions. . un)nto this art1f1cally cre~ted vacuum in U.S. public inion the press continues to pour propaganda 0 Prtraying Allende's regime as moderate, democraR0 and freedom-loving, and Allende himself as a tic,gic victim of the forces of reaction. It seems evitra t that the beneficiary of this campaign is not den de who is dead, but rather the ideas and proAllens which he represented, an indication that the gr~rnbelieves that t~e Chilean Way to Socialism has le ture in the United States. a fu daY some persons would like to believe that the ~o d states is an oasis inside a world of convulsion. Un 1 this neo-isolationist notion is erroneous is obr_ha to anyone who considers that modern super._,,ou~unlcations and super-transportation bring the c~rn nt parts of the world into close proximity very d1~ekrely and that the increase in Russian military qu1c ,
t
â&#x20AC;˘TFP term for big capitalists who support Communism.
power, along with the decline of U.S. influence in Europe and the Mediterranean, has placed Europe within the open jaws of the Russian bear. If Communism wins in Europe, the next battlefield will be our own country. This impending crisis is further magnified by the growing economic crisis, which was precipitated by the Russians through their Arab puppets and which some people are beginning to call the new 1929. To be realistic we must recognize that in the United States the political choices of the future may be made withrn the context of this economic.. slide. Now the fact is that a significant sector of American public opinion despises ideological disputes and frames the whole question of Communism versus anti-communism in the fo llowing terms: "Russia is poor and lives under a tyranny, but the United States is rich and lives under freedom. I dislike tyranny and hunger, but I li ke prosperity and freedom. Therefore, a regime of free enterprise is better for me." These persons do not want to hear about problems of religious freedom , of persecutions, of free enterprise, etc. With them, it is a pure case of a play of interests, better taken ca re of here than there. As the economic and financial crisis worsens, as has already been foreseen, we will soon experience its socia l reflexes and the political consequences which wi ll inevitably follow. With the end of plenty, and the specter of tyranny upon us, as a pretended solution for the crisis, socia lism "a la Chilena" wi ll have found its hour among us. Then socialism could be considered a "very intelligent" measure for ending the dispute with Russia , thus enabling us to divert considerable sums of money now going toward national defense into programs for social welfare. The proponents of this idea will present it as a talisman wh ich wi ll pacify the world, maintai n freedom , and place us on the road to plenty through the resources we will be able to turn over by abandoning our defense expenditures. We believe that the appropriate remedy is to put an end to petroleum blackmail as a first step in resolving the economic crisis. Having already published articles exposing the roots of the problem, we cannot help but wonder at the confusion that exists in the world over its causes and at the inertia and indecision of those responsible for the Western world. In this issue of CRUSADE we will give the reader the elements required to follow more surely the possible events of the future in our country and in the West. Then at the hour that Marxist propaganda presents "socialism a la Chi lena" as the panacea for t he debacle in the world, our readers will have the data required to judge coldly and objectively the national and international political situation. Though we do not expect Marxism to present the Chilean plan to the United States and Europe in exactly the same form as before, we do think that the essential features will be the same. And it must of necessity have the same consequences. In view of this, we want to acquaint our readers with the conseq uences of the application of that program in Chile. It is with this intention that we are publishing an analysis by the Latin American TFP's that had a great impact in Iberian America, where it made its
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appearance in several large editions in Argentina, Brazil , Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It was also published in Paris, and passages were reproduced and commented upon in various organs of the press in the Old World. Though the form of the original has been rearranged and adapted to some extent by ?~r e~itorial staff, nothing essential has been sacrificed in this carefully synthesized and serene study b~sed on the facts given to the TFP by those who lived through the thousand days of Alle_nde .â&#x20AC;˘~s in_ t~~ case of the original, we have avoided a priori analysis. Judgment is left in most cases to the reader himself.
SCHEME OF THE REPORT Part 1. AFTER THE THOUSAND DAYS OF ALLENDE, THE PEOPLE GIVE THEIR TESTIMONY ... Being the words of many witnesses, from different sectors of the Chilean population, immediately after the fall of Allende. Part 2. THE CHILEAN EXPERIMENT. Being a brief but systematic account of the Allende years, showing the roots of the disaster, what tac-
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tors paved the way for Allende's ascent to power, the methods he used to implant Marxism, the consequences of his policies upon social and economic conditions in Chile, the factors which led to his overthrow, the profundity and scope of the reaction against the Marxist regime. In order t? encourage the reader to draw parallels between Chile and the United States as an aid in his evaluations, we have added tw~ comparative discussions.
(1) SOCIALISMâ&#x20AC;˘ COMMUNISM ~ PROGRESSIVISM (2) SOCIALISM AND PROGRESSIVISM IN THE UNITED STATES I~ publ!shing this report in the United States, we do 1t looking toward the future of the nation rather than fro~ the standpoint of providing a description of an ep1sod~ fr<;>m con_ten:porary history which, however, :,vould in 1tse~f, _Justify the publication of this material so full as 1t 1s of lessons for us. John Hart, the Editor
After the Thousand Days of Allende,
THE PEOPLE GIVE THEIR TESTIMONY ... A commisszon of journalists and political observers assisted by an efficient photography t eam was designated by the TFP's of Brazil, Argentina, and Chile to travel to the Andean country and there enter into contact with the living and concrete reality of the facts. The trip was carried out in the first days after the coup of September 1973. The TFP's of Latin America by means of their departments of political anlysis perceived that the commentaries being made by the organs of the press lacked objectivity because in the greater part of the cases the journalists treated the Chilean situation and the so-called "Chilean way to socialism" on the basis of preconceived "a priori" ideas which were somewhat out of touch with t he reality through which that country lived. Thus it was that the designated commission had as its purpose the interviewing of Chilean people from every level of the population in order to get the true sense of the Chilean reality by studying from close-up what really happened during the thousand days of the government of popular unity.
FIRST WORDS FROM THE STREETS OF SANTIAGO: THE PEOPLE TELL ABOUT THEIR SUFFERING AND ANGUISH From a Queue of People in Front of a Newsboy
In Front of the Palacio de la Moneda
A queue of people had formed in front of a newsboy w ho was selling a special number of " V ea" dedicated to the events leading up to the overthrow of Allende. From two of t hem we heard the following comments:
W e continued walking until we arrived at the Palacio ¡ d e la M oneda, which sh owed the marks of the bombardment of a few days before. A veritable multitude was going by. Th ey would stop for an instant, look at the house and comment. W e struck up a conversation wit h some of them! TFP. "We would like to ask you some questions about the situation in Allende's time. Was life easy? Were there difficulties? How were things?" - " I have nothing to do with poli-
- "The last government was the orst there ever was ! Things were w ver worse than they were then ..." ne- "Here are the pictures of AIde's house after being born,, Ien barded. - "It's lovely! Beautiful, isn't it?"
tics," answered. a mature m an, a driver for a government office. TFP. "But you had to stand in the queues, didn't you?" - "Yes, of course . .. or rather, I didn't myself, but the family did." TFP. "You mean your wife ?" - " Of course, and the childrenat times they had to miss school ..." TFP. "To stand in line?" -''To go look for bread and other things." TFP. "What things were lacking, for example?" - "W~ll, all kinds of foods ; for example, 01!, sugar, etc." TFP. "And when you found sugar how much would they sell you ?" CRUSADE
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-"About a pound, two pounds ... we are six in the family and that was enough for one day." TFP. "Only for one day?" -"Yes, and instead of sugar we had to use 'chancaca' and honey. Many people even bought saccharine, which is used by sick people. Then that also ran out later. Then there was nothing." TFP. "And could you get any meat?" -"No well if you wanted chicken or beef y~u had to waste a lot of time in the queues, when there was any. Well, but I believe that those things are worldwide ..."
"There Was Nothing, Nothing, Nothing . .." A lady with a baby stopped at our request. I explained to her that I was doing a report and asked her to speak to me about how life was in the time of Allende. The answer was rapid and direct: -"The most difficult ever. There was nothing, no sugar, no bread, no flour, no tea, no noodles. One day I went shopping at the 'Bandera Azul,' where you buy food, and asked for a jar of coffee. The young man waiting on me said : 'Lady, don't be demanding,' just as if I had asked for some French perfume or something like that. There was nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing! You couldn't go out on the street after eight o'clock at night because the 'snatchers' would take your purse and hit you. Those filthy streets! In Santiago the filth was shameful ..." TFP. "And how many people are there in your family?" -"I have four children and eleven grandchildren. No . . . it was horrible, sir!"
TFP. "Was it very hard on the children?" - The child answers: "Of course, terrible!" TFP. "Were you hungry at the end of the day?" - "Of course, I was plenty hungry." - "Yes, of course," the grandmother added, "instead of going to school, the children had to stay in the house to avoid the demonstrations every day. Look, I work, but when I went to work, I ran into the demonstrations every day. The cara18
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binieri had to use tear gas grenades, fumes which destroyed your lungs ... Look I must have lost seventeen or ' eighteen pound s. " TFP. " And did the children lose weight? Did you lose weight?" (addressing the child) "Of course, tell him something about it ..." TFP. "Tell me what you thought of Allende." -"Well, his policy was very bad!" TFP. "Did you participate in the march of the empty pots, ma'am?" - "I took part in the march and my picture appeared in the paper with a flag." TFP. "And what is your husband's profession?" -"No, I am a widow. I am the director of a review which deals with all air traffic in Chile. It .is called Itineraries and Rates. It is a review which my daughters and I have been putting out for ten years. Fortunately the airlines were able to keep going. But it was horrible!" TFP. "Thank you very much, ma'am."
A Laborer Adds His Testimony W e spoke to a man gazing at the Palace from the sidewalk in front of it.
TFP. "I am a journalist and I would like to ask you some questions about daily life during the epoch of Allende: Did you get along well? Could you get food?" -"Yes, more or less." TFP. "Didn't you have to queue up?" - "Yes, yes, I stood in the lines. Natu_rally not I myself, but the people m my family did. Of course, because one has to go out to work, then you are not worried about lines; but the housewife and the children were; yes . . . problems, at times they couldn't get groceries. Many things were not going well." TFP. "What is your profession?" - "I am just a laborer in Public Works, I work in the building in front of La Moneda Morande 80." TFP. "How m any' children do you have?" - "Five, and there were problems about feeding them all because the child_ren no longer had adequate nourishment to keep them going in school. Because the child needs to be fed." TFP. "Did they get thin in your house?" _-"Of course, they did, they got th mner. They had little strength to run. They like soccer and other sports, but they weren't in condition to play." TdFdP.f "I'm happy that all this has en e or you ..."
In front of the_ ~alacio d_e La Moneda after the military coup the President of the Argentinian TFP interviews the passers-by hO ' • 1· f The nicihtmare has ended. w gaze up '" re ie •
-"It's better thus, but let's wait and see what happens later on God knows . .. let's go on."
A Working Class Woman Speaks of the Queues and Cards A working class woman sto /J /1_ed to tell us something of her exf1erz ences under th e Allende re[[ime.
TFP. "Did you have to stand in the lines too?" - "Yes I used to queue up too, everywhc;e, and for everything." TFP. "What neighborhood are you from?" ,, - "I am from the town Lo Franco. TFP. "And could you get oil there, for example?" - "Oil, no." TFP. "And how did the JAP* work there?" , - "It worked more or less, thats II." a TFP. "And did they require you to have a card in order to be able to buy things?" - "Yes, they gave us a little card." TFP. "Did they give the cards to anybody or just to certain persons?" - "To everybody in the sector, because th ey gave them by sectors." TFP. "And even so you had to stand in the lines?" - "Yes, because you always had to stand in the lines." TFP. "And how many hours a day did you spend in the queues?" - "Well, at times, three and up to four hours in the morning." TFP. "How many children do you have?" - "I have five children."
A Young Laborer Describes the State of Ruin W e exchanged these brief words with a young laborer:
TFP. "I would like to ask you a uestion about life in Allende's time. iJow were things, were there queues, as it easy .to get food or not?" w - "Nothing, sir." TfP. " Couldn't you g~t anythin~?" " All kinds of groceries were d1ffito get. We had to stand in line fir everything. And now the country
]t
*Committees of supply and price control.
Everyone has something to say. 1s getting back to normal. We were in a mess, in the country . sir. Everybody ,, was ma mess. TFP. "How many children do you have?" - "Four." TFP. "And did they all eat well?" - "No, because my wife had to get up at two in the morning to buy bread, to buy a little sugar, in brief ... all those things." TFP. "Did the children stand in the lines too?" -"Yes, they did too, and even missed school." TFP. "And did you tire more at work from being ill-fed?" - "Of course, sir. We were on half rations, that's all." TFP. "How often did you get beef?" - "Once every three months." TFP. "How about chicken?" - "Chicken was the same story." TFP. "Was oil easy to get?" -"Everything depended on the card from the JAP."
We approached a lady who was looking at the Palace.
TFP. "Some bombardment, wasn't it?" -"It's what they had to do." TFP. "They had to do it?" - "Yes, because if not we would have died of hunger. We were already dying of hunger in the villages. There was nothing to eat, nothing ..." TFP. "Do you live in a village?" - "Yes, in Villa Peru."
TFP. "Is it here on thi> outskirts of Santiago?" - "Yes, over toward Puente Alto." TFP. "And were you suffering from hunger?"
- "Yes." TFP. "H ow many children do you have?" -"Three children, I am a widow. I make 3000 Escudos in the factory. Imagine that! If I didn't work, I would die of hunger." TFP. "Was it enough for you to live on?" -"What could I get with it? They paid me and I had to hand over all the money as soon as they paid me." TFP. "Well, then, that means you are pleased with what happened?" - "Pleased, happy." Another lady was looking at the Palace. TFP. "What do you think of the shell marks, ma'am?" -"We can't express any opinion because you know we can't say anything ..." TFP. "But did you have to stand in queues before?" -"Yes ..." TFP. "And did you like standing in line?" -"No ..." While we were talking with this lady, a large group of people interested in giving their opinion formed a_round .us. The dialogue became lively, with many people voicine their complaints at the same time. ' A coherent recording was not possible. CRUSADE
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Ill
. Ill
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Ill
ill
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The ruins of the Palacio de La Moneda after the military coup; they are a pale reflection of the total ru in in which Chile was left after years of Marxist government.
Scarcity and the Tyranny of the Cards At another point in front of la Mon eda, we stopped a young man who appeared reluctant to speak.
TFP. "Young fellow, don't you have anything to say? Did you eat well in Allende's time or not?" - "More or less." TFP. "Did your mother have to stand in the lines?" - "Yes ... yes ... yes ..." TFP. "Were you able to get beef, chicken, all those things?" -"Uhmm . . . They would sell 'Jeef about every three months." TFP. "How about sugar?" - "Well, that we used to get once a week, but with cards from the
]AP." TFP. "If someone said he was in favor of the Partido Nacional,* for exâ&#x20AC;˘Partido Nacional -
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a conservative party.
ample, would they give him the card of the JAP?" - "No, they wouldn't give it." . TFP. "Then did they control public opinion through the cards?" -"Exactly." TFP. "Well, then, did the people who were not favorable to the governm ent suffer from hunger more than those who supported it?" -"Of course they did."
"We Were Dying of Hunger" TFP. "What were the scarcest articles, for example?" -"All the staple groceries" - several voices answered at once, among them a feminine one standing out "rice and sugar were scarce. There was no bread, nor meat. There was no clothing ... " - Other voices: "There wasn't anything, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. We were dying of hunger."
The Black Market: the UP !FP. "Could you get milk for the children ?" -A woman: "No at times when ' th ey wanted to, they ' gave us milk. If there was none, you had to buy it from the black market at 500 Escudos .. ." TFP. "And who ran the black market?" -"The people of the UP themselves. The government created it." * * * . W e le/ t, breaking off the conversations, because the desire of the passersâ&#x20AC;˘ by to unburden themselves to tell w hat they remembered w ar' so great that three times already groups had formed around us each one larger than the last one ; ;nd w e w ere afraid they would start an uproar. That would not have been advisable under ~he ~onditions of martial law prevailing zn Santiago at that moment.
CHILE: SPECIAL INTERVIEW I
BLANCA CUEVAS ANDREUS DESCRIBES THE MISERY OF THE CARDS AND THE QUEUES Blanca Cuevas Andreus
Blanca: "They would ask if you had a card. If you did, they would sell you things in dribbles, and if you didn't they wouldn't sell you anything. You were left with nothing to eat."
Blanca Cuevas Andreus is a vivacious lady of about 60. She is a typical Chilean, a loyal Catholic, hard-working an~ dedicated, w~o lik~s to see things m order and m their place. She was a nurse who was a second mother to the children she took care of. And even now that the children are grown, she has a tender affection for them. She takes care of the house of her old "patrones" who have died. The children have all left, each one fu]. filling the duties of his state in life. She is proud of them. We visited her to talk about her experiences during Allende's t!me. Extracts from our dialogue follow: Tf P. "Could you tell us a little bit about your problems in getting food?" - "The other day I got up at five in the morning to buy bread, went to the bakery, arrived at six and stayed until seven-thirty. At that hour they stopped selling it. The bread was already sold out." TFP. "Wha t would you do to get oil?" - "Ah, the famous cards ..." TFP. "How was that? Why don't ou tell us about it?" y - "Those cards . . . They would come and enroll you. Then they told e that I had to enroll. I wanted m0 thing to do with it. Even the Social curity people (I am retired) told e that I had to vote in the elections . .me order for th em to give me t h e 10 per I needed to collect my checks. lrten I told them that I didn't vote."
5.
TFP. "And for whom did you have to vote, Allende?" -"Of course ... I told them plain and simple: I can't read or write. So I can't sign any book." TFP. "And how were the cards needed to get food?" -"It had to be just so .. . two pounds of sugar per person . . . and the oil, one quart . . . but if I didn't have a card, the first thing they would say to me was : 'Do you have a card?' 'No .. .' Then they wouldn't sell to you ..." TFP. "And what about the problem of the queues, Blanca?" - "You had to be there at seven in the morning, and stand in line, in order to be finished by twelve. You'd run back to the house as fast as you could to make lunch. Then later we had to be in the queue for bread at 5:00 A.M ... ." TFP. "At five o'clock in the morning?" -"At 5 o'clock in the morning. Many people died on account of it .. . "The bread supply began to diminish little by little, little by little. At first, without having to get up too early there was bread, and you bought it. La ter it began to grow scarce .. . you had to be there all night to buy a pound of bread. And don't forget the queues went halfway down the block, and at another bakery the queue went around and came out on the other side. And the line for the one on Santiago Concha Street, which is farther over there, came out here and went around the other side."
TFP. "How m any blocks?" -"Three blocks ... That is why I had to get up good and early in the morning. I had to buy three or four pounds of bread and keep it all week. Because the flour ran out here, there, and the other place. And at times the bread would spoil on m e ... I was hoarse, really hoarse for two days because the air of the early morning affected my chest . . . The girl next door fell and almost broke her hip." TFP. "And did that happen in the queues?" -"Yes, standing in line. What a problem. Three days. The people were very much annoyed. They fought and later even pulled knives . .. in a minute the people would get very ugly. They did not respect anybody, anymore. If you were wearing a necklace, they would come and steal it. Yes, the people were really ugly .. . they took watches right off the children." TFP. "In the lines?" -"Everywhere, everywhere. The people were really ugly, sir." TFP. "And were there fights in the queues?" - "Over everything, figh ts over everything . . . Potatoes were 68 Escudos a pound. Eggs 25 a nd 30 Escudos each. Bread went up the sam e way and there wasn't any. Not even flour." TFP. "Bla nca, what did the people who had little children do?" (Continued on page 67) CRUSADE
21
CHILE: SPECIAL INTERVIEW 2
A NUTRITION EXPERT WHOM ALLENDE CONSULTED SPEAl(S We were told in Santiago that Allende asked Russia to sen~ him an expert in nutrition to help him resol':'e the problems that he had created m that area, but the Russians answered: "You do not need us to send you anybody because in Chile you have one of the greatest in the world, Dr. Fernando Monckberg Barros." . . We interviewed him, then, m his house, and major extracts of that conversation now follow: TFP. "Doctor, during the early days of the Allende government, you were interviewed about the problems of nutrition that were arising; how did those interviews turn out?''. - "Yes, during the first period of the administration of Salvador Allende they called me several times to analy~e the nutrition programs. J:Iowever the truth is that after a bit, at the ~hird or fourth meeting, one could see that there was no possibilit~ of doing anything scientific or techm~al, because of the political dogma which could not be skirted over. "I remember that before the program of a pint of milk* was put into effect I showed President Allende that it dict' not make any sense, that he was going to spen~ an enormous amount of resources without any effect - as has of course been demonstrated during the last three years - and that â&#x20AC;˘ Allende as a campaign promise had said his government would ?istribute free a pint of milk to every child every day.
22 CRUSADE
those same resources could have been used in another nutrition program which would be more efficient.
"In a Socialist System Money Has No Value." - "At that time I arranged an_ interview at the Ministry of Education, and repeated all my argu~~nts._ The Minister looked at me a bit iromc~lly and said, 'Look doctor, yol:1 a~e ~omg to have to get a lot of capitalist ideas out of your head .. .' . - 'Well help me, because m fact, maybe it would do m e good to ge~ some capitalist ideas out of my hea~. - 'Look, you "have to learn that I~ a socialist system money has no value. "Well in the face of that, how can one go 'on arguing? Neverthel~ss, I tried a few times. For example, m an interview with the Minister of Heal!h I said: 'Minister, but let's see, e~plam it to me, because maybe I don t understand it very well. It seems _that you are trying to tell me that m a socialist system it does not matter where the money comes from, because you take it from one pocket and put it in the other, after a ll. But for your program you are going to need ab?ut 155 million pounds of p~w:fered milk, and Chile produces 26 million poun~s. That much I know. Well, perhaps m a socialist system the cows reproduce more rapidly and the milk is easi~r to get. But within my scheme of thmgs,
Dr. Fernando Monckeberg
1 figure it will be another 25 years before Chile can produce that much milk. In other words, you are going to have to import milk from outside the country. Then my question is: How are you going to explain to New Zealand, when you have to import 130 million pounds of powdered milk, that here something so fantastic has happened that money has no value?' Then he said to me: 'That is not your problem, that is the government's problem'."
Enormous Waste and a Cause of Illness "We calculated that no more than 30 percent of the milk distributed really got to the mouth of a child. There were great losses on all sides. A mother, ~rom her experience, knew that the milk was being given away and that it caused diarrhea besides. So there were two reasons from her point of view to think that the milk w_as bad. If it was free and produced diarrhea also it was obvious that one did not give' it to the baby! "They marked the lines of the football stadiums with powdered milk! I ? ave s~veral photographs of that, i~ is mcred1ble ! Yes it was an extraordmarily grave waste of resources!" (Continued on page 68)
CBllE: SPECIAL INTERVIEW 3
THE LACI( OF LEGAL GUARANTEES IN ALLENDE'S CHILE The socialist regime of Allende took over 44 percent of the cultivated land. Fifty-five percent of the important industries of Chile were brought under state control. It strangled commerce by expropriating the distribution of merchandise. All of this was done with practically no modification of the laws and without dictating new norms. In order to understand how this happened, we went to visit a young lawyer, Dr. Jose Maria Eyzaguirre, son of one of the Ministers of the Chilean Supreme Court. Dr. Eyzaguirre lived through this process and saw it from close up because of his legal profession which h e practices in one of the most famous Jaw offices in Santiago. He answered some questions for us: TFP. "How could Allende, without making a coup d'etat to set up a dictatorship, precipitate Chile into such a regime of confiscations and arbitrary acts?" - "Our constitution establishes a presidential regime which grants attributes to the Executive Power. These granted attributes are such that one could see that the President of the Republic in . this last administration, without any important legal modifications, assumed an absolute power over the other powers of the State and over all private citizens. For example, the Judiciary in Chile, has neither economic nor operative autonomy. Therefore in order to cause a breakdown in the hierarchy of that power and the principal values therein, one needed only to cut off the salaries and emoluments of the higher level judges. This did not work in Chile because of the patriotism of the judges, but their position was becoming unsustainable. They even tried to break down the hierarchical stz:i.rcture_ in the Cou:ts of Justice by mcrea_smg _the salanes f subordinate functJonanes, who to~ay earn more than the judges and ~,,rnisters of the Court ... Moreover the judiciary has no func. nal authority. This is because the uo
Dr. Jose Maria Eyzaguirre. Giving his impressions of the past. sentences which it dictates are carried out by the Executive, which grants the public force necessary to enforce respect for the decisions of the Court. What happened? One would obtain a decision, for example, against a usurper on a farm - and his eviction would be ordered. But the mayor having jurisdiction over the place would not grant the necessary police because he depended on the Executive. And the Judiciary had no recourse through which it could obtain the means to enforce its decision. Therefore, slowly, it was becoming a merely theoretical power which dictated sentences having no real force.
The Illegal Confiscation of an Orchard TFP. "Do you recall a specific case of this type ?" -"There are hundreds of cases . One example is Los Molinos. an or-
chard located in Peumo, Cachapoal Department, O'Higgins Province. Its owner, Don Jose Maria Ortega, started out in Chile as a farm laborer. He occupied the bed of the Cachapoal River and at the cost of incredible effort, filled it in with humus he had dug out of the nearby hills. He developed orchards of between 320 and 350 acres, which produced fruits and avocados of very fine quality. His place was the precursor of all the orchards in the valley today, some of which are among the most important ones in Chile. Don Jose Maria Ortega was the pioneer, a rough man leading a very modest and austere life, the typical conception of the Chilean who has worked his way up from a humble start. Then the Marxist hatred was unleashed against him . . . Marxist agitators had enthroned themselves as functionaries of the (Continued on page 69)
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23
CHILE: SPECIAL INTERVIEW 4
Sr. Fernando Agu ero, General Manager of the S ociety for the Promotion of Industry while he was being intervieu·ed by our special en voy.
THE STATE TAI(EOVER OF INDUSTRY BROUGHT CHAOS AND A DIZZYING FALL IN PRODUCTION The statistics show that beginning with the installation of Allende in power, the industrial production of Chile fell at an astronomical rate. In order to obtain the opinion of men who were immersed in this part of the Chilean drama, we interviewed Sr. Fernando Aguero, General Manager of the Society for the Promotion of Industry, which includes most Chilean industries, Extracts from that interview follow:
The Pretext of "Principal Necessity" TFP. "What procedure did the Allende government use to occupy the factories?" "Legal degree 520 of the year 1930 permits the temporary requisition of those economic activities devoted to the production of articles of primary necessity.* But the decree does not say what an article of principle necessity is, because its meaning was understood, nor did it say what was meant by temporary, because it was supposed that it was the shortest possible time. The (government) began to declare everything ... 'principal neces*Note of the TFP. The decree cited permits the temporary requisition of industries producing articles of principal necessity when their activity is paralyzed for any. reason.
24
CRUSADE
sities' - textiles, kitchen stoves, transfo rmers, automobiles, sweets, e_verything you can 'imagine became a 'principal necessity' and was, therefore, subject to requisition. In the second place, the government stirred up an artificial labor agitation within those companies .. . you can understand that it is not difficult for the government to bring about a paralyzation of activity,** with great ease, they provoked the artificial paralysis of a factory whose products had been declared a 'principal necessity,' even though they were not such, and as a consequence they declared a requisition, according to the letter of the existing law, though directly contrary to its spirit. And as I said, the d ispositions of the law did not establish what 'temporary' meant either.
No Indemnification for "Temporary Requisitions" TFP. " Did the state pay anything for its requisitions?" - "No. Because it was a temporary measure, the law had no provisions for the payment of indemnification. The law had in view a requisition for 10 or 15 days during which time a **Decree 520 made requisition dependent upon a paralyzation of activity.
conflict in the companies would be resolved. The g_o~~rnment ( of Allende) said the requisitions of industries were temporary, but simply did not return any ( of them) · Some ( the first ones) had been requisitioned for two years and a half, or practi_cally three years mor_e th ~n 300 m dustries .. . in the textile. mdustry they requJS1t10ne . .. d pbract1cally everything in metallurgy a out 70 p ,' . th. 50 ercent, m fishmg everymg, percent of the canneries and so on. ' TFP . · "Wh at percentage of the industn al _base did those 3°0 0 some odd com~~mes represent?" b -:-- ~odrty percent ... But the most as1c m ustries ( petroleum energy steel) ' t I) a lread Y were ( under state con-' r5o · · · representing an additional l . 1y 55 percent · · · so that approximate t' percent of the industrial produc10n was under state control."
The Result: a ~~II in P1·oduction, Rismg Inflation - "All of this resulted in a very ~renounced fall in industrial production. Industrial production which normally grows about 8 or 10 percent (Continued on page 71)
A Report by the Latin American TFP's:
The Chilean Experitnent
.--
1. THE ROOTS OF THE DISASTER
As a background for our study message are propagandized diof the Chilean experiment, we rectly as are the coarser elements focus first on the historical and of society, but with the general global conditions . making ~nter- public care must be taken to disnational Communism desire a guise its true ugliness. For this, it has an elaborate propaganda netnew way to socialism. As is well known, the goals of work which includes the media, leaders, International Communism are political and religious world conquest and the total personalities in the arts and high destruction of Ch7isti~n Civili- society, and front organizations. zation - goals which 1t pursues Through the elements that it by the fomenting of revolutions controls, it wages a kind of innd by manifold deceptions. visible war against the peoples of a Discontented intellectuals who the West in order to weaken are receptive to its revolutionary their resistance to its advances.
This Invisible Revolution consists of the spreading of drugs, sexual immorality, and extravagant art and fash ions, within a context of relativism, while the economic underpinnings of the nations are being undermined by a collusion of international pressures and subversive actions. As a complementary action, world "dialogues" and dramatic diplomatic peace moves in a climate of detente are being used to lull the nations to sleep in the face of the danger that threatens. Yet, in spite of all this work, Communism has never succeeded m coming to power by winning a CRUSADE
25
free election, but only by stealth, subversion, treason, and violence. And, moreover, once in control, it has never managed to gain the hearts of the subjugated multitudes, even though it used every resource of an all-embracing State power to do so. Hungary testified to this in 19 5 6, Czechoslovakia in 1968, Poland in 1956 and 1.970, and little Lithuania in 1972. These are some of the more notable events which show the general malaise. In their battle to conquer world public opinion the Communists had a commanding necessity to prove that they are not only a violent force that dominates by brutal imposition but also a peaceful action capable of persuading and stably winning the minds of a free people. The Chilean experiment was designed to serve that end. It was to be a model for the West, and indeed the Western Nations observed and studied it from that viewpoint. But the reader will ask, a model of what exactly? Of a Revolution which was promoting profound socialist changes hostile to the individual and the right of private property, but which claimed to be gradual, evolutionary, and respectful of liberty .. . This was sometimes called the "Chilean way to socialism. " Before analyzing Allende's Marxist regime, we need to expose to some extent the roots of his so-called Chilean way.
work of ideological conditioning, and by the enactment of significant pieces of socialist legislation. None of these leftist gains
would have been possible without the assistance of the progressive clergy, a factor of major impoi·tance in a country where
Cnrdinnl Rnul Silvn Henriquez in Allende's privnte home w·t1 h" . . 1 recognizes the Marxist candidate us the president-elect ev·e11 t isCv isit te seulcd the electoral impasse. Also in the picture: Tl;e n · / ore . ngresi Santiago and Allende's wife. uxi mry 8 1s 1op 0
hf
1
SUPPORT OF THE CLERGY, KEYSTONE OF THE REVOLUTION IN LIBERTY
The fact is that Chile had been for some years - and not merely during the three years of Allende's Marxist regime - a kind of model trying to prove itself before the whole world. Allende's regime was prepared years in advance by an intensive 26 CRUSADE
T h e Cardina l arrives at a public function and • ff • Allende. His constant support was very preciou;s fa Ccltonately greeted by "Chilean Way." or progre ss "along" the
80 percent of the people profess Catholicism. The Jesuits of the influential Bellarmine Center carried out a vast work of ideological "transhipment" by which mentalities traveling in the ideological "ship" of Catholicism were gradually transhipped to Marxism in an almost imperceptible manner. The famous Father Rogers Veckemans was outstanding in this respect. He inspired the Center for Economic and Social Development in Latin America, well known by its Spanish initials DESAL. The Jesuit review Mensaje was also a principal organ used for this work of transhipment. This work was furthered very greatly by the words and attitudes of Cardinal Silva Henriquez, Archbishop of Santiago, and certain other prelates such as the Bishops of Temuco, Talca, and San Felipe. These prelates and the clergy which followed them began more or less openly but above all by means of their attitudes in practice - to persuade Chilean Catholics that the Church no longer opposed Marxism in a categorical and irreducible manner. They promoted the idea that a new era of collaboration in the construction of socialism had dawned, proclaiming that the Church hoped for a better world, "more human," more "fraternal," and more zealous for the welfare of the poor. Meanwhile, ultraradical groups set an example of active collaboration with Marxism. Among these were the so-called Iglesia Joven (the Young Church) and in the political sphere the Christian Left and MAPU (a group of dissidents among the Christian oemocrats). The growth of Marxist ideas nd tendencies in Catholic cirales particularly the more influc ' ones, b rougI1t a gre~t _m. ential rease in power to the Chn st1an ternocratic Movement, which,
CHILE: SPECIAL INTERVIEW 5
THE CARDINAL FREQUENTLY APPEARED WITH ALLENDE In order to gain a deeper understanding of the role of the "progressive" clergy during the Allende regime, we consulted Reverend Father Raimundo Arancibia, a distinguished priest of the Archdiocese of Santiago, who had resigned as pastor of St. Bruno's Church amidst circumstances suggesting that he was about to be relieved. His fidelity to the doctrine and traditions of the Catholic Church made him very irritating to the "advanced" priests.
confessions" in which whole groups are absolved have become common. Though they are absolutely not valid, they are being favored by many priests. "The Jesuit Fathers and the French Fathers who educate the children of traditional Chilean families, have been spreading "progressive" ideas for some time. The Jesuits publish the review M ensaje which is frankly leftist. "In the last few years there have been about 250 apostasies in the Chilean clergy, including one Bishop. The majority of those who apostatized were young priests, recently ordained. Some, like Fathers Dario Marcotti and Fernando Ugarte Larrain had supported Allende in his political campaign. "One Monsignor used to say to me: 'I'm proud to say that in my parish they have never prayed the Novena to the Virgin of Carmel .. .' "Another Monsignor, now very important; who traveled to Europe to visit protestant religious communities, maintained : 'In the monastery ( protestant ) of Taize, there is indeed true Fath er Arancibia. spirituality . . .' "The most leftist priests are those who occupy the most influential posiHe received us in his house situated tions. There is no suppression at all of in a remote neighborhood of Santiago the so-called 'Priests for Socialism.' " where he has lived since his resignation. The principal parts of our con- The Cardinal versation with Father Arancibia fol- Showed "All the Appearances
low:
of Collaboration"
TFP. "How did the Cardinal act during these last three decisive years in the history of Chile?" - "Without prejudice to the im-"Beginning with the decade of mense respect which his investiture as 1950, the religious devotion of the Cardinal Primate merits from me I people cooled," Father Arancibia be- must say that his action had all fhe gan. I remember that before that time appearances of collaboration with the it took twelve priests ten hours to hear Marxist regime. When Fidel Castro the c-onfessions of the parishioners came, he was with him several times who came on the great Marian Feast an~ on many occasions he appeared of December 8, which was very much beside Allende in public events. solemnized here. From 1950 on, this Though perhaps he invoked the fact diminished progressively. Today, all that the supreme authority in the the confesions of those who come on country was involved, the truth is that same date may be heard by one ( Continued on page 72) priest in two hours. The "general
"Progressivism" and the Religious Crisis
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27
while it carries the name of Christian, is socialistic in its ideas and tendencies. The Christian Democratic movement is the Trojan Horse of Communism. The Christian Democratic president, Eduardo Frei, carried out a "reform" of the Chilean Constitution which practically nullified the legal guarantees fo_rmerly protecting the natural nght of private property. La~er,_ un?er the guise of a false social _JUSt1ce, he effected a whole lefmt program hostile to the individual and the right of private p~operty, the main buttress of which was the socialistic and confiscatory agrarian reform. None of these measures could have been achieved without the assistance of the progressive clergy, which by their teaching and example prepared public opinion for these moves. The aid which that clergy gave to Marxist presidential candidate Salvador Allende, was even greater In December 1969, when the presidential campaign was well under way, Cardinal Silva Henriquez, acting in a way diametrically opposed to Catholic doctrine, declared to the press that Catholics could licitly vote for Marxist candidates ( Ultima Hora, 12-24-69). This statement gained votes for Allende during the election, and was of critical importance when an electoral deadlock threw the election into the Congress. The Christian Democrats, knowing the thinking of the Chilean hierarchy, were not in the least embarrassed about casting their votes for the Marxist candidate, Allende. For his part, the other candidate in the run-off, the "conservative," Alessandri, had no qualms about withdrawing his own candidacy and asking the rightist members of Congress not to vote for him. Readers desiring more documentation on the role of the Chilean clergy should consult the manifesto of the Chilean TFP reproduced on page 54 of this issue of Crusade. 28
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11. AGRARIAN REFORM: WHOM DID IT BENEFIT? For three years Chile suffered from the application of an "intensive treatment" in socialism, which consisted of three fundamental elements: ( 1) The class struggle directed
toward total egalitarianism. (2) Abolition of private prop-
erty. (3) Statism
complete
moving toward totalitarianism.
thereby resolve the social problems of the countryside. This idea dressed in Christian robes began to acquire a certain appearance of legitimacy to some. The first law of agrarian reform was passed during the presidency of Alessandri, a "conservative." By virtue of this law, the first expropriations occurred, thereby beginning the process in Chile.
FREI AMENDS THE CONSTITUTION A perfectly clear and firm grasp We have already alluded to of these three concepts is funda-
mental for a really objective analysis of the results of the "Chilean Way to Socialism." It will also be helpful to bear these ideas in mind as we trace the development of agrarian reform in the pre-Allende years. Agitation for this program did not come from farm workers but from secretive bourgeois cliques of Catholic leftists who succeeded in creating a climate of hostility toward the old rural proprietors. Their main supposition was that the simple equal division of land would increase its production and
President Frei's "reform" of the Chilean Constitution in 1965. He amended article 10, sanctioning a new text which in effect abolished t)1e right of private property, considered as a natural right above the State. This created the legal conditions which would make possible a _massive expropriatiop of land . without proportionate cause or Just compensation. At that time, the review Fiducia, whose editors and journalists would later found the Chilean Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Prop-
Mr. Patricio Larrain, president of the Ch¡1 TFP leading a march of Chilean peasants again' tean . ' reform during Frei's regime. s agrar1ar1
erty, publicly interpellated Frei. They showed that the amendCHILE: ment was incompatible with SPECIAL INTERVIEW 6 Catholic social doctrine and that C~ris~ian Democracy was thereby brmgmg an enormous benefit to the Marxist cause. (El Mercurio May 13, 1965). ' A few months later President "He was owner of the 'hacienda' One of the best known cases of aggression against rural proprietors com- Nilahue, located on the coastal range, Frei presented an Agrarian Remitted by the agitators of the Unidad and there he invested everything he form project to the Congress. Popular, occurred at the Nilahue earned ... The Nilahue Hacienda was This project, if approved, would Ranch, a place belonging to the Bara- dedicated to the raising of sheep ( we put into practice the violations of ona family. The violent occupation of had 5000 German "Merino Precons") that ''hacienda" cost Dr. Jorge Bara- and cattle of the G erman Carnation private property allowed by the ona Puelma his life, for he died of breed. We had dams and the me- amendment. Once again Fiducia let its disgust from the brazen injustice of it. chanical irrigation of 1, 110 acres. We In order to become acquainted with had 59 acres in vineyards, which pro- voice be heard , by lau nching a the history of this case, \Ve interviewed duced quite a good wine, called Semil- manifesto supported by the sighis son, Dr. Jorge Baraona Urzua, lon Pais. The situation of our people natures of a thousand students counselor of the National Society of was excellent . . . They had roomy Agriculture and a well-known cattle- houses with electric lights, a system in the universities of the whole of promotions, salaries plus incentive country. This manifesto showed man and lawyer. He began as follows: pay, and a personnel review at the that the Agrarian Reform project end of the year. There was a great was profoundly harmful from a social harmony in the whole hacienda, moral, doctrinal, and economic and I believe it was a model in the standpoint. country. But Frei and his Christian Loyalty of the Farm Workers Democratic Party got Congress to "We had eighty workers, absolutely approve this new step on the loyal to the company. In the worst road to the socialization of Chile.
SOCIALISM AND CONFISCATION RUINED CHILEAN AGRICULTURE
times we only had four people who turned against us, going over to the Catholics of the extreme left known as MAPU (Movement of Popular Unity Action).
The Hostility Began in Frei's Days Dr. J orge Baraon a.
Formerly There Was Great Social Harmony on the "Hacienda" "My father, Jorge Baraona Puelma, was a very honorable political figure, though not at the top level of natiorla) politics as such. He was a conservative deputy for the province of Colchague. During the administration of ( President) Jorge Alessandri, he was executive vice-president of the Fund for Agricultural ~olonization. H e took care of parcelmg out State lands and farrns whic? th~ State had b~mght to create a sohd middle class in the country.
"During the Frei Administration they began to harass us, because th~ Pumanque township ( where the hacienda was) was a great focus of conservative votes - to a great extent because of the influence of the hacienda. But the people responded, and, out of fear of this reaction, Rafael Moreno, chief of <?ora at that time, refused to expropnate our place.
With AIIende, Assault and Confiscation "In the time of the Unidad Popular they tried to stir up an internal uprising of our people in order to justify the expropriation. They assaulted the place with villains brought in from other areas and used the four laborers ( menti~ned above) to try to pro(Continu ed on page 73)
ALLENDE FULLY APPLIES THE LAWS OF FREI Once elected, Allende made full use of the instruments given to him by Frei, and proceeded to dismantle the remnants of the agran an structure which still stood. The law granted to the agencies of the state a discretionary power for employing all kinds o f pretexts for expropriation . In April 197 3, the Marxist government "expropriated" the " reserve"* lands belonging to the college of Agricultural Engineers of Chile, as well as others administered by the Dean of the College of Agronomy of the Catholic University of Chile (cf. El Mercurio , April 2 3, 197 3 ). These t~o expropriations took place in sp ite of the fact that the agricul* "Reserves" consist of the remnant left after a previous expropriation of a larger portion of land. CRUSADE
29
rural expert consulted by the Corporation of Agrarian Reform had granted 960 out of a P?ssible 1,000 points in his evaluatton of the level of cultivation of both these parcels .. . Even this process was too slow for the minority Marxist government. Accordingly, it began to make use of its famous system of "capturing" the rural properties. In 1971 alone, 2,000 of them were violently "occupied" by agitators, with participants mobilized by agencies of the State. Once these aggressors had paralyzed the production of the farm or ranch, the state named the leader of the agitators to be "interventor" of t he place. By these procedures, All_ende in three years expropnated 13,837,600 acres of cultivate<: land. In other words, in Chile . 44 percent of t he cultivated land passed into the hands of the State. The farm hands who settled on these lands had been promised a title of ownership. But they received none. They came to be mere salaried employees of the Corporation of Agrarian Reform. As a consequence, they only cul.tivated enough for their own consumption. THE RES ULTS OF AGRARIAN SOCIALISM: SCARCITY AND MISERY The proprietors whose lands had not yet b een expropriated were besieged by government pressures. They saw no guarantees for their rights, either in legislation or the government . None of them d ared risk investing capital in lands constantly under threat. In January 197 3 the farmers of the provinces of Osorno and Valdiva assembled, and denounced the climate of insecurity. They pointed out that 7,413,000 acres of State land had simply been abandoned, causing a shocking drop in all phases of agricultural production. T hey
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30
CRUSADE
A farm about to be expropriated. The farm workers have painted on the entrance way their disapproval of this measure.
noted that the wheat harvest had (Source : Report of the National fallen 4 7 percent between 1971 Council of Nutrition an d J oint and 1972 and that the 197 3 pro- Rep_oi:t No. 4, J uly 1973, of the duction would be 7 3 percent less Society for the Promotion of than 1971, a harvest of only Chilean Industry .) 387,000 tons, insufficient to meet even the seed need of the *** country and far short of t he I_n addition to massive confisnearly 2 million tons n eeded fo r catio~ of rural properties through food . . . This meant famine . Awanan Reform, Allende imposed a They also made the following pnces which amounted to confiscation of agricu ltu ral prodcomparison: ucts. H_e created State monopolies Production m Tons for their purchase and resale. 1972 1970 . . f~s _a result of a ll this, private 52,000 86,000 mitianve was completely discournee 38,500 chicken 60,500 aged. ~obody had any interest in 53,000 80,000 pork Prod ucmg, not even the farmers 68,000 143,000 beef who were located on the "settlements" which had resulted from TI1e seriousness o f the problem th e land reform itself. Thus, in is shown by the fact t hat im- J anuar>:' l 97 3, the National Conportation of foodstuffs doubled federa:ion of Settle ments and Coand tripled, as shown below: operatives, composed of farm workers who h ad "benefited" Average Importation Year from~ th e p lunders o f the governof Food ment, asserted that the govern. ¡100,000,000 ment was mocking them and $170,000,000 1970 wo_uld not let the m work. They $500,000,000 1972 pomted out that since the cost o f $700,000,000 (est .) 1973 producing a quintal * of whear * I quintal is app rox imately 220 pounds.
rades in various urban centers carrying placards against Agrarian Reform. In every place they were received with great enthusiasm by the respective populations. (El Mercurio, December 12, 1971). In October 1972, once again 360,000 farm workers halted all their activities as an expressive repudiation of the socialist measures of the government. We could continue indefinitely, but in order to finish, we call your attention to some declarations of the small farmers of Chile: "From now on nobody is going to enter the lands of the small and middle sized farms in Chile... we The workers themselves stand guard behind the placards in the gateway to assume the responsibility necesthe farm. The posters say "no queremos ser esclavos del estado" ("we don't sary, even though .. . we lose our nt to "be slaves of the state") and "no acceptamos ningun clase de ex prolives. I prefer to put my life on the w a ' d f k. d f ¡ t¡ ") pracion" ("we wont stan or any in o expropr1a 10n. line in this matter, because I am defending what belongs to me, my children, and my family. We are was 757.58 Escudos they had farm for decades and pointed out: not going to surrender one more asked for an official price of " ... we have constantly improved piece of land by expropriation." 83 3.3 5 Escudos but had been our position and now we have very (El Mercurio, May 16, 1973). granted a price of only 250 good salaries, homes - some of Escudos. (El Mercurio, January 1, them of reinforced concrete conThe action of the small farmers 1973). struction - and privileges which to defend their properties was not we could not get even working for based on mere personal interest, THE ENERGETIC REACTION ourselves. Our pay has never been though this would have of itself OF THE FARM WORKERS delayed even one day. The propriResistance soon came, and in etor who lives on the farm has been legitimate. Behind their manthe most humiliating way possible worked shoulder to shoulder with ifestations was an ideological mofor a Marxist government. Of the us for more than 50 years. He has tive which is reflected in the folvarious social categories in the always been solicitous for us in lowing declaration on the educarural milieu, it was precisely the any necessity, helping us in the tional policy of Allende's governfarm laborers and small proprietors most difficult moments such as, ment: who reacted most energetically for example, when we have been "We farmers cannot remain inagainst the socialist and confiscato- ill . . . " Then they pointed out different to other activities which ry agrarian policy of Allende. We that they had seen the chaos pro- are related to ours, such as, for cite now some examples of that duced by Agrarian Reform on the example, education_. This is our heroic resistance: farms in the vicinity. (El Mercurio, business, because 1t affects our The farm workers of El Burro October 11, 1971). children, to whom they want to of Frutillar, and Albacora of MeliAs the injustices mounted, the give a Marxist education. ilia seized control of their protests of the farm workers grew Our sons have gone into the esp~ctive places in order to de- in magnitude and intensity. They streets to defend freedom of eduf end their "patrones" against the demanded the resignation of J ac- cation. They have been beaten upexpropriations being carried out ques Chonchol, the Minister of Ag- on . . . and some of them were by CORA (Corporation of Agrar- riculture. And in 1971, 400,000 killed - and we told them not to ian Reform). of them from various provinces go into the streets because they The workers of El Burro sent a carried out a gigantic protest were running a risk. We acted thus, t e to Allende, complaining a- strike. The demonstrators cut off when we ourselves should have n Oinst the government f unct10nar. hundreds of side roads along var- gone with them to protect them and asserting their rights. They ious segments of the principal from the bullies and criminals who said that they had worked on that highways, and made spirited pa- laid in ambush and attacked
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CRUSADE 31
socialist goal. Meanwhile, the re- gravated by the loss of buying percussions of the process of agrar- power. ian reform made themselves felt It should be noted that when in a devastating way in the great Allende came to power, one dollar urban centers. cost 20 Escudos in the free market. At the moment of Allende's fall, one dollar cost 3,000 Escudos. Ill. THE MISERY IN THE CITIES This was a depreciation to l /15 0th of its value! Or 15,000 percent! At the moment of Atlende's Poverty settled over the cities last two months of the Alfende overthrow, the minimum salaries like a black mantle, as essential regime there was no more bread. per week were as follows: items of food and household ne- This caused real desperation, becessities became terribly scarce. cause the majority of Chileans, office worker (2116 Escudos) This condition was caused by an lacking other things to eat (meat, laborer (1830 Escudos) interplay of factors such as the for example), had resorted to state confiscations of businesses, bread as a substitute. When even This is, in each case, the value of price fixing, etc; but the chief and that began to be lacking, the less than a dollar a week. _In th e middle of September, the most direct cause was the brutal situation became unbearable. pnce of ~ meal in an average resdrop in rural production, as the THE LOSS taurant m Santiago was about Chamber of Deputies admitted. OF BUYING POWER l ,OOO Escudos, about half a week's (El Mercurio, Special Jnternational The problem of scarcity was ag- salary for a laborer. Edition, September 197 3 ).
them ... " (El Mercurio, May 16, 1973). In spite of all this, Allende pushed pig-headedly toward his
SCARCITY BRINGS HUNGER, VIOLENCE, AND DEATH
The scarcest products included sugar, milk, cooking and salad oils, tea, coffee, flour, bread, spaghetti, noodles, rice, vegetables, all kinds of meat, fish, etc. These indispensable foods could only be bought when they appeared in the stores and after waiting in great long queues. Many times the queues began to form the day before a given item was to go on sale. The people lined up in pitch dark. They brought mattresses and blankets when it was¡ cold. The older people arrived '-Yith stools or boxes to sit on . .. Sometimes the queues extended several blocks. It was common to wait between 5 and 7 hours to buy half a pint of oil. Finally in the
They wait in the queue as night come,, and morni . ,till waiting. Th e lady brought a chair and ,ome b/'g//1 11 also come with them the long wait; /or the man sleeping beside he r a bin ket, to iustain h er during an et ioas enough.
A n " endless" queue. Tl-e camera could not take in its full length. 32 CRUSADE
In short, the Marx ist govern, ment which t o ok over in the nam e of the people and which never tired o f proclaiming its supposed intention to end poverty and " d e-
p~ndency" produced the greatest misery and hunger known in the history of Chile. It was worse than the most catast rophic earthguakes which have scourged that nation.
purchase of a company's stocks through CORFO, the agency charged with the administ ration of the enterprises in the " public sector." All but one of the private banks were natio nalized in this IV. THE INDUSTRIAL REFORM way . In addit ion, t he governmen t reIn applying this law to serve s?rted to the laws o f expropriaTHE USE OF ~o cialist goals, Allende proceeded , tion, through which it n atio nalized LEGAL LOOPHOLES m general, as follows : the great mining co mpanies (copTO ROB THE OWNERS When a路 company was marked per, iron , coal, saltpet er ) an d t h e At the time Allende cam e to fo r nationalizatio n, labor agitators fisheries. power 15 percent of Chilean in- arose from am o ng its own emMISMANAGE MENT AND CHAOS d ustry w as already in the h ands o f ployees or from other places, and The Stat e inte rven to rs proved t he St ate. Allende路 confiscat ed provoked a union conflict by makan o ther 40 perce nt of the produ c- ing demands t hat were impossible in practice t o be inefficient m antive units, m aking a total of 5 5 to satisfy. T hey would also agers. Not having the support o f percent m the " public sector'' "occupy" the facto1y , that is, the workers of t he ex p ro priated (unde r the control of the St ate) they would clo se its doors and par- co mpanies, t hey hired hu ndreds of unnecessary laborers and clerical alyze its production. during his regime. employees. This was acco m panied By these m eans, Alle nde artifiTo achieve this m assive takeby n o proportio nate rise in procially creat ed t he paralyzatio n o f over, Allen de made use o f laws and d uctio n an d a rise in absenteeism. industries required by A rt icle 3 8 decrees p romulgated by the leftist Allende him self com plai ned of an as a j ustificat ion for St at e interAd ministratio ns of Pedro Aguirre increase in absen t eeism of from vention. Of course, such p araCerda and Eduardo Frei, whose 7% to 9 % (cf. Cronista Comercial, lyzed industries were considered ten d encies were obviously socialist. He also ut ilized articles in laws to be " vital" fo r the supply o f the May 4 , 197 1). The govern men t, ap proved by p revio us governme nts, po pulation o r for the "commo n in fact , publicly warned t he interarticles which were not expiicitly good." Withou t any necessity o f ventors no t to hire m o re em ployso cialistic but which had a lan- resort ing to t he Congress, t he Pres- ees t han p roduction warranted . a uage that could be interpre ted ident would t he n decree t he t ake- (El Mercurio, J an. 19, 197 3 ). "interventor" The Unidad Popular* converted b roadly in that way. F or the most over, naming an part, t h e_ go vernment takeover was from among the membe rs of the the plants into guerrilla centers accom plished by t aking advantage governing party. Since t he " inter- which t errorized t he non-comm uo f su ch " legal loopho les." ventor" had total and a bsolute nist workers. The wareho uses were One of t h e m ost freguently used control over the go o ds of the com- loaded with all kinds o f arms. lo opholes was Article 3 8 * of th e pany, it became incorpo rated with- Among the item s discovered were canons and bazookas in SUMAR , Internal Security Law o f August 6. o ut fu rthe r ado into t he " public and "dum-du m " and poisoned sect or" o f t he economy . . . 1958, which was intended t o assur~ By t he use of this procedure, amunitio n in Madeco. order and t he national d efense in t h e case of war or internal sub- Alle nde unjustly acquired m o re t han 3 00 large in dustries ... FOR PRIVATE ENTERPRI SE , version. * T h e wording of t he article is: " In case o f Immediately after th ese confisSLOW DEATH t he paralyzation of industries vital to t h e cations, attempts were made to na tional economy or transportation comWhile the " pub lic sector" was panies, producers o r m anu facturers of articles pressure the proprietors into sellpiling u p arms and becoming inor 111e rcnana1se esst_n~1aJ co tne national ctemg their companies voluntarily . f,:nse or fo r t he prov1S1on of the populatio n or creasingly inefficie nt, p r ivate comThey were shown t hat if t hey did for the support of public services o r public panies were being discouraged and ~ot ~g:ee, they wo uld co n tinue ood, the President of the Repub lic shall be ruined. In the first st age - Novemg b le co decree a return to work with a takem defm1tely u nder St at e inter:ver of control by civil or military authorities. vent!on, thereby gaining neither ber 197 0 t ill the first part of In such cases t he workers and other were profit nor indemnification fo r 1972 - the enterprises ployees will ret u rn to wo rk u nder t he required t o place all that t heir their p roperty. T he m ajo rity o f :~nditions which sh all be determ ined b y t he re p o rt o f the perdn:i~nenr Bo ard obf C?nfcil_iat he pro prie to rs resisted these pres- machines could produce o n t he . but t he con mons s1ia 11 not cm cnor sures. n o nchose , . . preva1路1路mg at t I1e nme t I1e con flict ., Unid ad Pop ular (UP) - " Popular Unity" . An otl~er syst em , used especially A coalitio n of p arties dominated by Comco n " T he Marxist governm ent u sed t his bega . . d . a rticle co carry o u t ns estrucnve work. t o acgmre banks, was the direct m unists who supp orted Alle nde. CRUSADE
33
The Fruit& of S ocialism in the Bro nx , U.S.A. Apartme nt buildings abandoned as a result of rent control.
SOCIALISM ---• PROGRESSIVISM ---•
COMMUNISM
Socialism Is by Ifs Very Nature Opposed lo Catholic Doctrine Socialism is commonly defined as the total control by the State of the means of production and distribution. As such, it is, by its very nature, in conflict with the traditional doctrine of the Catholic Church, as is easy to show. Catholic doctrine affirms that every political and social system must respect the principle of subsidiarity. According to this principle, any responsibility which can be effectively discharged at a lower level of social organization ( say the family) must not be transferred to a higher level (community, region, state, etc. ). There is no way that socialists can place all the means of production and distribution in the hands of the federal governme nt without violating th is principle of subsidiarity. Socialism proposes to take all of the property away from individuals, businesses, and families and give it to the State, which then supposedly will make an equal distribution among the people. In order to do this successfully, the State must ultimately steal the private property of the citizens, which is morally wrong, being condemned by the Commandments of God against theft, and in violation of the right of private property so consistently and beautifully defended by the Church throughout the ages. Thus, every true Catholic must resist the implantation of socialism, whether this be achieved by a violent overthrow (the whole people and their property are seized by force) or by the so-called "democratic" method (where the robbery occurs step by step). Historically, socialism has always led to Communism.
Communism: A Full Application of Socialism In Communism, a full application of socia lism, the people are made artifically equal as slaves of the State, a condit ion in which they have nothing and the State h a s everything. This athei stic a ntic hrist sys tem is held in existence by the whole repressive apparatus at the command of the State, and ha s an ugl ine s s wh ic h can scarcely be concealed. It produces g reat econo m ic misery, and, without t he econo mi c a s s ista nce whic h comes fro m f reee nte r prise na ti o ns , no Communi st Sta te would have s u st a ined itse lf for long . Am erica n c apital began suppo rting the Sov ie t Union a s early a s 1 9 2 0 , whe n F'ord built t he f irst large Soviet factory for the manufacture of truc ks at Gor ki, and t his p ra ctice by American companies has g rown ste adily, 34
CRUSADE
SOCIALISM AND PROGRESSIVISM IN THE UNITED STATES Social Planners Make Socialist Inroads The ~merican people are the unconscious victims of ~n 1m!"ense . netwo~k of social planning and manipulation which claims to bring soc· I f . ia re orm. Th e mac h .mery o f th·1s n_etwork 1s developed by cold ~ureaucrats who deal with human society as thou h 1t were composed of robots and 1· n th· g · I p h"1losophy ' of the 1s emp ·1 I y th e soc1a I way exA · I I f th· . P anners. t yp1ca ' examp e o 1s upside down · I h"I osophy, now being forced upon A . soc1a. P 1 • compulsory busing of millions mer11;ans, 1s the one school to the other. of children from These social reforms are designed t t • all power in the State and o cen ra 11ze the life of the nation. It is ~on}rol ~II _aspects of for the implantation of social·g gantic instrument In the field of agricultur~smf d . . have led to increased regulatio' e eral subs1d1es the nation's farmers. To colle~~ and c_o~trol~ over came necessary not to plant subs!d1es, 1t becertain times. It still not bein ce~ain crops . at land owners of their property ~i~:ttiiblefto deprive made under the pretext of en . Y, e forts were tion to pass a land-use law dvir?nmental protecproprietor s of the legitimat esigned to deprive Though this measure was n:t use of their land. end is being achieved by the i enacted! a similar Environmental Protection Agen~:ervh!1t1ons of the to extend its controls over th • ich continues worth noting are the activities e f ~rmlands. Also which led to the unionization 0° !lesar Chavez, workers, an extremely import \ migratory farm ready once the Revolution an c<!dre to have enough to impose the agrar ia~eel; itself strong The assaults against privat re orm. been felt by the owners of Pr?perty have also cities. For example, in New .,;uskng_ uni~s in the as a result of rent control or City, in 1968, low that owners, unable to r~a~~nts were fixed so 1 abandoning housing at the z; any profit, were 30,000 apartments a year ( T~a e of more than Sept. 29, 1974.) As a res.ult e New York Times, large areas of the Bronx and 0 ~ these evacuations a devastated wasteland. And rooklyn are today who were forced to move w:- 0 , the poor people became victimized by this ~0 /t~. ~o P!a ce . to go, Federal regula tions have ~s leg1slat1on. of business a nd caused ma in er~ d the growth in a ki nd of s low proce s s of n~ businesses to fail ju st one example, a numbe r rang_ulation. To c ite to meet federa l standards wf Pa per m ills, unable all of whic h caus e d a n a ~tr e re !orced to clos e , p rice of paper, h a ving a n onomical rise in the p rinting and publishing indu! t ~erse ~ffect o n the cent rated in t he h ands of f ti es. \_\'1th pa pe r cone ve nt ual c o nfiscatio n of t h e wer ind ustri e s, t~e facilitated, s ho uld t he govere o nes t hat rem a in 1s lis h comple te cont rol o ver thnme nt d e s ire t o e s t a b· e Press .
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Communiam: Escape over the Berlin Wall to the toest i, made perilou, by armed soldie r,, machine gunner,, and guard dog,.
with production being sustained by Russian slave labor. The very fact that the people are not allowed to leave freely from these great prisons-hemmed in by barbed wire, machine guns, guard dogs, etc. - i s a chilling and everpresent reality. The ordinary person can see by common sense that nations which allow their citizens to emigrate freely cannot be as bad as one that does not. Reports trickle in about Chinese swimming to Hong Kong to escape the Communist yoke ( now sadly Hong Kong has begun returning these escapees into the merciless hands of the Red Chinese tyrants), about Germans being shot in their attempts to escape from the Russian hell by crossing the Berlin WaU, and about Cubans who have made it through the barbed wire and voyaged by raft to Florida. And the peoples of the world who still have the freedom to read such accounts think to themselves: "I don't want to go there." According to L'Express, the Sofres Co. made a poll in Paris in which adult workers were asked If they would prefer to live in the United States or Russia. The immense majority preferred America ( 62 percent for, 6 percent against, 32 percent undecided); even among Communist workers, Russia was not a clear choice ( 30 percent for, 27 percent against, 43 percent undecided).
Progressivism Collaborates with Communism, And Works from Within to Destroy Ifs Great Foe, The Catholic Church The Catholic Church is a spiritual superpower which, In Her philosophy, structures, and laws constitutes an insurmountable barrier to Communism wherever She is found alive and faithful to Herself. "Prog~essivism is a current of opinion which began with the so-called Catholic liberalism of nineteenth cen!ury France, which perpetrated itself In Moderi:i1sm, and which today has reached the height of 1ts, d~slructive power. It Is destroying within the Catfiolic Church, the very elements which make the church a pole of attraction for those who, respecting the natural and Divine Law consider ColJ!mUnism to be the most monstrou~ enemy of society. "The error on which progressivism is based ls as follows: The world contiuously evolves toward a more perfect form of social organization and Communism-a fruit of that evolution-is therefore taking society toward that end in a movement which is irresistible. The progressives say that the Church shoul~ for ~hat reason accompany the evolution of society, in the vanguard under pain of seeing Herself rejected by the masses who march In step with history. Accordingly, they promote in the juridical order, .. a democratization of the structure of the Cftur1:h and in the social order, a rapprochement thfbugh "dialogue" with Communism, because the latter is for them, the vanguard of social justice." ( Cr usade for a Chr istian Clvlllxatlon, June 1974) .
President Nixon's executive order 11647 divided the United States into ten regions, each of which exerts control over a certain number of states, and works to wrest responsibilities from them in violation of the Catholic principle of subsidiarity. Lately, the social planners have become ecological planners. Very few people appreciate the full malice of ecological planning, as there is a tendency to view these people as lovers of animals, vegetation, and natural beauty whose activities may cause some social inconveniences. The fact is, though, that ecology involves a destruction of life to attain a natural balance, and the planners are as willing to thin human populations as they are to prune the leaves of a tree or thin out a herd of deer. Their goal is to achieve a "world equilibrium" by instituting birth control methods, by causing a decline :in production in the more prosperous nations, and by fermenting small wars. The West must be depressed so that convergence with the Communist nations within a one world republic will be possible. Where does this lead?
The Progressive Clergy Is Very Active The progressive clergy Is diffused throughout the country, always presenting the deceiving socialistic formula. In every town, there are progressive priests and their followers acting over public opinion, and the progressivist control over the media, commissions, agencies, and educational institutions of the Church is virtually complete. And what about the hierarchy Itself? The U.S. Bishops have given financial as well as verbal support to the Marxist Caesar Chavez. They have asked that the economic blockade of Communist Cuba be lifted, a recommendation, which, if followed, will make it possible for Castro to tighten his repressive control over the Island. Then, applying a double standard, these Bishops, who close their eyes to the violation of human rights In Cuba, have called for a conditional economic blockade of anticommunist Brazil and Chile over the question of human rights. ( To See ••• to Judge ••• in Order to Act, Oct. 1974). These actions have not been without Influence In the political sphere. The U.S. delegation to the United Nations, when considering a recent resolution of the General Assembly upbraiding Chile on the question of human rights, decided to abstain from voting .against it, presumably because of "great pressure from large sectors of the American public." ( The New York Times, Jan. 10, 1975.) It Is noteworthy that the U.S. Bishops, whose document No. 9 is in the same vein as the resolution, do Indeed Influence "large sectors of the American public." Now UPI reports that the Roman Catholic Campaign for Human Development will publish a report in February calling for land reform to achieve a more equal d istribution of wealth. Early indicat ions are, then, that the U.S . Bishops will call for the Marxist's classic formula for agrarian reform. CRUSADE
35
enormous: 1,800,000 Escudos in ation of his agrarian and industrial 1971. The losses for 1972 were es- policies. He used indirect methods timated at 3,000,000,000 Escudos also to gain State control over (interview with Hernan Gonzalez, commerce. For every proprietor, the moLa Segunda, April 21, 1972). Since 300 large companies were ment comes to sell the product of nationalized, it is easy to imagine his property, the normal consehow great were the total losses up quen_ce of the right of property. It until the fall of Allende. was Just then that a whole net of The deficits of the enterprises in gover~ment agencies lay in wait the "public sector" were covered for. him to buy his product at an by the State through transfers of arb1tr4ry price in order to resell it money from the Central Bank and later. the other banks which had been taken over by the State. It is calculated that in 197 3 these advances to cover deficits amounted INTERPROVINCE to 180,000,000,000 Escudos (Joint Report Number 4, Society TRANSPORTATION WAS for the Promotion of Industry, CLOSELy CONTROLLED pages 24 and 25). . ~he Allende government proh1b1ted t?e transportation from SOME F IGURES REFLECTING one province to another o( any THE NATIONALIZATION The following table from the of th e products of animal husOF INDUSTRY International Edition of El Mer- bandry or agriculture. Only the The losses of the first 120 com- curio gives some very enlightening state could trans~ort these products. Thus a province with a surpanies to be nationalized were figures: plus of wheat and a shortage of THE ECONOMIC FAILURE OF SOCIALISM IN CHILE potatoes .could not make an exchange with another province with 1973' [970 1972 1971 a surplus of potatoes and a shortage of wheat. 11.5 Investment (percent of GNP) 12.4 17.4 13.3 The regime established numerFiscal Deficit (as percent ous control points where cars were 45.0 40.0 30.0 17.0 searched · G roups o f inspectors . of budget) Amount of Money Issued (in waited in the railroad termin·a ls t; 8701 20,244 55,552 216,356 thousand millions of Escudos) search the Qaggage of humble travelers ' wh 0 m · many cases qmte . Inflation (percent per year) 22.2 163.4 300.0 34.9 naturally carr· d d . . ie pro ucts acquired m other provinces. Foreign Debt (in millions of 2959 3444 2315 2103 dollars) A lady told us that one day she was traveling from the country Commercial Balance (in toward Santiago, · [77 .5 -122.0 -5 38.0 -476.0 carrying a little millions of dollars) meat for her children in her bagIndustrial Production (annual ~agde." She had broiled the prohib-6.0 percentage of'increase and 10.3 2.5 1te m~rchandise" in an effort to prevent 1t from b • . d decrease) WI1 h emg confiscate . en ~ e reached the police control pomt, th e Carabinieri searched her . V. THE STATE TAKEOVER OF COMMERCE . car ' and one o f them discovermg the .pie ce o f meat, was ' about not decree openly the abol1t10n of The Communist Manifesto private property in Chile; instead, t<? confiscate it. But she begged him not to • and I1e, ta k mg ' pity . on states: "The doctrine of the Com- he used previous legislation or in- 11 er, let her pass. In this case, the munists can be reduced to this direct instruments in order to col- c_ommon sense of a police funcsmgle proposltlon: the abolition lectivize the nation in stages, as we twnary rectified the absurdity of of private property." Allende did have already seen in our consider- th e government regulations.
market, without regard for norms· of maintenance, supply of raw materials in the future, or the profit or loss involved in the sale of the merchandise produced. As a result of this, during the first year of Allende's regime, there was an artificial increase of 10. 3 percent in industrial production. Those refusing to hurl themselves into the abyss, faced immediate confiscation. Because of their insecurity in the circumstances then prevailing, the owners of industries d id not replace their stocks of raw materials, make investments in repairs, or replace machinery. As a result, private industry fell into decadence.
36 CRUSADE
DINAC -THE STATE AGENCY CONTROLLING DISTRIBUTION TO THE RETAILERS The State set up an organization called DINAC (National Distributor). It was the only entity authorized to buy agricultural and industrial products and resell them to retailers. In practice only 10 percent of these products went to the established retail trade; the rest were channeled ipto the black market, a real parallel institution. It was public knowledge that the Marxists were making fat profits off the black market. It acted with complete liberty, precisely because it was run by the government functionaries themselves. They worked in various ways: in stands set up on the sidewalks of Santiago; out of tr.ucks circulating through the m1dd.le - and working - class neighborhoods; through leftist businessmen who collaborated with Allendeism. THE JAP'S - LOCAL AGENCIES FOR PRESSURING THE PEOPLE AND THE RETAILERS
Complementing the National Distributor (DINAC) were the JAP'S, committees of supply and price control. The JAP's were comprised of Marxist activists who utilized the scarcity of food to put pressure on the people. The JAP's were organized by neighborhood and sector throughout the country. In each area, the local J AP enrolled the ordinary citizens as members, which "entitled" them to an identification card. Persons having these cards could buy from businesses which belonged to the local JAP, the only businesses given preference in deliveries and at times the only ones having products to sell. The cards enabled one to purchase certain quantities of foodstuffs in a fixed period: 2.2 ounds of sugar per person every 5 days; 1.1 pounds of meat per person every two months, etc.
l
CHILE: SPECIAL INTERVIEW 7
THE PERSECUTION OF THE MIDDLE MAN WAS ONE OF THE CAUSES OF HUNGER The middle man plays a fundamental role in an economy based on private property. After goods are produced, he obtains them and makes them available to the consumer. For this service, he earns a fair mark up. The Confederation of Established Retail Middle Men and Small Industries in Chile has approximately one hundred and fifty thousand members, small self-employed retailers from all over the country. We visited their headquarters in a downtown area of Santiago. We had a conversation with Sr. Eduardo Garin Cea, a member of the Steering Committee of the Confederation. Extracts from his statement follow:
The Interventions Began Before Allende "Until three years ago, we had a certain liberty in this country in respect to supply, trade, and distribution. Our problems then were not very serious, though we had some resulting from certain policies fixing prices, mark up, and distribution - policies which had already begun to appear in previous regimes. "Our grave problems began when the State 'intervened' the great distributors on which the country, depended ... Williamson Balfour, Graham Agencies, Keeps and Co. - in general, those companies which were taken over by the government of the U nidad Popular because they were said to have sold out to 'foreign capital.' " TFP. "Did those companies render a good service?" -"Until the rise of the Allende regime, they performed quite an efficient service within the system of free enterprise . . . They were obviously profit making enterprises, but they performed a good service." TFP. "Do you consider profit illegitimate?" - "By no means. We consider it defensible and we have tried hard to defend it."
Preferential Distribution -"The government of the UP first created associations parallel to ours. They were in fact composed of middlemen who were militants of the U P. They gave preference to minority groups, arid ignored the established businesses of the country. "Later they created a mechanism of JAP's, which for us were simply a nightmare. "These two organisms were created by an order, not' by a law, but by a simple order of the DIRINCO, the Board of Industry a nd Commerce. "The middleman who wanted to receive any kind of supply was obl iged to belong to the JAP organism, which gave him the norms for quotas and forms of distribution. "Our Confederation always refused to belong to the JAP, and what is more, we always fought them, because we saw from the beginning that the system was illegal and arbitrary. We presented a solicitation to the Controller General of the R epublic. He gave a decision favorable to our complaint, which established that the most that could be accepted was that those organisms were simply advisory eleâ&#x20AC;˘ ments of the DIRINCO for the detection of fail ures of supply in any part of the country, but that by no means could they interfere in commerce."
The Pressures of the Dinac TFP. "Did the DIRINCO control a ll of the nationalized distributors?" -"DIRINCO created an economic complex of the State and then a national distribution company of the State which was called DINACDistribuidora Nacional S.A. "Through this company, they began to put pressure on private companies, affirming that they had to hand over and channel all their production exclusively through the State company. _They used all kinds of pressure, cuttmg- off credits, the foreign
(Continued on page 76)
CRUSADE 37
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From the size of these rations one can surmise the circumstan ce~ ?f those who did not want to JOm the JAP . . . . That system constit_uted ~nfair competition for retail b~smess, which was being strangled little by little. Many stores had to close because they had nothing to sell. A Chilean businessman to ld us of a case in which the JAP's delivered an infinitesimal quantity of merchandise to a certain store (for example, a bag of su_gar) and then denounced the propnetor thro_ughout the neighborhood for havmg a hoard of sugar. In this way, they stirred up a crowd to take over th_e store by force. Incidents of this kind were only too common a~d were very prejudicial to the afflicted storekeepers.
6
fHE CELLARS OF THE PRIVILEGED MARXISTS WERE OVERFLOWING
. The Marxist leaders who advacated legalized robbery became in many cases petty thieves 11.s well, as was clearly proved whe~ ~h~ Armed Forces and Carab1~1en overthrew t he Marxist regime. They found immense hoards of foodstuffs in warehouses, a~encies of the State, railways, nat1onalized companies, private hom~s, etc. It became obvious t!1at while the people were suffering fro_m hunger' the cellars of the ~arx1st leaders were overflowing with the scarcest products. . These hoards included me?1cines, bandages, and other supplies which could not be found m the hospitals.
VI THE DOMINION OVER CONSCIENCES: THE ATTEMPT TO IMPLANT MARXIST TOTALITARIAN EDUCATION By its very nature to~alit~rian- al cotalitarianism, to the tocai conism is integral. Upon bemg mtro- trol of information, and finally to duced in one area, it tends to ex- political and police totalitarianism. tend itself sooner or later t? al~ of the others. Economic totahtar_1anThe attempt to implant Marxist ism necessarily leads to education- totalitarian education was carried 38 CRUSADE
out surreptitiously at first. The government took advantag~ of the long and extensive ideolo~1cal preparation of educational circ_les by the Marxist parties, and put m motion a whole immense set of government pressures for the diffusion of Marxism in the public school system. At the same tim~. the "progressive" clergy - d1hge~t helpers of the Marxists - did ~heir pro-leftist work in the pnvate Catholic schools. But Allende was in a race against time. The Marxists, still a minority in Chile, were not advancing; in fact, they were retreating. And the oppositio n was growing in intensity. Reports were circulated in 1972 that the government had a plan for a teaching reform. Toward the end of that year, a Teachers Congress, patronized by the government, began studying a project for the democratization of teaching. The teaching authorities let it be understood that it was merely a technical matter. The Ecclesiastical authorities kept silent. In March of 197 3, t he project of Educational Reform got in to the hands of the more decisive and lucid anti-communist teachers. Then the great scandal exploded: 1:he ~overnment was preparing a g1gant1c plan of Educational Reform whi_c~, under the pretext of ?emocrat1zmg and u p dating teachmg to present-day necessities, was nothing other than the establishment of a scandalous totalitarian machine to mold consciences according to Marxist doctrine. The system embraced the individual from the cradle to maturity and sought to introduce its influence even into the family itself. The plan was called Unified National Education (ENU). The refor~ i_ncluded a whole apparatus of poht1cal pressure to incite class warfare in education. the Marxist partisan organization~ would enter into action, aided by the unions controlled by them, and the
"social conflict," the State "intervened" in El Mercurio, turning it into a State-owned company. The system of "interventions" through "social conflict" also "yielded" its fruits to the government in the domain of broadcasting. Many radio stations were "occupied" by agitators and then passed over to the control of the State. (In other instances, Allende refused to renew the permits which stations needed to broadcast, thereby silencing organs of the opposition while granting permits to journalists who were partisans of the regime.) By April of 197 3, through various means (usurpation, the buying of stocks with government money), the State controlled more than 90 radio stations. In addition, the government brought othe: pres_sures to b:ar against its ant1-marx1st adversaries. To· get them to moderate their criticisms it threatened to stop all paid State advertisements. As everyone knows, the P:e_ss depen?s principally on . advert1smg for 1ts revenues, an important part of which comes from various organs of the national, provincial, and local governments. When the criticisms by opponents touched the regime in a very sensitive area, the critics (journalists, politicia~s,. or public figures) became the v1ct1ms of fierce campaigns of p~rs?n~l defamation designed to mt1m1date them. The media controlled by the government had no scruples about ridiculing and lying about these keener opponei:its in order to annihilate their prestige and honor. furthermore, Allende had available to him a rigorous law to curb ''excesses of the press," which he had " inherited" from previous regimes. In fact, President Frei had u9ed this legal text many times to contain the opposition and intim·date the voices of protest. Howl . . ever, no prev10us regime abused the letter of this instrument to the e:x:tent that Allende did; his Marx-
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ist regime was continually initiating criminal complaints and actions against the directors of periodicals and other media. It became commonplace to close temporarily the organs of the press which incurred the presidential ire. These ominous moves against the liberty of the press were still not sufficient for Allende. The strategists of the Marxist regime recognized quite correctly that the Compania Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones was a key piece in the liberty of the press. Since this private company was the only manufacturer of paper for all the press, the government set out to take it over and thereby gain control of the distribution of paper in Chile. The plan was to use State money to buy up its stocks. And near the end of October 1971, a dramatic battle began between the State and the private individuals who defended the company. The press in the principal Latin American capitals took considerable interest in the matter, and protested against the planned State takeover of the distribution of paper in Chile. Since the government did not succeed 1n gaining control of the stocks of the company, it proceed-
ed to employ its standard system of artificially creating a "social conflict." The office workers and laborers formed a tightly knit majority to resist the "occupations" by the leftist agitators, and the battle was not altogether over when the Marxist government fell. OTHER PLANS IN PROGRESS: THE TERRIBLE CAPILLARY DICTATORSHIP
Allende's assault against liberty went beyond the persecution of public opponents, it reached out for every ordinary citiz.en. One of the most terrible means of doing this was by the capillary _dictatorship, a network of agenc;ies capable of exercising control in the living flesh of reality, in the minute aspects of the daily lives of the citizens. Examples of the capillary dictatorship in Chile are provided by the JAP's, and by the proposed Peoples's Courts, which were never put into effect. These People's Courts, had they been established, were supposed to "look into the complaints made by neighbors." At the time the proposal was announced to the press in J anua1y 1971, Oscar Alvarez, Communist advis~r of the Minister of Justice, explamed that penalties would CRUSADE
43
vary from an admonition to "forced labor," fines, and even jail. The reader can imagine what these neighborhood courts would have become in the hands of the sectarian minority, since, as the Armed Forces discovered after the Coup, they were preparing a sinister blood bath for the Chilean people if the anti-communist resistance of public opinion should make the "peaceful way" impracticable. The "appealing" norms of capillary control with its "moralistic" note, which was charactistic of the Allende Ministry of Justice, would have been only a beginning of the most terrible of dictatorships. (Plinio Correa de Oliveira in Folba de Sao Paulo, January 24, 1971).
would the policy of appeasement and collaboration of Cardinal Silva Henriquez and the clergy who followed him be sufficient to hold the popular indignation within certain limits?
The fact is that the race agamst time in which Allende was involved, was nearing the end, all the more so since, as socialism advanced, scarcity and misery increased by leaps and bounds .. .
* * * While the whole program of socialism in "liberty" continued its advance against liberty, some liberty remained to hinder its advance. Because of this remaining remnant of legal liberty, Allende was not able to effect his project of People's Courts or actualize his Lunch time has arrived and the pots are empty d ·t • plan to turn the National Congress · · • an 1 1s necessary to tell the neighborhood. into a single House of "authentic representatives of the people." Moreover, the road ahead of VIII. THE COMPLETE FAILURE OF SOCIALISM: THE POPULAR Allende was a regular lacework of INDIGNATION BECOMES UNCONTAINABLE general and local elections at all levels, so proper to Chilean civic At a certain hour, great sections life. Although the noncommunist of the urban centers would be people. Though this should ultiparties were very much disarticu- filled with a symbolic rattle, as 1:1ately be done, the present occalated, especially through the appli- housewives leaning out of their swi:i allows us only a brief sket ch, cation of the Socialist Agrarian windows protested against the wb~ich,hthough, will be adequate to rmg · . Reform, and although there are food shortages by making an up. t e mo re important manifesserious indications that the roar with their cooking uten~ils, tations which occurred in 1971 Allende regime tried to win elec- empty pots, lids, etc. ft was un- and 1972 into focus. tions by fraud, it was not possible possible for the Marxist governto juggle the reality of popular ment to silence this peaceful and THE YEAR 1971: sentiment beyond a certain point. unanswerable clamor. FIRST BIG MANIFESTATIONS Frequently the mentors of the The reactions of the Chilean .197 1 o n, the repudiation regime must have asked them- people increased continuously at 0 f Fro?1 SOC! l1 . selves: Would the dismantling of all levels until the Unidad Popular Ch 1.1 a _sm m different sectors of . ean lrfe became especially nothe socio-economic stru ctures and Government could no longer t~ceable, as we have indicated prethe system of nullifying the most maintain itself in power. To de- v10usly whe · t n.bute t o the n paymg acute and categorical of the oppo- scribe the panorama of protest early reactions of the farm workers nents be sufficient to prevent an adequately would require hunagai~ st the Allende regime. Acextremely energetic reaction by dreds of pages sparkling with t he cordmgly in 1971 the opposition the great majority? Above all vitality and heroism of the Chilean was able to achieve some impor44
CRUSADE
rant electoral gains. For example, the copper miners of Chuquicamata elected four leaders who were against the regime and only one who favored it. In addition, the opposition took over the leadership of the Newsmen's Association. In November, the opposition gained all of the offices of the Federation of Taxi Drivers, and defeated the UP in the elections of the association of office workers and laborers in the Bank of Concepcion. In the beginning the forms of protest were modest in scale, but near the end of 1971 they attained great magnitude. The demonstration of 400,000 farm workers, which we described previously, great in itself, had its effect amplified by a concurrent manifestation. In December 1971, in Santiago, 150,000 women participated in the memorable "march of the empty pots." Amidst a virtual forest of Chilean flags waving in the wind, they shouted slogans such as "The united left has left us united in hunger" and "Chile is, :tnd will, be a free country." The newspapers had photographed Fidel Castro (who was then visiting Chile i~ a sh?w of solidarity) dancing with Jaime Suarez, one of the top functionaries of the Chilean Marxist regime. In response to this event, the women marchers chanted: "While you dance with Fidel, we have nothing to eat," "Fidel into the pot with onion sauce," and "If Fidel doesn't leave soon, not even he will eat." IN 1972, ALL SECTORS
and manifestations of protest occurred in the Merchant Marine, in the nationalized textile company, Hermes, and among the stevedores of the nation's ports. The month of March 1972 saw an event which we record with horror but which shows the nervousness which had taken over the socialist authorities. A group of cripples had organized a protest meeting in the streets of Santiago against the excessive processing they were obliged to undergo to acquire orthopedic devices. In a display of cruel and unheard of brutality, the major of Santiago ordered the police to disperse the demonstrators by the use of force. The merciless governmental aggression did not stop at knocking these poor defenseless citizens sprawling among their crutches and wheelchairs. On the 12th of April, 750,000
Chileans gathered in the streets of Santiago to participate in the great Freedom March, an event which is engraved in the memory of all Chileans. It was the largest public repudiation which any Chilean government had received up to that time. Similar manifestations occurred in all of the more important cities of Chile. What could the government do against thousands and thousands of people? The situation became more critical day by day. Expressions of popular discontent mounted, not only in the great cities but also in the agricultural areas; the Chilean farm workers stopped working throughout the South. Between the time of the Freedom March and the action of the teamsters in October, strikes and protests came in rapid succession among the white collar and blue collar unions. We may cite, the
The March of the Empty Pots.
13ECOME INVOLVED IN THE MOUNTING PROTEST
from that moment on, the discontent of the people did nothing but increase. Shortly thereafter, the Unidad Popular lost the elections in five federations of university students, in the Union of the National Petroleum Company (ÂŁNAP), and among the employees of the Edwards Bank. Strikes
The Great Freedom March.
CRUSADE 45
-,------~---~- ----·----- -·-··· CHILE: SPECIAL INTERVIEW 8
"ONE DAY WE DECIDED TO PROTEST" The "marches of the empty ·pots," the hanging of the pots in their own houses at 10 o'clock at night on certain critical days ... the Chilean women did all this and much more. They made a decisive contribution to the overthrow of Allende. How did the women see things from their prospective as mothers and housewives? To find the answer to this question, we interviewed women from all the social classes, since all of them suffered, though the lower classes suffered much more. Dona Adriana de la Barra Foster, an active leader of the women's marches, told us vivaciously of her memories of the Allende tragedy.
How the Business of the Empty Pots Started "All of the women wanted to protest," she explained, "on account of the lack of supp_Iies, the outrages, and the gradual suppression of all legal safeguards. One day we women decided: 'Let's go out into the street.' But you can't go out into the street ith only a few people. So we began o talk among ourselves by telephone. What are we going to do?' - 'We are going to protest, on such day, such an hour .. .' - 'And how are we going to proest?' · - 'As housewives.'
The Appropriate Symbol "We needed a symbol. Then someone said 'Well what' do you think about ca~rying; pot? or frying pan? I am carrying a frying pan!' "So we all went out with pots and pans, as symbols of housewives. We were already out of food, because the person who had a little flour had no potatoes and the one who had rice had no oil. Rare was the person who 46
CRUSADE
managed to prepare a complete dish, because the main ingredient was always lacking. "Finally there was nothing to cook with, because there was no gas, no kerosene ... there was nothing."
"The People Joined In" "We went out parading, and the people joined in - not just people from political ·parties ( these were not even 10 percent) - 'the majority were absolutely independent. "One day we decided to march, and we all went out. We went as housewives; it was not a question of parties. Even the people who had voted for them, convinced of their failure, went out into the street to protest with us. "It was the first of December of 1971, while Fidel Castro was here. "The demonstration covered 25 blocks from one side of the street to the other. Everywhere we went there were people on the sidewalks, on the balconies, and in the windows applauding us. Only in the Cerro Santa Lucia did some leftists throw some rocks at us from hiding.
The Police Repression "When we reached the plaza in front of la Moneda, the Carabinieri were waiting for us, and fired on us with tear gas grenades. "An individual in civilian clothes, right beside me, fired at me. But I managed to throw it back, and the grenade him him squarely with all the smoke. Nevertheless, I was weeping for twenty minutes. "On September 7 - 4 days before the uprising - we made the last demonstration. It was extraordinary, but that time they fired on us with bullets. They were MIRists, or I do not know what - the scum - the sniping had already begun."
cases of the stevedores who refused to load merchandise on a Cuban boat, of the fishermen who publicly repudiated the government project designed to create an exclusive State buying authority for fish, and of the workers and laborers of 100 mineral concentrating plants - in Andacollo in the North - who declared their readiness to repel the "takeovers" threatened by the leftists. Furthermore, during this period , the retail merchants of Chile decreed a national s~rike. When the government used v10lence to force the busine~smen to open their stores, they resisted heroically, several of their leaders being carried off to jail. Then came the first great strike of t~e teamsters, supported in a n:iassive way_ by all sectors, profess10nals, busmessmen, housewives, farm laborers, etc. In the month o_f October 1972. Chile was practically paralyzed. · The strong conviction which moved the teamsters is well refle~ted in a letter sent after the s~n~e by the President of the Provmc1al Council of Truck Owners of Antofagasta to Prats, who was th~n Minister of the Interior; in ~his resl?ect, the following sentence is p~rticularly telling: "Without harming anyone we are going to gath er all our trucks together and ~urn th em publicly, because we . ave no access to work nor justice m our _own country." D~nng this strike there was a mamfe~tation m Santiago in which on;. million persons participated! ive hundred eleven thousand sec_0nd ~ry students joined the st nke 1~ which the teamsters were united with the businessmen. ONE OF THE MOST LAMENT ABLE ACTS OF THE CARDINAL
So p_otent was the discontent of th e Chil~an people, that many pers?ns believed the October expresswn would finally put an end to th e ~artyrdom which they were suffermg. It was a good opportuni-
ty for the Marxist President to fulfi ll the promise which he made to resign if the people should come to repudiate him. Cardinal Silva Henriquez from Rome sent a public message to Allende stating his concern over the events and offering to return to the country immediately if Allende deemed it necessary. In other words the Cardinal used his exalted charge to help maintain in power the regime which was plunging the Chilean people into misery, a regime moreover which em-
curio, October 22, 1972; "The Autodemolition of the Church: Chief Factor in the Demolition of Chile," manifesto of the Chilean TFP). We must also observe that none of the progressive priests gave their support to the valiant action of the Chilean people at that time. Why is it that, befo re Allende came to power, this same clergy claimed to be concerned about the material necessities, which later, with Allende in power, they preferred to ignore? Were they really aroused by the poverty of the peo-
The university students also protested.
braced an ideology having as its ultimate end the destruction of the Catholic Church and the Christian Civilization which flowed from Her. furthermore, not a single figure among the Bishops raised his voice in solidarity with the people, who were not only suffering misery and s~rug~ling heroically to protest aga1_nst 1t but ~ere, in that militant action, defendmg the very values of Christian Civilization itself. From that standpoint how much it pains us to be obliged to say that the Permanent Committee of the Episcopate judged it necessary to declare publicly that they desired "that the processes of changes tending to free the people from any situation of injustice and misery be continued ... " (El Mer-
pie, or was that only a pretext for launching an attack against the regime of private property, a value defended throughout the ages by the Catholic Church? The answer is no t difficult to find. We have noted that the missery became so immense, the suffering so terrible, that it tore energetic protests from the peaceful Chilean people; nevertheless, because that misery was the fruit of a Marxist regime, the progressive clergy kept quiet and by their silence collaborated with the Marxist regime. Moreover, they even weryt_ so far as to try to pacify the le~1t1~ate popular indignation. Tim 1s a fact of history that the Chilean people and the Western world will not easily forget.
THE MARXIST REGIME IN SEARCH OF SURVIVAL
The te~msters' strike had placed Allende m a desperate situation. In order to bring the strike to an end, he named members of the Armed Forces to Cabinet Posts and he_ pr?~ise~ to cease practi~ cmg d1scnmmat10n * against the teamsters. However, it soon became clear that the government did not intend to comply with its commit~ents to _the teamsters. Obviously, Its promises were no more than a ?elaying tactic to gain time, while 1t sought a way to save the failing socialist regime. It succeeded in buying o nly a few weeks of calm. In the unions, the UP was defeated in election after election all of which continued to confirin,the fact t~at the prestige of the regime was m a dizzying decline. In November, the University of Concepcion, which was considered the bastion of the MIR, came under the complete control of the opposition, which won 53.14 percent of the student votes in th e elections of the student associations. The MIR received a pitiful 8. 7 percent of the votes. In Valparaiso, the entire leadership of the Catholic University fell into the hands of the most anticommunist sector participating in the elections: indeed, the unionists defeated the slates of Christian Democracy and the UP by a n ample margin. â&#x20AC;˘ By these practices, the government denied cargoes to private t ruckers u n favorable to Marxism, while rapidly moving to set up a fl ee t of State-owned trucks to rep lace private en terprise in that vital branch of commerce.
Tossing back a grenade.
CRUSADE
47
IX. THE YEAR OF THE CRISIS: 1973 In the first few months of 197 3, there were a number of protests by the laborers and clerical workers of Chile. In fact, in the month of January alone, more than 16 unions of varying importance went on strike or vocalized their protest with significant public repercussion. THE AUTODEMOLITION OF THE CHURCH On February 27, 1973 , the Chi_lean TFP published in the press of Santiago a manifesto entitled: "The Autodemolition of the Church, Chief Factor in the Demolition of Chile" which is reproduced on page 54 of this magazine. In addition, the manifesto was published in the principal dailies of the provinces as well as in important papers of Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Montevideo. Later it was published in the United States, Canada, France, and Italy. The Chilean TFP demonstrated with nearly 50 documents that t.he Marxist regime would not have been able to come to powq nor continue in it without the support that it received from the Cardinal and the great majority of the Episcopat e and lower clergy of Chile. This support was given in various ways: (1) by silence when events required a clear denunciation, (2) by using relativism to· blur the irreconcilable conflict between the doctrines of Catholicism and Marxism, (3) by supporting the socialist and confiscatory programs of structural reform, (4) by diplomatic and political collaboration at key moments, and (5) in some cases by the clear adoption of Marxist doctrine. In serene language, letting the events speak for themselves, the TFP invited the Chilean people to remain faithful to the tradit ional principles of the Church no matter what should happen, and not to allow them48 CRUSADE
selves to be degraded by the influence of a clergy favorable to the Marxist regime. The manifesto showed that the doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church provided the foundation for an energetically
anticommunist pos1t1on and that Catholics not only should but must find it there. It was not possible for the Cardinal or any of the Bishops or "progressive" priests to deny the sorry array of events which had b_een observed by the entire nation throughout the thousand days of Allende. The manifesto was un-
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answered. In the face of all this, it is consoling to be able to record that eleven priests had the courage to write and sign public letters endorsing the manifesto of the Chilean TFP. These honorable acts gave comfort and encouragement to Catholics who imagined that they could no longer count on support from the clergy in their
CHILE: SPECIAL INTERVIEW 9
THE TEAMSTERS WHO SET OFF THE SAVING SPARK There were two great teamster strikes. The first occurred in October 1972 and paralyzed the country. The second one began in July 1973 and continued until the fall of the Marxist regime on September 11, 1973. In order to become better acquainted with the details of the heroic resistance of the teamsters we visi"ted their seat in Santiago. Several of the leaders of the National Confederation of Truck Owners received us, and we began an animated dialogue. TFP. "Are the truck owners who make up the membership of the union generally small operators?" - "Yes, the great majority are. Almost all of our members drive their own trucks, having at the most one driver who helps."
Lesson of the First Strike: the Idea of the Camps Valiant miner holding the Chilean flag high, and saluting all the others who joined them in the fight against Marxism. · h · · l f I fight agam st t e prmctp es O at 1 eistic and antinatural materialism.
THE MINERS OF EL TENIENTE MARCH ON SANTIAGO
TFP. "Did the drivers go along with the strikes of 1972 and July 1973?" - "All the way. The first strike taught us a lot. Then we found out how we had to organize in order to be effective and strong. That's when we thought of the idea of gathering all the trucks together and stopping them inside camps. The owners and drivers lived in those camps, looking after their own trucks. Everybody was working together."
-"We began by asking for help in one center and distributing it directly to the camps where groups of directors were organized to distribme things fairly, food, the guard roster, etc." TFP. "Didn't the JAP's bother you?" - "During the first few days there were a certain number of attacks to which we responded very well . . . with the exception of the case of Nos, where the power of the State entered in . . . it was difficult to resist the Carabinieri, because they were so well armed. "The breaking up of the camp in Nos, showed clearly that the only means of defense which we had was rocks. The owner of a truck, seeing them towing it away, shaking it to pieces - his only means of supporting himself - had to react violently, of course. H ow? By picking up rocks along the shoulder of the road and throwing them as well as he could. The Carabinieri replied with bullets and tear gas."
How the Problem of Supply Was Solved Another t eamster speaks. -"In Curacaui we had about two thousand machines (trucks). In El Monte we had roughly fifteen hundred, and another fifteen hundred in Puente Alto. In Nos there were about a thousand machines. In the La Marquesa camp, next to San Antonio, there were three thousand machines more or less. "Since every machine was with its owner, those people had to be fed. Because of the control the Government had over food, we could not buy in the quantities we wanted at official prices. Therefore, our first purchases were on the black market. For example, we bought a bag of sugar at 6000 or 7000 Escudos, though the official price was only 480 Escudos. Oil worth 30 Escudos a quart, we
The growing labor agitation of February an_ d M_arch led to a ma- The Difficult Problems of jor crystah zat10n on April 19, Suppl Y au d O rganization 197 3. At that time, in the imporTFP. "Now I would like to ask cant nationalized mine El Teniente, about your life during the strike. How · · b were your circumstances?" 11 500 copper minters egan a proEzequiel Diaz, teamster in charge of res't strike again st th e MarxiSt supplying the camps in the Province overnment. of Santiaga, answered: g The strike continued for almost -"Although the camps gave us a chree months. As the days went much more solid union and defense, ·11 d I f l1 they created problems of supply, of by, it spi e over t 1 e imlts O t e food, of sanitation. That work was rnine to draw th e whole country carried out and finished in every de. to a campaign of solidarity and tail, in practically all the camps." 10 pport for the miners who were TFP. "In practice how did you do ~~rsecuted, attacked , an d , in some _it_?_"__________________(_C_o_n_t_.in_ u_ed_ o_n..;p~a...;;g:...e_7_8..;): .__ __.
r ·
CRUSADE
49
cases, even killed by elements of the government. The small farmers of the southern province of Llanuihue organized a caravan, called "de! Hambre" (of Hunger), which traveled the whole length of the country to carry to the striking miners material help from the people of Chile. As the caravan advanced toward Santiago, it was jo_ined by addi_tional trucks, canymg the matenal aid which various towns offered in support of the resistance of the mmers. The government gave orders to cut them off in the Province of Bio-Bio. However, this was impossible, because of the heroic decisiveness of the miners, who accompanied the caravan, and_, advancing with belts of dynamite around their bodies, managed to break through all of the barricades that were raised against them . Since the strike was continuing indefinitely, the miners decided to march on Santiago. At the bridge across the River Maipo, some 12 or 13 miles from the Capital, armored cars and machine guns of "the government of the workers" prepared to attack the very ones they claimed to represent. After a long battle, the strikers succeeded in swimming across the river at night, slipping past the police barricades, and reappearing farther on . Thus, they were soon able to march triumphantly into Santiago. The refeption of the people, who had been eagerly watching for the arrival of the miners, was so enthusiastic that the government, which had obviously suffered a a great loss of face, deemed it more expedient not to respond to the situation. During the heroic action of the miners, their wives were not idle. Many of them accompanied their husbands on the march, and others became propagandists for the cause by audaciously occupying radio stations by force and making broadcasts m f~vor of their husbands. (The tens10n dur50 CRUSADE
The wives of the anti-communist mi11rrs have taken over this radio station and are broadcasting /Jroclamation s i11 fa vor of their husbands.
this period, already so great, was increased even further by the bad feeling which arose from the publication by the government of its projected plan to communize the educational system of Chile, which we described previously.) And on June 20, the dissident anti1:1arxist 'Central Unica de Trabapdores (CUT) of Santiago* called a strike to express its solidarity with the mmers. THE TEAMSTERS AGAIN: THE FINAL STRIKE OF JULY 26 ... A new strike of the teamsters began on July 26. In general, the strikers were small contractors who had only one old truck and one employee, hard-working men who drove their own vehicles all over the "endless" length of Chile. For weeks, the rank and file members of the Federation of Truck Owners had been pressuring their leaders to call another national strike, in view of the evident bad faith of the government in failing to keep the promises made in Octo.ber. The strike was definitive this
time. The teamsters concentrated thei1: vehi~les in great camps loca~ed m various parts of the country m order to defend themselves against th e assaults of the MI Rists and other leftist agitators. The c~mps were protected day and mght by guards working in shifts. There_ ":"as order, d iscipline, and eve!1 religious fervor in the camps. Quite frequently Mass was celebrated there, and thousands of Scapulars of Our Lady of Mount Carmel were distributed. The team st ers had put the strike under the supreme protection of the Mo st Holy Virgin of Mount Carmel, ~a~roness and Queen of Chile. Perce_ivmg that their enemy was Marxism, atheistic antinatural, a nd anti-chris_tian , ;hey knew very well that their Catholic faith was th e_ ma~n bastion of their struggle agamst it. l_'he teamsters were assisted in th eir v_aliant struggle by the far~ workei s and the population in general, who sent daily offerings of food_, donations of money, and express_1ons of sympathy. At the same time, they suffered violent
braced in Chile on September 18 and 19. It was the so-called "Plan Z". Since the parable of the "Revolution in Liberty" bad failed, Communism was ready to show its bloody face once again. ENOUGH ARMS AND AMMUNITION FORAN ARMY
Cam/1 of trucks halted by their ow ners as a /1rotest against th e failure of th e Popular Unity government to fulfill th e J1romises it had made in October ]972. From this moment on, Allende's days in power are numbered.
attacks from leftist bands, as a result of which, several of them were wounded and four of them were killed. THE STRIKE BROADENS: CHILE BECOMES LIKE A COUNTRY AT WAR
On September 3, a joint command of 25 unions (both labor and farm-workers), which embraced the whole zone of Concepcion, declared themselves on strike indefinitely in favor of the teamsters. The tension was increasing. At this time, there were growing rumors of a profound discontent among the officers of the three armed services ... Doctors, nurses, dentists, commercial pilots, small businessmen, bus drivers, and other unions joined the strike. The country was paralyzed. Gasoline rationing began, and food, which was already scarce, became even scarcer. Chile looked like a country at war.
The situation was obviously intolerable. Th e Marxist minority, with the international support of Russia and its satellites and counting on 15,000 leftists from other Latin American nations ( Cuba, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, etc.), secretly prepared to impose itself by terror ... When the patriotic uprising of the Armed Forces and Carabinieri took place very swiftly on the morning of September 11, 1973, there was general rejoicing in Chile. The people understood instantly that the exceptional circumstances through which the fatherland was passing required exceptional measures. The Armed Forces and Carabinieri drove decisively against the Palacio de la Moneda, the historic palace of the President, with a heavy bombardment ... Allende committed suicide ... The domination of Chile by Communism had at last come to an end.
After the overthrow of Allende, the authorities discovered great deposits of arms and ammunition in Allende's house on Thomas More Street, in his summer house of El Arrayan, in the Palacio de la Moneda, and in many other places. They found machine guns, hand grenades, bazookas, recoilless ri fies, rifles, pistols, and abundant ammunition. There were arsenals from one end of Chile to the other: in tun-
X. THE EPILOGUE: ALLENDE WAS PREPARING A BLOOD BATH FOR CHILE Why had the Armed Forces and Carabinieri acted? One reason was chat they had learn ed th e government of the _Unidad_ Popu\ar was planning to kill the high officers of rhe Armed Forces, the principal
politicians of the opposition, and the leadership of all the antimarxist trade union mo~ements through a vio lent surprise attack to be staged on the occasion of the National Holidays, which are cele-
Allende wit h the machine gu n Castro gave him, used / or his suicide.
CRUSADE, 51
THE GROWING RUSSIAN PRESENCE DENOUNCED
The Russian Embassy had six or seven buildings and more than 50 automobiles in Santiago. Admiral Merino, Commander of the Navy and member of the military junta, denounced the technicians in the KPB Construction Company in El Belloto as being officers of the Red Army of the USSR. They were training people in urban guerrilla warfare and in the techniques of subversion .
I
In Colcura Bay 3 7 5 miles south of Santiago, Russia was constructing a port for warships under the pretext of installing a fishing port (La Prensa of Buenos Aires, July 29, 1973).
A store of armament.
nels under the Hospital El Salvador in Santiago, in railway warehouses, in industrial buildings, in the private homes of persons belonging to the regime, in mountainous places, etc. Throughout the country of the Armed Forces continued to detect and confiscate powerful armament. The material had come from Russia, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, and other socialist countries, as well as from Argentina. The military itself was surprised at the amount of arms which the Unidad Popular had accumulated, enough arms and ammunition for an army . .. While searching the San Borja Complex, the forces of order found sinister plans. Among them was one of a Red mob action in the residential neighborhoods of Santiago, which would have included a massive slaughter of people opposed to the UP. According to that plan, the mob would pretend to be only a march of solidarity with the Cuban R evolution so that they would not be hindered from advancing toward the Cuban Embassy located in one of the upper class neighborhoods. And there the slaughter would begin. 52 CRUSADE
THE CUBAN ROLE EL CANAVERAL, A SCHOOL FOR GUERRILLAS
ln the presidential palace of El Canaveral, on the pretext of maintaining the famous "Guard of Personal Friends" (GAP), Allende orcranized a true school of guero rillas, with complete courses and a graduation. Among the instructors were Russian officers.
The Cuban Embassy had 19 accredited diplomats, but there were 150 people attached to it. These people turned out to be guerrillas who had fired on the Armed Forces a nd the Carabinieri during the action of September 11. They were deported the next day. The Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, had written Allend~ a letter before his fall: "Dear Salvador: On t he pretext
M ore arms.
of discussing questions related to Meeting of the Non-aligned Countries, Carlos and Pineiro are going there. The real objective is to study the situation with you, and offer you our willingness to cooperate as always . . . I see you are faced now with the delicate question of dialoging with the DC (Christian Democrats) in the midst of grave events .. . So I can imagine the great tension there must be and your desire to gain time and improye the _correlat!on of forces in case the fight begms. Your decision to defend the process with firmness and honor even at the cost of your own life, which everyone knows you are capable of carrying out, w ill draw to you r side all of the forces capable of fighting (Tribuna, September 25, 1973). T his letter was found among the papers of Allende, who followed the advice of the Cuban dictator, an d killed himself in la Moneda with the same machine gun that Castro had given him . At the time of the overthrow of Allende, knowledgeable sources in Santiago reported that the Cuban ship Playa Larga, which was approaching Chile when_ the military action occurred, earned hundreds of Cuban guerrillas trained and ready for the confrontation. Two other boats were on the high seas, w ith t h e same kind of passengers and intentions. THE EXPOSURE OF SHOCKING CORRUPTION The Armed Forces discovered that t he UP had turned the presidential residen ce into a re~J center for orgies. In a safe in the house on Thomas More Street, th ey fo und an album of pornographic h otographs in which figures of e Marxist regime appear in acts 1 of sexual perversion . T he magazine
fi
Ercilla reported that the notary blic Rafael Zaldivar made a lep:l list of everythi~g wh_i~h was gf und in the house; m add1t10n, he 0 . rnade this stat ement: "Also d 1s-
covered was an abundance of pornographic material which it is not necessary to list. " According to Ercilla magazine, Zaldivar was visibly moved, and said that "on account of the respect which all Chileans have always felt for the person of the President of the Republic, it is very painful to refer to all this" (Ercilla, September 26, 1973).
* * * FINAL REFLECTION Now we may consider t he meaning and consequences of this study. Are we to think that the obvious failure of the Chilean Way to Socialism has convinced the Marxists to abandon t his dream? We believe that the answer to this is negative for several reasons: ( 1) The same plan may be presented in many guises. For example, a leftist military government which installed itself by a coup d'etat may simulate conditions of democracy and move gradually to abolish private property in the manner of Peru or Portugal! (2) The Marxists who desire to establish a Communist one-world republic through the detente must, if they are to succeed, get Western nations to accept some variation of the Chilean Way as a means of lowering t heir economy to t he level of deprivation t h at exists in the Soviet Union so t hat the convergen ce of the East and West may be accomplished without difficulty.
( 3) Peoples infected by liberalism often seek to b lind themselves to reality by a foolish opt1m1sm. Some persons, even with all the facts before them, m ay continue to believe that Allende di<l not really intend to go t he full route of repressive dictatorship, thereby remaining receptive to some new form of t he Chilean Way.
The truth is, though, that socialism which is not only morally wrong but also economically unsound, always results in economic ruin. And socialism , being integral, extends itself from one sector to another (economic, edu cational, political, communications, police, etc.) until the totalitarian State is completely established. We believe that the study we have just completed demonstrates convincingly that Allende's case was no exception to this. So then, instead of being optimistic during this time of world crisis and auto-demolition of the West, let us be alert to the least danger, particularly where the right of private property is concerned. And , moreover , let us expect t hat when socialistic measures begin producing economic chaos in our nation , the partisans of the left will try to 'blame these conditions on t he free play of economic forces, and call for socialistic controls, restrictions on private property, and confiscations of it as a corrective for t he, very discords which socialism itself has caused. In view of these co nsiderations we invite our readers to make a meditation upon the consequences of socialism in _Chile so that t hey will be vigilant and ready to expose any attempt to impose some variation of t he Chilean Way in their own country, remaining ever on their guard against, and full of hatred for, t he mystery of iniquity pursuing its a ims even in the bosom of the Church. While the " progressive" clergy collaborates with Marxism, true Catholics, out of love for Our Lord, rise up to defend His prerogatives, maintaining themselves in a state of filial resistance against the ecclesiastical policy of detente with Communist regimes. And t h ey are consoled by the majestic promise of Our Lady of Fatima: "In the end , My Immaculate Heart will triumph!" CRUSADE
53
THE AUTODEMOLITION OF THE CHURCH: CHIEF FACTO-R IN THE DEMOLITION OF CHILE Editor's Note: This manifesto of the Chilean TFP was originally publi shed under the title, "Auto-demolition of the Church: Fa ctor in the De molition of Chile." It first appeared at a critical time- March, 1973-about four months after the strike of October , 1972 and about five months before the strike in 1973 which led to the fall of the Allende government. It was published in four important Chil ea n papers, and
throughout South America. In spite of extensive discussion and reaction , no one has b een able to disprove or discredit either its facts or its reasoning, all of which gives a great confirmation to its assertions. These facts should b e borne in mind during a careful reading of this manifesto. The reader is advised also. that the footnotes contain considerable background on the economic and politica l conditions in Chile.
and (c) during the A llende regime. We will consider the role of • tht> clergy and Hierarchy during each of these three periods, but firs t, the pri ests.
II. PRIESTS, SOCIALISM AND MISERY
I. Before the Presidential Election
I. THE WEAKNESS OF CATHOLICS:
of 1970
DETERMINING CAUSE OF THE COMMUNIST ADVANCE Th e mo s t i nflue ntial pro-Marxist factor in Chile is the Catholic opinion form ed by the clergy and the Hierarchy , whi ch , see n as a whole, acted in favor of the rise of Allende and which helped the executio n of his Marxist program. The clergy and the Hierarchy have tremendous influence and power in a Ca th o lic country such as Chile, whe re the orientatio n they provide d etermines the attitude of the faithful toward certain na tio nal problems. The Chilean TFP considers it to be an inescapable duty of conscience to fo rewarn the people against this fa cto r (1). All the more so, since, without the suppo rt of the clergy and the Hierarchy , nothing would be achieved by Marx ism .
**·*** 54 CRUSADE
N_o11 e of the three presid ential candidates who prese nted themselves to the Chilean people for electio n in 1970 rece ived an absolute majority o f th e voles. The two who received the most vo les were the Marxist Allende and the Nationalist Allesandri . Allende's polling was 36.3% a nd A llesandri 's 34.9% o f the voles cast a difference whic h is ridi ~ul ously small. Where there is no absolute majori l y, such as was the case here, th e Preside nt is chosen by the Na tional Congress according to the specifications of the Chilean Constitutio n
(2). Accordingly , there were three periods o f critical impo rtance to All end e: (a) before the presidential elec tio n of J 970 , (b) before the cho ice of the president by the National Congress,
As the presid ential campaign of 1970 advanced , the Marxist candidacy of Mr. All e nd e received support fro m certain Ca th olic groups, such as " The Young Church ,,, the MAPU (3) , sectors of st ude nts o f the Catholic University , e tc . These gro ups, th ougl~ represen ting few people numerically, served no ne theless to make many Catho lics b elieve that _it was licit to support a Marxist c,~ndidat e. They were led by pnests who m ad e fre~uen l d e?larations and appeared 111 ~ubltc openly suppo rting Marxism · r example, ' · Co ns1·d er , lo these cases: ·*Fa th er F e rnando Ugarte~od ay an aposta te-at tha t time frequently presented himself wit~1 Mr. All ende at his po liti cal rallt~s. His suppo rt was widely pub_licized b y the press and TV du~~-ng the campaign . "Father Hernan Larrain S .J., editor of the magazine Me~saje,
Progressive priests
in
collaboration with Communists.
A revolutionary attacking a policeman. Scenes like this were common in Allende's Chile.
The Cardinal presenting a Bible to Allende.
Trucks immobilized.
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55
stated on television: "I see no was, perhaps, the absolute reason which would prevent a silence of conservative priests in Christian from voting for a general-and we would say Marxist. " This a ssertion was nearly without exception. Yes, naturally published with great even the most respectable voices emphasis by the newspaper El of the anti-Communist clergy Siglo, official organ of the were silent. Communist Party (El Siglo, - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7-4-70). •x-Father Juan Ochagavia, Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Catholic University and present Provincial of the J esuits, was part of a delegation of professors from that same university who visited Communist Cuba. Upon his return , he brought propaganda of the Cas tro regime, which was transmitted on Channel 13 of the Catholic University (El Siglo,
8-7-70). The clerical adherence to Marxism - and the Hierarchy 's allowing the clergy to act with impunity in this way- actually reached the point of publi c ho mage being. given to Lenin in the Church of S t. Catherine, situated in the suburb Salvador Cruz Gana of Santiago, presid ed over by the pastor togeth er with the local leader of the Communist Party. Th e event was publicized be fore hand by the newspaper El Siglo (18and 22 of
4-70). These and many other attitudes of the clergy in favor of Marxism -so numerous that we cannot m ention all of them without giving to this manifesto an excessive length , but for which we have ample docume ntation- were m entioned by papers of the most varied ideological tendencies, and were copiously explored by the leftist press in ord er to confuse the Catholic electorate. However what most attracted the attention of the public
2. Before the Choice •d
b
of the Pres• ent Y the National Congress _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ After Allende was elected, the progressivist enthusiasm for Marxism manifested itself again on various occasions. Let us recall some of them. ·X·Father Manuel -S8gura, at that tim e Provincial · of the J esuits, addressed a letter to all of the J esuits e ncouraging them to cooperate with the program of the Popular Unity Party (4). From it we cite som e passages: "The program of Popular Unity , known by all of yo u , proposes some goals that we might consider authentically Christian ... It shou ld he for u s an occasion of profound joy, since the group which obtained the majority a t the po lls promises to work for the pe opl e and the poor ... Our sin cere attitude must b e one of loyal cooperation in every thing that signifies the good of the poor and the crea tion of a m ore just societ y. In no way sho uld we present ourselves as allies of those who are opposed to these changes, oftentimes in de fe nse o f p ersonal inte rests ... " (Th e Tablet, London , 12-19, 26-70, page
1260). ·X ·The Young Church whose members invaded th e Cathedral of Sahtiago in J96U , creating a scandal of worldwide r eper-
cussio n , publicly manifested its "sincere adherence'' to A Jlende during the preside ntial campai~n
56
CRUSADE
(CJDOC, Cu ernavaca , Mexico, no. 253). ·X"And bodies dependent on the Hierar chy, su ch as the labor movement of Catholic Action and Rural Catholic Action, in their turn , warmly manifested the ir support for Allende (CIDOC, Cuernavaca, Mexico, nos. 254 and 255).
3. With Allende in Power During the p erio d of over two y ears which has passed since Novem_her 4, 1970, priests, Catho lic laymen , and institutions depende nt on the Church have constantly s hown adheren_ce to , or ·sympathy with , Marxism. L e t u s c ite here some of th e m ost characteristic fac ts: _-:<-on Ap'.il 14, 1971 , e ighty prieSts published a d eclaration in favor of collaboration with Mar~ism (El 1Wercurio, 4- 14-7 J ). Pu~ltcly uniting with th em were various theolog~, professors of t~le Ca th 0 1ic University o f Sa 11t1a~~ fEI ~le~curio , 4- 15-7 I). 1 h e mtimate co llaboratio n of progr essivism with the Marx1s t regime (5) is a fa c t admitted by elem e nts o f th e cle rcry . The Bellarmine Center (6), ; wellk~own ecc_lesiasti cal body o f J esUJt~,. publi sh ed the results o f an opmion poll which had b een organized by Father R enato Poblete and a t>cri·otip o f t ec Iuu• • ci~ns. ~ large percen tage of the priests mterviewed showed them~eives favorabl e to som e kind o f mtera~tion with Marxism: 37% for~ dialogu e with it,even though say mg th ey rejected its doc trine, a!l d 53% for a frie ndly collaboration _wi th it, indi ca ting, how ever , th at it wo uld b e n ecessary to keep clear the differences (El Mercur· io, 5-18-7 1).
""·One hundred and twenty priests assembled in Santiago wjth Fidel Castro during the Cuban dictato r 's visit to Chile in November , 1971. At that tim e, the fever of Marxist enthu siasm was so intense in various sectors of the Chilean clergy that they were not sa tisfied with merely collaborating with Chilean Marxism but felt the need al so to se nd ly ric mani festatio ns of suppo rt to Cuban Marxism. Later a group of them went to Cuba to cut sugarcane ... (La Tercero, 12- 15-71 ; El Clarin, 3-18-72). ''-·fn Apr~! , 1972, Santiago host ed the Firs t En counter of Christians for Socialism , headed by Bisho p Mendez· Arceo of Cu ernavaca, Mexico. On this occasio n, fo ur hundred delegates o f tw enty-eight countries d_eclared that the o nly escape for the underd eveloped countries was a socialism which would complet ely eliminate private ownership of the m eans o f produ ction. They gave th eir support to the class struggle, and · d " Ch e " G uevara- on praise whose statue th ey placed a wreath o f fl o wers-and the memory of the apostate priest and guerrilla leader Camilo Torres (La Nacion, 4-27-72: El Mercurio, 5-21 -72; Ercilla. 5- L0 , 16-72) . -x•ro th ese fa cts mus t b e added tw o o thers: the government of Allende has received co ntinual suppo rt fro m the J esµit magaz in e Mensaje and , in a no to rious way, from num erous edu<eatio nal institutions o f the church. Since the end of the decade o f the six ties, a striking continuity o f attitudes has bee n maintained. Lately , Mensaje exerted pressure o n the C hristian D emocrats l o suppo rt Marxism after the coming electio ns by taking part in the Popular Unity
Government (Mensaje, D ecember, 1972, no. 215££.) The facts mentioned above are sbsolutely conclusive. Butas is notorious in Chile- there are hundreds of others that indicate t-he same trend.
4. The Revealing Contradiction of Progressivism The facts which have been presented disclose a striking contradiction in the progressivism of the clergy. Before the rise of Allende, the progressivists made an o stentatious display of involving themselves in politicosocial questions under the pretense of, in this way, h elping to free the people from want. If capitalism were the cause of the misery no w assailing Chile (7) this clergy would undo ubtedly unanimously protest against it. But when this misery - which Chile never knew b efore Allende-is the fruit of the implantation of a Marxistsocialist regime, the same clergy does no t move; on the contrary,
it supports the author of this misery. This contradictio n has an explanatio n. To these progressivists, the advent of a rigorously equalitarian society , in accordance with the Marxist d octrine, is an idol to which the material interests of the country must be sacrificed in a holocaust. Such interests are used , in reality, as mere play things to pull do wn what they desire to destroy . And after that, these interests are considered to b e entirely dispensable. Their privation must b e tolerated by the people as an immola tion to the regime in every case where such a regime corresponds to the progressivist clergy's ideological end. There should be noted here a kind o f Marxist mysticism which is reflected in the politico -social theses preached by the progressivist priests. Sharing this abhorrent position are priests considered to b e non-progressivists. By their inactivity and general silence, they bestow an inadequately appreciated approval upon the most active current of the clergy favoring Marxism.
Ill. ABOVE THE PRIESTS, THE EPISCOPATE It is evident that progressivist priests and laymen would hardly go so .far in their open and constant compromise with the Marxist r egime if they feared sanctions and systematic opposition from their superiors. They had every reason to fear nothing in this respect. The newspapers showed that the Episcopate- even while silent- was in effective solidarity
with the progressivist priests and laymen who collabora ted with the Marxist regime of Mr. Allende. In fact , in view of the above described situation, the Chilean Hierarchy maintained a notorious silence, striking and even scandalous. T o this was added the fact that priests were allowed to assume pro-Marxist attitudes with complete impunity , all of them maintaining CRUSADE
57
their pos1t1ons, offices, and responsibilities to the exten_t th~t they wished. And there 1s _still more. Undoubtedly many pnests who were silent , preferred not to be. Everything leads us to believe that their silence was due not to a lack of interest in the cause of the Church in Chile, but , to pressure that came _fro~ the top- because as Catholics it would be hard for us to believe that these priests had gone so far as to lose all interest in the good of the Church and the country. And it must be noted , more-
his " deep concern about this political gatheri_ng ,,of ~lear!y Marxist orientat10n. This did
not prevent the Cardinal f:om, later on, receiving very cordially, in an audience, a delegation of the Encounter. As a result of this audience, Bishop Mendez Arceo of Cuernavaca, the most representative figure of the Encounter, concluded that the determining reason for the Chilean ecclesiast"ical authorities' desire not to participate in the gathering was so that the " Christians for Social ism" would over, that the Chilean Episco- feel more at ease (Que Pasa, pate, considered as a. whole, 5-4-72, no. 55). m ade clear manifestations of Bishop Oviedo , in his turn, support for the Marxist regime took upon himself the task of o f Mr. Allende. We say this informing all the Bishops of the b ecause the Cardinal and various Continent that this Encounter Bishops uttered pronouncements did not have the patronage of o f this kind, and the o ther the Chilean Episcopate. members of the EpiscopateIn spite of this, Chilean presumably representing an priests participated in_ this Enanti-Communis t position- form counter, thereby showing thema single body with them. These selves to be ipso facto unanti-Communis t Bishops, even qualified to form the opini~n of though no t individually ex- their faithful in such a delicate pressing their sympathy for situation. y et we did not h ear of Allende's government, maintheir being deprived of th:ir tained a silence that fills us with positio ns or of the _prestige horror. It at least cons ti tu Les a which they had, until then, form of inert comp liance with enjoyed. . the o ther Bishops. The attitude of the Cardinal Tliiâ&#x20AC;˘s silence was broken on is, therefore, an artificia l graft ~r on ly one occasion. Confronted incrustation added to his with a scandal witho ut parallel, general line of action. It was even co nsidering the other fa cts dictated by the circumstances. already narrated here, the Cardinal decided that he must offer some satisfaction ; this was, let us say, almost t he result of public 1. Before the o pinio n insist ing upo n a word o n the subject.the n agitating it. We Presidential Election refer to the First Encounter of Christians for Socialism, held- as of 1970 we have said - in Santiago. The Cardinal made reference T he Episcopate (like the to this E ncounter in a letter of priests) manifested a pro-Marxist reply to the so-called "Group o f attitude quite earl y, as can be 80". in which he expressed seen from the events reported 58
CRUSADE
before the presidential election in 1970. *During this p eriod the Bishops showed increasing hostility toward anyone categorically combating Communism. For example, in August of 1968, the archbishopric of Santiago issued a bitter note expressing uneasiness about the campaign then b eing waged by the Ch ilean Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family , and Property against leftist infiltration in Catholic circles (El Mercurio, 8-11 -68). Three days later clergymen and laymen scandalously took hold of the Cathedral of Santiago, publicly shouting pro-Marxist slogans .. . (Fiducia, no. 32). At the end of 1969, the Metropolitan Chancery denied authorization to the TFP to have a Mass celebrated for the souls of the victims of Communism ... (Fiducia, no. 31 ). *Some months later the General Secretariat of the' Episcopate, with the approval of its titular Bishop Carlos Oviedo distributed special prayers to b~ rec!ted in the Churches, prayers whic_h pertained to the presidential election. One of these read: "Take from our heart all ang~ish and f ear in the face of social change, so that we may elect a man who may condu ct our country to more profound ch~nges for the good of all Chileans as You wish. Let us pray to the Lord ." (El Clarin, 8 -7-70- emphasis added).
2. Before the Choice of the President by the National Congress _ The Episcopate also played '.ts role during this important Juncture.
·X·T hree days after the presidential election, Bishop Jorge Hourton, Apostolic Administrator of Puerto Montt, a nticipated the verdict of the National Congress, considering the definite ratification of Allende's election to be certain when he pronounced in a public document: " The people of Chile chose for themselves a governm ent of democracy and social progress; they have the rigl~t to expect and demand that this be given to them , and not something else" (CI DOC, Cuernavaca, no. 251). ·*Similarly , on September 25 , 1970, the General Secretariat of the Episcopate published a d eclaration in the name of the Episcopal Conference of Chile, affirming among other things: " We are on the threshold of a new historical epoch on o ur continent ... of the liberation from all slavery, o f personal maturity and collective integration ... Christian wish to cooperate with the changes ... (El Mercurio, 9-26-72). In the context of the circumsta nces surrounding this declaration, it was interpreted by all political circles as a manifestatio n of support for Allende. This was aggravated by the fact that Allende had not yet been confirmed by the Congress (8).
3. With Allende in Power ·*On April 22, 1971, the Bishops issued a confusing and shamefully ambiguo us declaration which opened the doors to collaborating with the Marxist regime o f Allende. It contains the following: "In regard to the legitimate government of Chile, we reiterate the attitude that
com es to us fro m Christ: respect for its authority and collabo ratio n in its task of serving the people. Every effort to build a more human society, eliminating misery , making the common good prevail over the private good, requires the support of a nyone who, as a Christian , is engaged in the liberation of man" (lil Uiaro Austral, 4-22-71) In this way , the Bisho ps mad e use of the Sacred Person of Our Lord J esus Christ to bring the Catho lic p eople together into collaborating with the very regime which drives the country precisely into the tragic misery they claimed to want to eliminate. ·X-Jn F ebruary, 1971, the Most Reverend Ariztia, Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago, made a visit to Cuba where he stayed for 15 days. (This is the same Bishop who had previously signed a note expressing dissatisfaction with the campaign of the TFP against the leftist infiltration in the clergy .) In his visit to Communist Cuba , Bishop Ariztia was accompanied by the Bishop of Talca, the Most Reverend Carlos Gonzales (Mundo 71. June 1971). Upon his return to Chile, Bishop Ariztia d eclared to the excited publicity agents of the country : "O ur p eo ple cannot pay the high pri ce that Cuban Catholics paid for their intense opposition to the reform s. Christians must not isolate themselves from the revolutionary process. They must incorporate themselves in.t o it and give their b est to it. They must not stand on the side criticizing" (La Tercera. December, 1971 ). Sometime afterwards, the other Bishop, Carlos Gon zales, published , in his turn , a pastoral letter in which he affirmed:
"Chile witnesses a process of change that leads it to socialism. It must not b e afraid of socialism. Priests may and must make their contribution, so that these changes will be brought about" (Ibid.) -:-:•111 November, 1972, during his visit to Chile, F idel Cas tro was ostenta tiously received by members of the Hierarchy of the respective dioceses as follow s: by the Cardinal , accompanied by o ther bishops, in Santiago; by the Archbishops of A ntofagasta and of Concepcion ; and by the Bishops o f lquique, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas (Tribunal, 11-25 -7 1). Since Chile is a country in which the church is separated from the state, the Cuban di ctator was not required to visit the ecclesiastical authorities as an official obligation of protocol. His only reason for wanting to be well received _by the Episcopate was to impress the Chilean public. In this way the Episcopate lent itself to a clearly propagandistic maneuver in the full measure requested of it. These prelates uttered not a single word protes ting the intrinsic injus tice of the Communist regime of Fid el Castro or the misery of the Cuban people oppressed by it. ·XThe Episcopate used its authority to pressure the fa ithful morally in to supporting-or at least accepting- the March of Chile toward Communism. And this intervention on the part of the Episc'Opate reached a charact eristic climax during the strike of October , 1972 (9). Not a single priest , not a single Bishop, was present to manifest his solidarity with the suffering people during su ch memorable events as the socalled " March of the Empty CRUSADE 59
Pans" of December, 1971(10) by which the peo ple went out into the streets to protest loudly against the misery which they felt. Instead the Episcopate maintained an attitude reinforcing their earlier conciliatory recommendations of support for the government which was the author of that misery. This is shown by the behavior of the Bishops during the strike of last October when manifestations of popular protest had become greatly multiplied. At that time, the Episcop'ate called for an elimination of the dissensions in national public opin ion, appeal:, being made first by seven Bishops in a visit to Allende and later by the Permanent Committee of the Episcopate. The latter ,vent so far as to express the desire that " the process of
change, i.n the direction of freeing the poor from every situation of injustice and of misery, be continued" (El Mercurio, L0-22-72; Noticias, J0-2 1-72). -:❖
Ultimas
·X· ·X· •:•:• •:•:•
As can be seen, the Episcopate gave the Marxist government of Allende all of the kinds and d egrees of support that it might desire, and, in a continuous and more than sufficient manner. This is true even in the face of the qualification mentioned above regarding some Bishops who did not declare themselves, but who, because of their lack of protest, came to be considered by the country- and justifiably so-as consenters to the aberrations practiced by the Bishops who did declare themselves.
IV. The Leadership of the Episcopate: The Cardinal Archbishop of Santiago
Once the above facts have b een examined carefully , it is impossible not to ask : Would such an attitude have been assumed by the Episcopate against a contrary influence by the Cardinal? It seems evident that it would not have been. For the Episcopate to have adopted such a defined and constant attitude of intervention in the political affairs of our countryhaving no proximate precedents in our history-seems implausible without the stimulus of the Card ina l Primate. This is even more the case when that intervention was in the interest of a Marxist regime, thereby violating the natural order of things. 60 CRUSADE
The reality of the facts demonstrates that the attitude of laymen, priests, and Bishops favoring the Allende regime is no more than a co herent and exact reflection of the position s assumed by Cardinal Silva Henriquez. :xAs Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Catholic University of Sdntiago, he bestowed the title ot Uoctor Scientia et Honoris Causa to Pablo Neruda in August of 1969, a short time before the latter was nominated precandidate of the Communist Party for th e Presidency of the Republic (Ultima Noticias,
8-21-69). *In December of 1969 he declared to the press that it was legitimate for a Catholic to vote
for a Marxist candidate (Ultima Hora, 12-24-69). T his declarat ion brought a notorious advantage to the candidacy of A llende. Consequently, at this time, the TFP asked the Cardinal to clarify or d eny so crrave an affirmation, because (a) the confusion it might cause in the minds of the faithful, (b) the benefit it would briner to the Marxist candidate, and (c) the situation it was crealincrt, in . re1at1011 to the binding power of the decree of excommunica tion , promulgated by Pius XII, against t hose who collaborate with Communism. It is noteworthy t~ial a delicate problem had been stl ently raised , because, if the excommunication d ecree was
ot'
st ill in force, could it not be applied ipso facto to the Archbishop himself? Such a question ~vo_ul~ i~volve the most complex JUnsd1 ct1onal problems fo r the e ntire archdiocese . However the Ca rd inal judged it b e tter n~t lo d e,~y or clarify his public decla~ation , and, moreover , to refuse, m a ~lanner hardly pastoral and certamly very rud e, any kind of reply to the TFP (Fiducia , Su~~lement to No. 31). . Upon the occasion of the nse of the Marxist • pres1.d en t t o p_ower, Cardinal H enriquez presided at an "ecumenical" Te Deum in the Cathedral with the participation of Protestant paSt ors and rabbis (La Revista Catolica, no. 10 15 5885 ) ·X·The Cardinal a:c~~;ed t ha~ the . role of th e Ch urc h ll1 . re1at,on to ti1e government should be one of " frank and loyal cooperation in all things of th e common good" (El Clarin, l l-l-7 0) ; skillfully fai ling to add th at th e government should be combated whe n it is contrary to the Law of God and natural rights.
*The Cardinal visited Allende , and offered him a Bible, standing in a posture of great esteem at the side o f the Mar x ist president and allo wing himself to b e pho tographed with him many times . ·X·He made declarations to the Cub an press, in whic h he praised Allende, offering support for and collab oratio n with the "basic reforms" of Lhe program o f Popular Unity and beseeching God " to help the Cuban people in the work being carried o ut by them" (Ultima Hora, 11-1 2-70). -x•on May 1, 1971 , fo r the first time in his Lo ry , ~he Cardinal was present at a rall y of the Central Workers' Co nfederatio n , w hich is contro lled b y the Communist Party. He sat on t he rostrum at the side of All ende and his ministers. U po n this occasion , he addressed a message to the president of the Central Worke rs' Confede ration and marched in a column with Lhe Workers (El This striking presence was to b e repeal ed in May 1972 . (Tribuna , 5-2-72).
Young
Siglo
Catho lic
5-2-71 ).
·Y.·Jn November, 1971 , he received Fidel Castro in the airport o f Santiago. Later , he was (a) present at a cocktail party offered fo r the Cuban dictator in the presidential palace of La Moneda, and (b) had a cordial inte rview with him in the Cardinal 's C hancery , g iving him a Bible. Castro d escrib ed him as " a magnifice nt p erson " (El Siglo, 11-24-71; E l Clarin, 11-24-71). From his viewpoint, he has very good reasons for saying t his ... *·In December of the same yea r , the Cardinal declared on TV that the governm ent sincerely and arduously worked for the welfare of the collectivity.
This d eclaration was made on the occasion of the " March of the Empty Pans" (Ultima Hora, 12-27-71), in which more than one hundred thousand housewives protested in the s treets of Santiago against the scarcity of food caused by the political action of the government. -:-:-111 Sept embe r, 1972, the Cardina l addressed an open letter to all Chileans of good will. T he chief concern of this letter was not lo deal with the disastrous co nseque nces of Chile's March lo Communism but to appease the increasing dissatisfaction being caused by that process, a condition which was placing th e governme nt in a stale of increasing worry (El
Mercurio. 9-22-72). •:❖ •:❖
•:•:•
•:❖
·X·
As has been sho wn , in recent years, the Chilean clergy, from top to bottom , have massively adop ted pro-Marxist positio ns. T his political interven tio n by the clergy, in a country wh ere even the Bishops advocate the separation of Church and s tale, has already b ecom e unbearable-the more so if we consid er that since 1925, when this separatio n was decreed , the Bishops have remained o ut o f po litics , on ly recently aLandoning suc l1 a position o f aloofness. This altitud e assumed by the Cardinal and by tl1c Bishops is subverti ng th e co nstitutio nal syst em in force. If the Cardinal and the Bishops desire the uni o n of C hurch and stale, now that a Marx ist presid ent is in power, wh y d o they no t ask for it? While they do no t request it, their attitude fro m this point of view becomes e ntirel y unacceptable and subversive. In fac t , wha t is the legal basis for Bishops coming down to the concrete level to indicate poli-
tical courses to be adopted during the successive phases o f the C hilean crisis? When the MIR (1 1) began to assault private properly 011 a large scale-without effective opposition by the po lice- a climate o f vio le nce and counterviole nce result ed in ,ome region s. At that Lim e the Episcopate continuously upheld its positio n agains t vio le nce. Na tmall y, no one denies the right o f the Cardinal and the 13i:-d1ops lo express their co ncern about this vio len ce. In truth , they shou ld have attacked Lhe violent terrorism of the MIR and similar groups, but supported the counte r-violence of the assau lted landowners, sin ce it was exerted in legitimat e self d efense. The Bishops did not t ake into due co nsideration that th e violence practi ced b y the state through the continuo us transgressio n o f individual and natural rights is greate r than that which exists ou tsid e o f the S tal e. IL is scarcely to lerable, und er the present circumstances, tha t the Bishops in their declarations against vio le nce, sho uld go o n to reprove disunity, which is peculiar to the democratic regime . By :;uch an altitud e, the Cardinal and the Bishops virtually try l o promote a general coa lition of the peopl e with the governme nt, thus using their sacred o ffice to suffocale the legitimate manifes tatio ns of protest caused by th e violation of natura l rights and b y the traumas and SGandals tha t an anti-Christian regime creates in the Catho lic conscience. This is still further d eserving of note if one bears in mind that such protest was ex pressed in accord ance with the d emocratic character of th e political regime . CRUSADE 61
If the Cardinal and Bisho ps a re agains t d em ocracy, wh y no t say so? A nd if they arc for it, then w hy m ake it understood that the lawful clash of opinio ns is a facto r in Lhe d e teriora tio n o f the cou n try? O r sho uld w e go still furth er and admi t thal His
E mine nce the Card inal and the Mos t R everend Bishops are favora ble t o d em ocracy when they consider it to b e an instrumen t for overthrowing the system o f priva te ownership but are against it w hen they see in il a fo rm of d efense o f this natural righ t ?
V. THE HOLY SEE We are d eepl y pained to stand in witness o f the d eveloping process which we have d escribed . T hro ugh it the d octrinal principles inspiring the au tod em o litio n o f the Church are o ve rflo wing fro m the specifically religio us fi eld and pe netrating m <7re and mo re into the public life of the country, thereb y causing within it similarl y harmful effects . Alo ngside o f o ur d eep sorrow is a n equally d ee p sentiment o f respect, tha l is, furthermo re unchangea ble. We kno w tha l the Ho ly Catho lic Church is no t to be ide ntified wilh Lhe fa ults o f her so ns, no m a tter how high in o ffi ce they might b e. And, therefo re, we know that she co ntinues in fallible and ind efectibl e to day as yesterday , a nd for all future ages. To love the Church involves loving in a very special way her visible h ead , that is, t he Pope. A nd , wi t h him , the Ho ly See. We re new here the expression o f o ur adhere nce to the Sovereign Po ntiff and to the Ho ly See, a t a time whe n, with heartfelt sorrow, we are o bliged by the proper course o f o ur r easo ning to face ano ther quest ion: Is it conceivable that the hierarchial structures in Chile wo uld have acted as they have wit ho ut having received a com ple te and direct approval fro m Paul VI to d o so ? 62 CRUSADE
T his q ues tion becomes eve n m o re inevitable whe n o ne conside rs certain facts : On th e one hand , Ar c hbi s hop Sitva He nriquez, as Cardi nal, maintains permane n t contact wi th the Vatican , and , o n the o ther hand, the A posto lic Nuncio , continually present in Chile, is charged with representing the Vatican no t onl y to the Chilean governme nt but also to the Episcopa te. T he nuncio m akes use of a ll possible facilities to transmit the intentio ns of Pa ul VI to the Cardinal, the E piscopate , and the clergy in general. lt is inadmissible to say that such an a p proval d o es no t ex ist , be it by the Va tican 's t ies with the Cardinal, b y the hierarchical structu re o f the Church in general , o r even b y the co ntinuity and ex lenl o f the u nusual po lit ics of the Chilean clergy. D uring t he perio d in q uestio n , the Va Li can apparen tly ma nifested no reserve o r uneasiness-even veiled - about the attitud es of the Cardinal, Bisho ps, o r cl ergy favo ring t he Mar xist regime o f Mr. Allende. On the contrary, the known fac ts o nl y co nfirm what logical d eductio n forces us to conjecture : •xA s soon as A llende was elected by th e Congress, the Cardinal, acco mpanied b y the Secretary of the E piscopal Co n-
ference, t he Mos l R everend Oviedo , and b y t he Vicar Ge neral of the archdio cese, the Most R everend J o rge So m ez, p erso nally handed to A lle nde a m essage from Pa ul VI. T his m essage was rat her puzzling, since it was no t published . But a bo u t il Card inal Silva He nriq uez d eclared : " It is a kindl y co m p lim ent , nothing else : that he p rays for Chi le a nd fo r its p resid enL " A fter that , regarding th e Marxist Chief of S tat e, he sa id: "We came to co mplime nt the p resid e nt of Chile and lo say lo him tha t we are at his disposa l to serve o ur peo ple and lo help the great p rogram fo r th e p ub lic w elfa re th at he has" (Ere ilia 10-4-70emfhas!s add ed ) (12).' ·· It is also no teworthy t hat Paul VI sent the Aposto lic N . . uncio 111 the Do minican R epu~li_c , Archbishop Antonio de! G u1d1ce, as a special e nvoy to the ec ume nical T e De um which fo ll~wed th e inauguratio n o f Preside . nt Alle nde (L a R· ev1.s t a Cat:;t1ca, no . 10] 5, p. 5885 ). ··O n Novemb er 19 1970 the new o fficial re prese~ ta liv~ o f Paul . N •VI in C hile , ti1 c A po sto 11c ~ncio Archbisho p Sot ero Sanz V illalba , presented I . d . 11s cre_entials lo A llend e . A t tha t time, the. N un cio ,.spec1 ·c·,caII y s t resse d I11s sa t 1· f • . ' ac tion wit h the pro_gram o f so cial progress in which the country 1s . e ngage d , a n cl for it he guara nteed the help o f the Church ,, (L a R ev1.s t a C . atolica, no. 1015 , page 5006) oo .
.,.Th·
is sam e N unc io was present at Aile 11 d , . e s co cktail party fo r .F id el Cast · the pres1. • ro m d en tial p alace of La M o ne da, a nd d eclared Lha t the Cuban Co~m u ni s t dic ta to r 's visit to C hile , " vas very e nri ching both fo r .Cu_ba and for C hile") El
C!ann, 11-14-7 1) (1 3).
*In August of 1972 , Paul VI sent his compliments to Allende through his personal delegate, the Spanish Cardinal Arturo Tabera, who officially visited the country (El Mercurio, Valparaiso. 8-29-72). *In October of 1972, while in Rome for an interview with Paul VI, Cardinal Silva Henriquez, in response to the painful manifestations of popular discontent with the Chilean government already mentioned, sent a m essage to Mr. Allende, expressing to him his concern about the occurrences and offering to return immediately to Chile if Allende considered it necessary (El Mercurio, 10-29-72). Therefore, closely united with Paul VI, and , so to speak, from the summit of the steps of the Pontifical throne, the Cardinal did not feel the least constraint, or obstacle, in making his supreme move of collaboration , which consisted in involving himself not only in helping to build the Marxist regime of Allende but also in aiding the same regime to silence the protests of the impoverished and discontented population. In view of this tragic picture, it is significant that in October of 1970 the Marxist President Allend e, in an interview given in Santiago to The New York Times, should say that the Church in Chile had abandon ed her traditional doctrine. Among o ther things, Allend e declared: " It is known perfectly well that the old incompatibilities between freemasonry and the Church have now been surpassed .. . I had the opportunity o f reading the Declaration of the Bishops in Medellin; the language which they employ is the arne that we have been using : ince o ur initiation in public life
thirty years ago. At that time we were condemned for using such language, which today is employed by the Catholic Bishops. " I believe that the Church will not be a factor of opposition to the government of Popular Unity. On the contrary, it will be an element in our favor, because we will be trying to convert Christian thought in to reality." These declarations-which describe one of the greatest scandals in the history of the Church of all times-were not protested by the Chilean ecclesiastical authorities or by the Holy See. On the contrary, cordial relations continued to such an extent that it was possible to send the message of support to Allende mentioned above.
"Say But the Word and Our Country Shall Be Saved" Finally, that this orientation by the Episcopate and the more influential sectors of the Chilean clergy was assumed with the consent of Paul VI-and under the protection of his authority and power- is confirmed by his attitude toward the memorable requests addressed to him by the Chilean TFP. The first of these req uests addressed to Paul VI was a reverent and filial message sent Lo him in 1968, requesting that he take urgent measures against Communist infiltrati on in Catholic circles ( cf. supra Section III, no. 1) This public petition addressed to Paul VI was signed by 12 1, 210 Chileans. The reply of Paul VI was a weighty and significant silence.
While, thus, faithful sons of the Church were b eing treated with unusual coldness, public opinion was able to verify the courtesy with which African terrorists were received by Paul VI-a reception which merited an official protest to the Vatican from the Portuguese government. Political personages from behind the iron curtain have been received continually with identical benevolence, as have chiefs of puppet churches, transformed by them into instrum ents of Communist domination in their respective countries. And how much cordial impunity has been enjoyed in the Vatican by the Cuban Bishops who have maintained and still maintain a behavior similar to that of the Chilean Bishops! Since no heed had been paid to the words which the Chilean TFP addressed to the Papal throne to prevent the catastrophe of a rise to power of Marxism, a second request was formulated. The members of the Na tional Council of the TFP, together with other militants of the Society, addressed a letter to Paul VI on October 8, 1970, because they were certain that o nly a word from him would be sufficient to prevent the Christian Demo era ts from finalizing Allende's victory in the Congress. One part of the letter stated: " It is on the threshold of an enormous tragedy , which be~alls an entire people, that we address Your Ho liness, to beg you , as Suprem e Father of Christendom, that now at least you condescend to turn your attention to the cry of anguish that rises up from Chile ... that, in this dramatic hour your august voice may be heard when there is still time to save a CRUSADE 63
Catholic courttry already on the edge of an abyss." Once again, the reply of the common Father of Christendom was the most complete and disdainful silence.
Conclusion This, th en , is the sad road which has been traveled by the Chilean clergy and the Episcopate considered as a whole- with honorable exceptions- up to the present time. Finally , in view o f this situation of unprecedented gravity, the Chilean Society for the Defen se of Tradition , Family , and
Cardinal Silva Henriquez
The Cardinal welcomes the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in Chile.
Pro perty feels within itself the unmistakable need to caution its brethren in the Faith regarding the fatal influence which the clergy is exerting in the dramatic process of the Commun ist advance in the country . It is absolutely necessary for the welfare of Christian Civil ization and of the country that Catholi cs, faithful to the traditio nal principles taught b y the C hurch , know how to act con sis ten tly , not allow ing th emselves to be in fluenced by the activity o f the clergy. . It is for us a duty o f conscience-which we fulfill with sorrow- to shout this cry of alarm. We do it to prevent op-
ponents of the Communist regime in Chile from losing a ny strength through any fal se impression they may have that such o pposition no longer has a foundation in Ca tholic doctrine and in the Christian conscience. From the depths o f o ur soulc we hope that the Chilean p eople will continue, more and more firm in th e Faith, a nd that Our Lady of Carmel, Queen and Patroness o f Chi le, will give us in the days ahead the grace o f a truly Ca tholic clergy so that in our countTy also the triumph o f Her Immaculate Heart will be realized as she promised at Fatima. Santiago, F ebruary 23, 1973
and Allende
[
1. After the rise of Allende to power, the Chilean TFP continued i~s fight through its publicatio ns, mamfest os, and campaigns, which caused a great repercussio n through out the 64
CRU SADE
NOTES
en lire country . Moreover, the publicatio ns of the TFP were reprodu ced by various newspapers and magazines, do ing m uch to curb the propaganda of the Allend e gove rn-
me~t abroad , pro paganda with obJecltves th at arr. m o re than ev iden t. 2_.. T he Chil ean Cons ti tutior spec1_f1es tha t when, in a popuhu election fo r th e presid ent o f the
Re public, none of the candidates obtains an absolute majo rity of votes, the Na tional Co ngress-that is, the Sena te and the Chamber of Deputies- m ust choose, some weeks la ter, in jo int me eting. the man who will be th e Preside nt of Chil e, from the two candida tes who received the m ost votes. In the case in question. the Congress should ch oose th e Marxis t Allende o r the Conse rva tive Allessandri , be twe en whom the popular elec tion indicated a differe nce of 1.4%. 3. The " Young Church " groups correspond to cells which call themselves '"prophe ti c." They advocate abo lishing the hierarchical s tru ctures of the Church in order to m ake place fo r a " New Church ", dcsacral ized and cqualitarian. and committed to the social revolutio n of Marxism. Engaged in the movement a re priests, religio us of both sexes, and some laymen, who come from the so-called ·'com unidades de )Jase" (basic communities). Even though they are in a minori ty, the " Young Church" g ro ups sus tai n a formidable activit y, employing the char:i~tcristic me th od, of a ··con lcstalanan movement. The MAPU-Movement of Un ited Popul ar Action- is a group which has se parated from the Christian Democratic Party. Participating in ii are ex-members of Parl iamen t o f . the Chris ti an Democratic Party, form cr public se rvants of Frci's governmen t, e tc. 4. A llendc 's candidacy was prcsc n tcd by an alliance of parties ( the Popular Unity Coalition). t!1 c . l\~o mos t im portant bc111g th e Soc1ahst Part y and the Comm uni I Party. Alle nde 's part y- the Socialis t Part yclaims to be Marxis t-Leninis t and adopts in the political fi eld more ex tremc a lli ludcs than the Commun isl Party itself. The Marxis t crovernme nl formed by mcmLcrs of t his coalitio n contain ed the goals requ ired fo r the gradual tra nsformati on of the coor~o mi co-social and political s tru ctures of Chil e into Marx i!-t s tru ctures. 5. Mr. Allcndr has said on certain occasions th a t he is a Ma rxist, bu·t th e regi me ov.cr w hi ch he p_rcsides is no t Marxis t. fh1 s means, 111 substan ce, that demo cracy _is in force only insofar as the Clul ean regime is no t Marxis t. but ii is ;\larxisl insofar a~ it wa 11 t" lo impo c graduall y on the cou ntry a Marx is t socio-economic s truct ure. And tha_l i · precisely the Ma r xis t ~ys tem, unJ_us l and impovrrislring. whose establishment we might
note is being aided by the cooperation of the progressivisl clergy. 6. Well known and influential ce nter of studies, infor111alio11, and socio-cultural research, which has vas t means of actio n, and wi thin which the mos t d ynamic J esuit priests in Chile gather together. 7 . To give the reader an idea of the serious economic crisis through which Chil e passes, we present here some data: In the period 1970-72, the production of meal fcU as fo llows: ( a) be_!!f, from 130,000 to 62.000 Ions: (b) chicken, from 55,000 to 35,000 to ns; (c) pork, from 74,300 to 48,000 tons. In th e same period, the production of condensed milk dropped from 17 million to 12 million liters. And the production of sugar decreased from 282,000 to 165,000 tons (El Mercurio, 1-19-73). The h arves t of wheat in the agricultural year of 1970-7) was 1,300,000,000 kilos; in the year 1971-72 it was 700,000,000 kil os; it is estim ated that in 1972-73 th ere will be 350,000,000 kilos or 73% less than in 1970-71. The Santiago daily La Prensa slated that in 1972 the price of foodstuffs increased 240%, a record in the hist ory of Chile , comparable o nly lo the situation in a nation scourged b y wars. The price o f pot a toes for ins tance, increased 1670% (La Prensa, Sa ntiago, 1-16-73). In view of this situation we do not find it strange to see' in the s tree ts of C::hil can cities, long lines of people try 111g to bu y a grea t number of products, includ ing cigarettes. The pe~ple ~re in mise_ry, socialist misery, which 1s th e fruit o f violating th e right of ownership and o f implanting coll ectivism. 8 . Before the direct elections of September 4 , 1970, the Bisho ps had decided th a t if the vic to rious candidate did no t obtain an absolute majority they would not make a visit of recognition to him ( cf. El Mercurio, 9 -16-70). But sin ce the candidate in this ease was the Marxist Allende, they found - through th ese declarations- a way lo recognize him, their purpose be ing to remove the slightest risk of some member of Parliament voting against Alle nde at the Joint Congressional Mee ting on October 24. 9. The confli cts of October, l 972 constituted a larger popular manifestatio n against the Allende regime than any of the previous ones. This expression of popular dissa tisfaction began with a strike of the Truck Drivers Union, which was joined
afterwards by m erchants, independ ent professionals, and other classes, and which nearly s topped the cou ntry for approximately a month. This s trike was born of U1e opposition of the truck drive rs to the Uuea t of the nationalization of a sec tor of th eir enterprises. And it assumed U1e chi!racter of an obvious national protest, as is shown by U1c fac t that the strikers presented to the government the "Charter of Chile's R equests" in which U1ey made demands contrary to the governme nt's program in various fundamental ways.' (Editor's Note: Since then, we h'ave seen the strike in U1e summer of 1973 which precipitated the overthrow of the Marxis t government of Allende.) 10. Among the numerous popular manifestations against U1c government, the following should be no ted because of their importance: ( a) The "March of the Empty Pans" in December 1971. More than one hundred thousand wome n protested in the s treets of Santiago against the iack of food and the po litics of the government in general. The protests las ted for the whole month o f December. Daily the clinking of the empty po ts was heard, as they were struck b y the hoi.1sewives. This ended up being the characteristic no te of all the manifcs lations of the opposition . (b) In April, 1972, there were great. popular manifestatio ns in Santiago and in the mos t important ci ties of the country, in defe nse of the oppressed rights of the people and aga ins t th e operations of the governm ent. In Santiago mo re than 750,000 persons look part in a march. ( c) In August o f the same year there were also great manifes tati o ns agains t Allend e's government. High school and university s tuden t in particular look pa rt. (d) Finall y, the a lrrady menti oned s trike o f Oc tober, 1972. (Editor's No le: And, of course, the s trike in the summer of 1973.) lJ. MIR: l'Vloveme nt of the Revolutio nary Left. Marxis t group favorable to vio lent revoluti o n: Chil ean version of the terrori t Tupamaros of Uruguay. 12. Some day his tory will record wi tl1 as ton ishment the fact that the program to which Chile owes its poverty was supported b y the Episcopa te from the beginning. 13. "E nriching"- il seems to be an irony, since the nation in question is on the road to misery and the other airead y finds itself in an abyss!
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65
Revolution (Continued from page 6)
sions was: "The dialogue represents an a dvance toward the truth, that does not necessarily define itself in the same terms. The truth is a horizon toward which we march . . ." The meeting called for a "re-education of all sectors of the church Bishops, clergy, and lay people - to inculcate in them a sincere respect for the genuine religion . . . of the African tradition. Given the existence in Catholic literature of many offensive terms - such as witchcraft, sorcerers, paganism, cult of the devil, superstition, primitive religion, etc. one must insist that such terms be eliminated from all publications. Christians must consider the traditional religion as a system of values, concepts, and attitudes that require respect." The head of the Secretariat for N on-christians decided to send copies of the declaration to all of the African Bishops.
MOZAMBIQUE'S ANTI-COMMUNIST ARCHBISHOP FORCED TO RESIGN Vatican City (OESP). Paul VI forced the resignation of Msgr. Custodio Alvim Pereira, Archbishop of L orence Marques, in a move that confirms the Vatican policy of supporting the "decolonization" process. The Archbishop had been fought by the progressive clergy of Mozambique, which is favorable to a compromise with Communism. Vatican officials informed the United Press International that M sgr. Pereira had been •~asked" to resign in "obedience to the Pope."
PERSECUTION IN LITHUANIA Paris. In spite of all the concessions which the Vatican has made to the Kremlin, La Croix, newspaper of the Archdioc;ese of Paris, repor ts that a violent anti-catholic campaign, with many imprisonments and interrogations, is continuing to develop in Lithuania. Several issues of the newspaper Chronicle of the Lithuanian Church were confiscated, along with religious books. Over thirty Catholics were harassed by a harsh interrogation, and three university professors were fired for belonging to a Catholic association. 66 CRUSADE
RELIGIOUS DECORATION TO ATHEIST ( Universe Bulletin, Cleveland, 71974) . The Belgrade R adio announced that the Holy See granted the Order of Pius IX to Stane Kolman, envoy of the Yugoslavian Communist regime to the Vatican.
ANTI-COMMUNIST LEADER MURDERED IN MUNICH Munich (TZ, 7-12-74). Jacob Ljotic, 79, president of the National Christian Movement was killed in this city, where he had been exiled by the Communist Yugoslavian authorities. Ljotic is the seventh a nticommunist Yugoslavian leader to be murdered in a six year period. Very few people are lucky enough to succeed in fleeing from the Communist "paradise," and they are often slain by R ed agents in the West. Isn't this because the Red tyrants fear that_ their hideous regime will be denounced?
TERRORIST BEHIND SACRED WALLS (Fuerza N ueva, Spain) . St. Gregory's College in England, owned by the Benedictine monks, sheltered for a whole year the ex-monk and Basque terrorist Elias Jauregui, contact man between the Basque terrorist ETA organization and the Irish IRA. J auregui uses the college to proselytize its Basque pupils. The terrorist is presently living in the Benedictine Monastery about a stone's throw away from the College.
MEANINGFUL GIFTS (I nformations Catholiques I nternationales) . T he Ecumenical Council of Churches has distributed $450,000 among 29 " liberation" movements. The most outstanding gifts are: $100,000 to PAIGG, terrorist movement of former Portuguese Guinea; $60,000 to FRELIMO, terrorist movement of Mozambique; $30,000 to SWAPO from Namibia (South West Africa); $23,000 to MPLA, Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola; $23,000 to the Angola Revolutionary Government ; $15,000 to the American Indian Movement.
CATHOLIC-MUSLIM ECUMENISM Cordoba, Spain ( Y a, Madrid 9-1374). Cardinal Duval, Archbishop of
Algiers, described the First IslamicChristian Congress as "a very happy event," as he preached union between Catholics and Mohammedans. The Cardinal said: "What unites us the most is our spiritual fraternity in the heritag:e of Abraham, the father of all believers. Men are the ones who raised a wall of non-comprehension between M ohammedans and Christians. In a real profanation, the " Salat" Moslem prayer took place at the Cathedral of Cordoba while Christi~ns celebrated the Eucharist. M sgr. C1rarda stated he had authorized the Sa lat. Churchmen themselves are resurrecting the profanations of the Seventh Century when acts of this kind in Catholic Spain stirred up the heroic fi~ht of Don Pelayo and the Catholics who carried out the Recon9uest. Is Spain going to lose the glorious trophies of an 800-year fight. F acts such as these show that this is something to fear.
U.S. TRADE WITH SOVIET UNION RISES 500 PERCENT IN THREE YEARS The N_ew Y ork Times ( 1-16-75 ) . Even "':1thout trade accords, U .S. trade with the Soviet Union has increased five-fold - from 200 million ~ollars annually in 1971 to one bilho~t dollars a year in 1974. present, most U.S. imports from. Russia are raw materials : On the · • h nse a re U ·s· imports of RuSS1an ~f r~hed (~s a result of the embargo 0 (b esian chrome) a nd petroleum 11 bl ri~g ~ about by the petroleum il_ caused by Russia through he~ Amab ra 1an puppets).
J?uring this three year period a maJ~r portion of U .S -exports ' to Russia 1s covered by the· great grain • 6 deh~l h ( 1. billion dollars in 1973 ) . fw 1c saved th e R uss1an economy ;.om . collapse. Aside from grain, mencan_ exports to Russia are almho~th en h tirely industrial equipment, w ic s e must · f0 h f . receive to compensate ~ t e allures of socialism. u_t even this is not sufficient to sust am the M • d in 1 th arx1st debacle. Accor U g_y, e Export-Import bank in the t ates has already granted 46iite~l]"S . mi .10n dollars in loans, and Amen ~an mvest m ents in Russia (factories for m k. f tT a mg trucks tractors, ;r 1 ~zers, etc., all operated by cheap . uss~an slave labor) have risen stead11Y since Ford built the first large
truck factory at Gorki in the 1920's. These cheap products will compete in the American market with those made by high-salaried union labor here, and thus further jeopardize the American economy. It is a great mystery that the United States is willing to collaborate with Russian moves to weaken our economy ( while decreasing military expenditures for our own defense), at the same time that she builds up the Russian economy, through the aid described, making it easier for the Soviet Union to sustain its great military build up, which may ultimately be used against us.
SATANISTS TO GATHER IN COLOMBIA Bogota, Colombia ( 0 Globo ). Wizards, witches, warlocks, spiritualists parapsychologists, a nd astrologers will meet in August this year in an international congress organized by economist and tourist entrepreneur, Simon Gonzales, director of the Col~ ombian Institute of Administration. Gonzales declared: "At the bottom we are a ll wizards, but were taught to ignore the witchcraft that exists within us." According to him, the Congress "will try to show man how he wastes his interior forces and how he can develop them through witchcraft." Rumors are spreading that the Congress will be presided over by Sata n himself.
Cards and Queues ( Continu ed from page 20 )
- "Ah, there was the problem! Wha t they were suffering was too much for the people. The meat was the same. They would give three quarters of an anirnal and there would be enormous qu e~es in front of the butchershops. When you arrived to buy: 'The m eat ¡s ail gone . ..' All gone! You'd been ~here aJI morning . . . Time wasted . If it wasn't the morning, it was the fternoon ; and so it was." a - T FP. "And now?" - "Now . .. since he died ... that devil ... you can say . .. No, I was â&#x20AC;˘ h t up to here with that man! T wo d gys before he died, I turned on the adio and it made me laugh . It is the r'.1r nple truth, it made me furious and 51 de rne laugh. H e said: 'Ah . . . I rna see now what the country is
CASTRO AND "CATHOLIC" MISSIONARIES WORKIN AFRICA (To t he Point, South Africa). While OAS members strive to bring Cuba back to that entity, Castro promotes revolutionary guerrilla activities against rightist regimes in Africa through AALAPSO ( African, Asian, and Latin American Peoples Solidarity Organization) with the collaboration of Catholic missionaries. Luis Amado Blanco, Castro's Ambassador to the V atican and dean of the diploma tic envoys to the H oly See, was placed in charge of maintaining contacts with "progressive" Catholic missionaries in M ozambique and Angola. Mario Soares, Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Spinola cabinet, visited Cuba shortly before the coup last April. Castro received detailed plans from Russia for the stirring up of revolt throughout Africa. Cuban blacks speaking several African dialects and having a sound knowledge of tribal religious rites, are specially tra ined in subversion and guerrilla warfare in Cuba and then sent to Africa. It is easy to detect a Russian or Chinese in Africa, but nearly impossible to discover a black Cuban. Thus it is not difficult to understand the great zeal of avant-garde priests for a lifting of the economic blockade tif Cuba.
suffering, the children have no milk, . . . but it's not my fault, it's the truckers . . .' and there were tears running down his face .. . what gall! Now, after all that is over, see how th ings are appearing. There was no rice, no condensed milk, no Nestle's cream, there was nothing to wash with . . . Now there is cream, there is food, coffee has appeared. H ere I have coffee and cream . I bought everything." TFP. "And what were you doing, Blanca, on September 11 ?" - "I had gone to make a payment at the ba nk. And they were rushing the people, a nd the planes were flying around. So I came back quickly. Suddenly, the girl next door came out and said to me: 'Lord, Blanca, we were n~rvous, because they are gding to kill old Allende, and we didn't know where you were ! 'How wonderful!' I said. 'Keep quiet,' they said to me 'somebody may hear you!' '
VATICAN'S CARDINAL PIGNEDOLI FINDS COMMON POINT IN ALL RELIGIONS TO BE A GNOSTIC PARTICLE On the tenth anniversary of the Vatican Secretariat for Non-christians, Cardinal Sergio Pignedoli its president, sent a letter to Msgr. ~edro Rossano, its secretary, proposing that the Secretaria t continue its efforts to make the Catholic Church really the "house of all" that everybody may feel entirely "at ease" inside her. The Cardinal asserts that our union is based fundamentally on the fact that we are "religious men " explaining that all men : Ca tholi~s other "Christians, J ews, Mohamme~ clans, Buddhists, Hindus, or worshipers of the traditional religions of their villages bring inside themselves a divine particle" ( emphasis added) . It is dreadful to consider that high Vatican dignitaries profess openly no less than the heretical pantheist doctrine of the gnostics. This is the common basis of all heresies, a nd according to the Fathers of the Church, it will remain alive till the end of time and be professed by the Anti-christ himself. What is there left for us to say except to cry out with the Apostle( "Arise, oh Lord, why dost thou sleep?"
'What's that to me! Now I'm tired of them . . . It was the bread that killed him'.''
*
*
*
Blanca was happy . . . The nightmare was over. This interview in which she told us her 'memories in expressive and colorful language, with the typical Chilean lilt, deserves to be included among the documents we publish for our readers.
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Nutrition Expert {Continued from page 22)
Allende : "It is a Political Matter .
,,
- "Even President Allende said to me one time : 'Well, the fact is there are two problems in this program. One is the problem of nutrition, and the other is the political problem. This was a foundation of our program and we have to carry it out.' "And the truth is that when this program of a pint of milk was unveiled in the campaign, it had ... a strong effect, because he offered something very concrete and precise . a pint of milk for every baby." TFP. "How was it distributed?" - "As powdered milk .. . once a month in packages."
someone cuts that off, there is no alternative .. . If wheat disappears at a higher socio-economic level, one can replace it with rice, beans, or other substitutes, and one can eat. But the liquidation of wheat at the lowest socio-economic level means the liquidation of all possibilities of a substitute, that is, it means hunger. Then I told the ministers that the problem of wheat could not be solved with a substitute. They reacted as if it were the first time they had recognized the problem . . . I treated the problem especially with the Minister of Economics, Orlando Millas. H e was frightened, shocked; he said to me 'How is that?' ' 'Yes,' I answered him, 'the matter is so serious that it means famine. What else can it m ean?'" TFP. "When was that interview?" -"It was a month and a half ago." TFP. "And then did they call you for any more consul tations?" -"No. That ended the meetings."
The Social Cost TFP. "And what would the M arxists answer when you pointed out the tremendous problem of supply to them?" - "They answered with a dogma: It is the social cost .. . One doesn't understand the why of the social cost, because if they are trying to raise the standard of living, why do the people have to pay a social cost? It's absurd. But they repeat it constantly.''
A Shortage of Wheat: Hunger with No Way Out TFP. "And what was happening with the wheat?" - " In the last stages, the wheat ~as insufficient to feed the populat10n. An attempt was made to find out what substitutes might be available. I sat in on a meeting of the Cabinet in which the matter was treated. I explained that the problem was tremendously grave, because in Chile the lower socio-economic class obtains 50 percent of its calories from wheat in the form of spaghetti, noodles, bread, etc. And the satisfaction of hunger is not a habit, but a necessity for man. If there is an econ?mic problem, the only way I can satisfy my hunger is by buying a large volume of food at a low cost. Then I am able to fill m y stomach with something that re-· Iieves my hunger. Not worried about nutrition, I fill my stomach with cakes spaghetti, noodles, and bread. I£
68
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The Black Flour TFP. "Doctor, what nutritional problems were caused by the famous 'black flour'?" -"The difference between that wheat and what we habitually eat is in the q uantity of fiber from the husk of the grain which is extracted from the flou r.'' TFP. "Isn't that the bran that they feed the pigs?" - "Exactly. The quality of flour is directly related to the degree to which one can remove that fiber, because the fiber is indigestible. The human body cannot digest the fiber; only cattle can digest it. And whole wheat can contain up to 4.5 percent fiber, which is quite dangerous for man. This is true above a ll for babies who a re easily subject to d igestive upsets if the quantity of fiber in their diet is very great. Well, because of the shortage of wheat and the fact that removing the fiber reduced it in quantity, they made bread and everything else with whole flour or 'black flour.' Obviously, this was not desirable and probably, though I can't guara ntee the point, this constituted a factor among all the digestive problems which the infant population suffered."
- "Mainly the problems of diarrhea, which in the summer months were quite serious, and the problems of bronchio-pulmonary disorders. But all of that would have undoubtedly been less grave if the malnutrition problem had not been behind it. . A case of diarrhea in a normal baby 1s no problem. He gets well. But diarrhea in an undernourished baby is the last push toward death. One sees that on the death certificates the primary causes of death a re diarrhea bronchial pneumonia, or measles. But one knows that the root of the problem was the '!1alnutrition which preceded these infirmities leaving the baby without the na;ural defenses needed to resist."
Increase of Infant Mortality . TFP. "And so did infant mortality increase?" - "Infa nt mortality increased Now all th· . h is was handled slickly because ! ey _sh?\~e~ figu res of infan't mortality dimmishmg. By tricks statistics can ~~t~~d~ to go _one way or the other, ; impression of the pediatricians was t a t malnutrition was increasing everywhere." f TFP · "A nd on account of that inant mortality as well ;i" ' -"Of course.'' ·
Malnutrition Aggravated the Illnesses TFP. "What illnesses increased in the last three years as a result of this problem?"
The children suffered the most.
Chile Producing Food for Only Half Its Population
of other foods, such as fruits and wines, so that Chile imported about 80 million dollars worth more than she exported.
- "Perhaps one single fact will reveal how dramatic this crisis was. In previous times also, Chile had to import foodstuffs. What she imported amounted to about 140 million dollars, which was compensated for to a considerable extent by the exportation
This year it was necessary to import 750 million dollars worth of foodstuffs. I n other words, more than half the food consumed by the Chilean population had to be imported. Accordingly, 100 percent of the value of the exportations of copper, which is
Legal Guarantees
- "They didn't answer. They simply filed the order and did not provide the police assistance."
(Continue d from page 23)
principal agencies concerned with agriculture and ranching such as CORA and the Institute for the Development of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (INDAP). They devoted themselves to the agitation of farm workers. One night some farm workers on his place, agitated by Marxists of that area, took it over. The orchards were blocked off, and the Marxists refused to let the proprietor enter. He found himself stripped of all control of the orchards."
Every Legal Recourse - "He lived on a little piece of farmland across the road, which was not occupied. From there he exercised all his rights. H e resorted to the Judicial Power; he tried criminal complaints. Both there and in Santiago, he used every possible recourse. You could write a book about all the resorts tried by Sr. Ortega."
The Judicial Decisions Were Ignored - "He definitely won judicial decisions which made the refurn of his land obligatory. But those decisions were not implemented by the responsible departments, which pertained to the Intendant of the Province of O'Higgins. The aid of the police was simply not given." TFP. "And did the Court order each the office of the Intendant?" r - "The judge issued an order to the Intendancy of O'Higgins which to the al·dl 'Furnish • police •assistance s·udicial funct10nary m charge of t he J viction at the farm Los Molinas in e peumo'-" TFP. "And what did they answer?"
Like The Trial, the Famous Work of Kafka TFP. "And wasn't there a criminal process to counter rebellion against the judicial authority?" - "There was a possibility. But in order to proceed against the Intendant, a previous authorization from Congress was necessary as well as another process. It all took so long that the whole business was utterly impracticable. After all, when one had obtained a sentence against the In.tendant for having committed the crime of contempt of Court, what would happen? An order of arrest would be issued against the Intendant. And who was in charge of executing it? The Department of Investigations, which also depended on the Minister of the Interier and the Executive. Consequently, the functionary would not be· detained. Then it would be necessary to act against the Director of Investigations . . . with the same processes and delay; it was impossible. It was 'Kafaesque.' "
An Artificial Conflict Brings in the lnterventor TFP. "Do you recall some cases in wliich something similar took place?" -"Yes, I remember the case of the San Fernando estate in Mallarauco, orchards also taken over by violence, by some agitators in that area. In that case, the government, in order to support the usurpers, proceeded to name a labor interventor. The conflict in the case was totally artificial, since there wasn't any possibility of resolving anything. The government's only aim was to strip the proprietor entirely, taking everything
about the only export of Chile, had to be spent on imported foods. That was the chaotic situation in which we found ourselves. Now, potentially, if Chile worked its land with the efficiency, for example, of Japan, Chile could feed 120 million people. Therefore, it is somewhat absurd that they were unable to feed 8 million people, in fact, not even half of them, because as I said it was necessary to import food for 4 million Chileans more or less. he had including his bank account, all of his machinery, etc. The proprietor found himself stripped of a good part of his goods by a Marxist functionary appointed by the government. That functionary, Eugenio Figueroa, is now in prison for the crimes he committed.
In Industry the Metl1od Was the Same TFP. "We know that the government took advantage of the Agrarian Reform Law in order to decree interventions after the 'capture' of an agricultural property. But how was this done in the case of industry?" "Exactly the same thing was done with industrial property. An artificial conflict was created in an industry and, on the basis of that conflict, an interventor was designated to find a solution. The interventor did not solve anything. But he took over all the installations, all the property, pushing the whole management of the company aside and making himself owner and master." TFP. "How did they create the labor conflict?" -"They would make a request that was absolutely impossible to grant: a salary increase of 400 percent, a house for every one of the employees, or a car for certain functionaries, anything that was absolutely impossible to grant. The request would g ive rise to a conflict which would end in a strike, with the agitators commonly taking over the company. Then the government, sometimes through the Minister of Labor, a t other times through the Minister of Economics, would take charge of the company. In this way a company would pass into the so-called 'public sector' of the economy. The proprietor was left stripped of the company, without payment of indemnification, and without any control over it."
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TFP. "Could you give us an example of that?" - "Some of the better known cases are Christalerias Chile, Fabrica Nacionel de Aceitas, FENSA, and MADEMSA. fl" In the case of FENSA the con icts began shortly after the gove~ment took office. At times the executives of the company were kidnapped. Then on a certain day, previously agre~d upon by the Ministries of Economics and Labor, the place was taken over by the laborers. For_ t_wo or three d ~ys the company was v1S1ted by the Mm. t rs and the laborers were told that is e ' now they were going to b ecome the owners of the company. Then a state 'interventor' was named . H e took over complete management of t~e company pushed the _directors aside, fired the principal engmeers (FENSA produced metal products and household appliances), and squandered _the working capital of the company immediately. More employees were taken_ on as agitators who implanted a regm_ie of terror. Armed political comrrussars had the mission of informing on anyone in the company who did not go along. They kept the workers under tremendous pressure. These s~e commissars were in charge of takmg the personnel to mas~ r~llies organized by the government m its own favor. Attendance was obligatory. There were rosters of all the personnel of the industries and haciendas which had been intervened." TFP. "And what was the situation with SUMAR?" - "It was very similar, except that there everything was completel_y .contrived. On a given day, the M1m~t.ers of Economics announced the dec1S1on of the govern~ ent to tran,sfer ~ertain te.tile companies to the public s~ctor.' The next day, all these textile companies woke up taken over, facing a petition that they be passed over to the 'public sector' ( that was also a motive of conflict ). That same day Vuskovich the Minister of Economics, visited th~ companies, making fiery speeches in most of them. T wo or three days later a decree appeared in Diario official intervening tJ:iose companies. And !hen they . designated . a Marxist functionary as mterventor m each one of them, who, in each c~se, proceeded to change the whole regrme of the industry." TFP "Commerce was controlled by a encie.s such as D IRINCO, DINA~, g JAPS etc. Did these agencies the ' . I . I . ?" an.se f r om previous eg1s at1on. ?0
CRUSADE
- "This is another point which we must be concerned about. Thi~ co1;1ntry lived in the midst of legislation which tended very markedly toward socialism." TFP. "Since when?" - "Since about 1935, they have been dictating regulations for price control giving the government the right to close commercial est~blishments to requisition merchandise, _to prevent hoarding. Then the Marx1~t government took a_dva?t~ge of this legislation and applied 1t m an absolutely abusive way. _For _example, the requisition of certam kinds of merchandise was justified only when there was hoarding, hiding, refusal to sell, and speculative maneuvers. However, the government had no trepid~tions about supposing that a particular establishment was hoarding, and proceeded-to requisition not only the m e~chandise but the entire place. That 1s what happened to the AIMAC ~upermarket on Santa Julia Avenue ; 1t was requisitioned and has just recently been returned to its owners by the Junta." TFP "Isn't it true that there are no Ad~inistrative Courts in Chile?~' - "Exactly. In the f~ce of all_ this socialist legislation wh1c~ permitted requisitions an~ c<?n~scatlons of merchandise, the md1v1dual could only appeal for mercy. And an appeal f?r mercy is worthless unde_r a Marx1~t government, because their ~u:pose 1s to put an end to private activity, step by step. At a certain moment a government like the one we just had in Chile comes to power and, .by ~ eans of the existing socialistic leg1slatl~~' yroceeds to intervene close, reqms1tion, and confiscate all'the private acti:,rit~ i~ the country. And the ~rivate md1v1dual finds himself deprived of all recourses. " . TFP. " And the Judiciary, invokmg the doctrine of the separation of powers says that it cannot review the ' . " decisions of the E xec_utlve. - "That is the way 1t was here. The Judiciary did deal, thou&h, with soI?e do<;trines which permitted partial legal protection for individuals, and managed in the last two years to get some precautionary measures ~d?pt~d by the Courts to prevent mJunes which would be irreparable. But even these precautionary measures were evaded. For example, they prohibited interventors from drawing against the checking accounts of the respective companies without the authorization of a delegate from the old directory, as a means of leaving them some con-
trol. At that very moment, the interventor would cease to use the checking accounts and proceed to sell_ all the production of the company agamst notes, a practice which lent itself to all kinds of robbery. Or he would simply designate a State company as distributor, and would operate the whole financial and commercial side of the company that way. TFP. "When did they begin to sanction laws in Chile which militated against the right of property?" - "Starting with the latter part of the government of Alessandri, the constitutional right of property began to be weakened. Then under Frei, with the passage of the Agrarian Reform Law, the right of agricultural property was drastically reformed. Obviously, these proceedings paved the way for the Marxist regime.'' TFP. "What were the JAP's?" -"Th e JAP's were created by a resolution of DIRINCO through the Ministry of Economics. I t was their purpose to become the controllers of distribution and supply for the towns and neighborhoods. They definitely made themselves into political controllers of all the people. They would create great hoards of merchandise tending to cause artificial shortages: for example of sugar and oil. Then the J AP of the town La Picoya would arrive with a drum of oil. To whom would they sell it? To those people who favo red the gove:nment unconditionally, those who assisted at the rallies, etc. The p~rsons who d id not submit to the dictates of the government did not ea1TFP: "D)d you suffer any person~! aggressions m your work as a lawyer ? -"We had a few threats, there were anonymous telephone calls, I was threatened with dismissa l I was fired by the 'R acetrack Soc'iety in Chile' where I was a lawyer . . ." T~P. "And wha t about your father who is a Minister of the Courts?" -"My father's case was more serious. T hey even threatened to attack ~im .. He had to keep a special guard m his house. M emb~rs of the fam ily were in~ulted daily by the press in the most msolent way. And the insults carne from the highest authorities." . TFP. "Was there any attempt to impeach the Court?" - "Senator Altamirino tried. But he did not present the act because they lacke~ a majority in the Congress. H ad it been otherwise this country would already be Marx\st a la Cuba, without any d oubt.''
Takeover of Industry (Continu ed from page 24)
per year, only increased _2 percent in 1972. And in the first six months of 1973, production was 9.2 percent below¡production in the first six months of 1972 . .. we were going down at the rate of 9.2 percent in the first six months of this year . . . The contraction of production was especially acute in the_ sectors whic~ had suffered intervention and reqmsition . . . For example in the case ?f foodstuffs, production in the first six months of this year ( 1_973) d_ropped 18 percent in comparison w1_th the first six months of last year ; m textiles 11 percent; in leather and shoes, ther~ was stagnation, neither growth nor decline. This occurred under circumstances in which demand increased considerably because artificial demand was stim~lated by a monetary policy which consisted in financing all public costs on the basis of inorganic emissions ,, ( of paper money ) . TFP. "What rate of inflation was reached?" - "In July the inflation was 320 ercent in 12 months." p TFP. "That is to say, from July to J uly' is it not?" - "ExactIy.,, TFP. "That is shocking!" - "And of this 320 percent, 210 ercent occurred in the first seven p onths of the year 1973. The rate mas increasing continuously. H ad that ':anomic policy been continued . . . ~t would have resulted in a total inflation of 600 percent for the year 1973."
Buying Power Dropped 60 Percent "- In respect to real values, the al prices of products, the buying r~wer ( of the Chilean people) was p uch eroded . . . the people had at ~e beginning of 1973 about 40 pert t of the buying power they had in ~ n h b . 1970. In three years, t e uymg power of the people dropped 60 percent.
The Fall of Per Capita Income "The per capita income in Chile cl - ped from $550 in 1970 to $380. ro~e are the figures of CEPAL, 'f~~ h is known for the support it w ic to that government as well as g~v~he Marxists¡ governments in the al ,, world.
Debt: $1,200,000 a Day TFP. "And the foreign sector?" -"In 1972 and the first six months of 1973 the highest level of the foreign debt was about 800 million dollars. If you add that to the 500 million which had been in reserve, there is a Joss of approximately one billion three hundred million dollars in three years. This amounts to going into debt, or losing every day for three years one million two hundred and fifty 'thousand dollars . That is every day! If we recall that in the first years of the Cuban Revolution, the island maintained itself with a subsidy of one million dollars per day from the USSR, we see that our reform was more 'brilliant,' because they had to give us $1,250,000 per day from outside in order for us to continue. Where did these credits come from? Seventy percent from socialist countries; and 30 percent from Occidental countries (mainly European countries: France, Germany, and others) who observed the regime of Allende with interest."
The Deficit As High As 4 7 Percent TFP. "And what has the deficit in the national budget been in the last three years?" -"Traditionally, the budget in our country is underfinanced about 10 percent. In 1971 (not at the end of the year), the government presented a budget which raised the deficit to 20 percent. In 1972, the final defi.cit was 32 percent. And in 1973 ... the deficit will reach 47 percent. In other words, for every 100 Escudos which the Treasury spends, 47 come from an inorganic issue of paper money, because they are not generated by the economy of the country. For every Escudo in circulation in Chile on J anuary 1, 1970, there are 27 Escudos in circulation today the amount of money increased 27 times."
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat TFP. The conversation went on to consider the hypothesis of Allende having succeeded in his plan to eliminate his opponents and set up a complete and open dictatorship of the proletariat in Chile. Then we asked Sr. Aguero what effect that would have had on production. - "It would have continued to diminish until it reached a vegetative
level. But that wouldn't have been a political problem if the people couldnot express themselves. If a dictatorship of the proletariat had been established, I really believe that the discouragement of the producers would have been complete."
The Two Trapezes .
,,
TFP. " In your opinion how did Allende plan to reach the dictatorship of the proletariat?" -"When Allende took up the reins of government, he had the ');upport of only 36 percent of the people, which was the vote he obtained . . . you cannot make a profound revolution with the support of only 36 percent of the people. Consequently he resolved to develop an economic policy which would enable him in a certain period to gain sufficient national support to carry out his revolution. The great executor of this was Pedro Vuckovich, an economist from CEPAL who was Minister of Economics during the first eighteen months of the government. What happened can be compared to two acrobats in a circus. One acrobat suddenly lets go of his trapeze, does a series of tumbles, the public applauds and the other acrobat is supposed to arrive on a second trapeze to catch him by the hands. One acrobat was the economy, the other the political sector. The economic sector let go of the trapeze and began to do its tumbles, supposing that at the right moment the political sector would gain national support and have such national power that the defects of the economic policy would no longer matter. But it turned out that they unfortunately did not meet in time. And the gentleman who was making the izyrations fell, and there was no net. That is exactly what happened here. The whole economy was placed at the service of political interests . . . By giving the people what they wanted (populism), they planned to form a political force which would permit them to install socialism (Marxism) democratically . . . But that meeting in the air did not take place. The economic chaos and the political build-up did not meet and Allende fell. For that reason you cannot attribute this crisis to an error, or a fault in knowledge. It was planned deliberately, hoping for the necessary political support which never succeeded in building up. CRUSADE
71
We Were Persecuted ..." TFP. "And what persecutions did the Society for the Promotion of Industry suffer from th e governmen t ?" • - "We were persecuted, jailed, and insulted. Tax inspectors were sent to see if our income tax statements were correct. It was made difficult for us to leave the country. On two occasions they dictated decrees canceling the legal personality ( of the Society) ; th_ey att~cked the President of the Society. We had to suffer all that. But we did not resist alone. The teamsters unions turned unconditionally against the government and that was one of the factors causing its fall."
*
*
*
We left the modern offices of the Society for the Promotion of Industry with a sense of the state oppression and industrial stagnation which Sr. Aguero had described so cle_arly in this interview. At the same time we rejoiced that the "acrob~t" who. had obliged the hard-workmg Chilean nation to make such an unnatural leap in space had not managed to grasp the "trapeze" of the dictatorship of the proletariat which would have m ade the curtain of iron and hunger drop irremediably over that sister nation.
The Cardinal (Continued from page 27)
that he was seen frequently on the same rostrum with the M arxist president." TFP. "And this included the meetings which took place in Central Unica de Trabajadores* (CUT), which was dominated by the Communists?" -"Unfortunately, yes."
erican Father complained publicly that I was a restraint on the de:7elopment of renewal and _change m. my parish. But the only time I _re~e1ved a call from the Archbishopric, _it w~s because of a sermon by a pries~ m my parish. He said that if 3:ny pne~t, even if it were the Cardmal1 said anything contrary to the doctrm~ of the Church which he was preachmg, the faithful should call to mind the words of St. Paul: 'If an angel should come down from Heaven to preach a gospel different from the one I have taught you, do not hear him.' "Because of that sermon, a Monsignor of the Curi:1 ca!led ~e to co_mplain that the priest was ~nterfermg in politics.' It seems that this was due to a complaint by a 'progressive' member of my old parish." TFP. ''And what policies did ~e Cardinal follow with the Catholic University?" -"El Senor Cardinal is the Chancellor of the University, and, the~efore, its highest authority. The policy he followed there was very wrong. He forced the retirement of Monsignor Alfredo Silva a magnificent rector, and replaced 'him with Castillo Velasco a man of frankly leftist ideas. The'University became a very noxious center of leftist propaganda . (Of course, no offense is meant to the numerous professors and studen_ts there who thanks be to God, a re still faithful to' sound Catholic principles.) - "It was also very lamentable th~t the Catholic University conferred its degree of "Doctor Honoris Causa" on the Communist poet Pablo Ne:uda. Since El Senor Cardinal Arc?b1shop is Chancellor of the Unive:s1ty, th~s could not have been done without his approval." TFP. "Are there other Bishops who also incline tow~rd t~is 'ava_nt:ga\~;• line of cooperation with socialism. - "Unfortunately yes, there are others: Among them the Bi~hor,s of T emuco, T alca, and San Felipe.
The Case of the University TFP. "Did you experience any pressures during the time you served as pastor of St. Bruno's here in Santiago?" - "Obviously; they were not happy over my refusal to adopt the 'progressive' caprices. I did everything that the Pope commanded, but I could not permit every person, to do whatever he wished. One North Am*Central Organization of Workers.
72 CRUSADE
Novelties Which Re flect the Loss of Faith TFP. "Was it because of this that · d as past or?" you resigne . - "No. That was later, because I foresaw that if I did not resign, they would end up relieving m~. ~-fa~y. of the faithful under my Jumd1ction went to the Curia to ask them not to remove me but Monsignor Larrain, Auxiliary Bi~hop of Santiago, an-
swered them : 'We have not removed him. He is going by himself. We have nothing against his staying.' But I left anyway - my position was insupportable. I have not reconciled myself to these leftist novelties. I believe that in the final analysis, they come from a loss of faith."
With Respect to the Overthrow of Allende TFP. "And what has been the reaction of the clergy to the overthrow of Allende?" - "The clergy is profoundly divided. The 'progressives' - who are dominating things - are partisans and p ropagandists of Christian Democracy or of M arxism as such. They a re furious, as are the leaders of the Christian Democratic Party, let that be said while we are on the subject. . H ere is a case for you. A gentleman, m response to the exhorta tion of the Military Junta, put up the Chilean flag in front of his house. The pastor asked h!m in a mocking tone: 'Are you gettmg read y for the military parade?' - 'For, the halt* of the Communists by the mHitary forces, answered the neighbor triumphantly. The parish priest vented his anger on his poor ma id whom he commanded to take down the Chilean flag which the woman had patriotically raised a t her own home.
The PDC, Antechamber of Marxism "The faithful traditional clergy are ~appy . about the military uprising, smce otherwise Allende may have left power, turning it over to Frei, who ~as already shown that the PDC** is th e antechamber of M a rxism.'' TFP. "Do you know Frei Father?" . - "Of c?urse. H e was my' classm~te m the semmary from 1920 until mid1922, the same as Alberto Jerez, today a leader of the left wing of the PDC." . :"7e said goodbye to Father Aran~1b1a, t~anking him for his kindness m grantmg us this interview and congra!ulating him for his valor and fid~hty to sound principles. We asked him to remember us in his prayers. *The Spanish word "parada" means both "parade" and a halt **Christ ian Democrati~ Party.
Agriculture Ruined (Continued from page 29)
voke internal unrest. All of this was directed by the socialist deputy Don Joel Marcambio Paez, a delinquent who is dying at this moment, and by the ex mayor of Colchagua H yab Codelia Diaz, a member of MAPU. They were assisted by functionaries of CORA and of the Institute of Agricultural Development." TFP. "In what year was that?" -"In February of 1971," Jorge Baraona answered.
"The Laborers Right Beside Us" And our conversation continued like this: "The laborers of the farm dug in with us to defend the property. All we had were sticks, clubs, and some hunting pieces (to hunt dove_s and partridges) . Their loyalty was good right to the end. When my father died absolutely all of them came to the funeral - three busloads, three buses."
"Marambio Took Off'' TFP. "And how many people attacked?" -"There must have been 200 armed people." TFP. "And did you repel them?" - "We repelled them. I personally set out, pistol in hand, after the deputy Marambio. We stopped his jeep made the four thugs who were ridi~g with him get out, and there were fights. Afterwards, Sr. Codelia (the mayor) took us into custody." TFP. "And Marambio?" - "He took off. The mayor of Colchagua came to arrest us the next day. f{e searched the houses, and humiliated my mother, my father, my sisters, and everyone who was there.
Before a "People's Court" "They detained my brother and me. I stead of putting us, as the law pro~des at the disposition of the Crim~1 al 'court of Santa Cruz, which is 1 ~e County Seat, they took us to the rieutenancy_~f ~he Carabini~ri, where the Carab1men at that time were dominated by ~he UP. . "Using all kinds of threats, msults, nd extortions, they interrogated us ~legally before a people's court which 1 s composed of the deputy Joel rambio ( who directed the assault) , Ju:n Codelia (the mayor of Col-
M
chagua), a leftist school ma'am of a nearby place, deputy Marambio's brother ( who is. mayor of Santa Cruz) , and a Marxist doctor from the area. "They did not know I was a lawyer. I said to them, 'I will not make any statements here. Send me to jail. After that, they took us to jail." TFP. "And what did they ask you, for example?" -"They showed the most atrocious rudeness, heaping gross insults upon me ... 'Admit, you nobody, that you tried to kill deputy Marambio.' They hoped that I would make a declaration under pressure. 'Don't yo1,1 want to make a statement? We are going to send you to the Investigation Department so that they can give you electric shock.' And he declared, 'Admit right now that you spoke offensively that night, of the person of His Excellency, the Presidei1t of the Republic. Admit that you're an enemy of the people.' All kinds of stupidities like that."
The Socialist Deputy, Pardoned by Allende TFP. "And didn't you answer anything?" -"Nothing. I told them simply: 'I'm answering absolutely nothing here. If you take me to Criminal Court I will make an accounting for everything.' They actually took us. We appeared before a Superior Court Judge of the Court of Rancagua, who afterwards released us and later ab: solved us of all fault. On the other hand, the deputy Marambio was condemned, as a result of our complaint of assault. But he was graciously pardoned by Allende, so that he, who was incapable of making his living any other way, could remain a deputy ... The deputy Marambio made a complaint against us for aggression and damage to the jeep. This case did not reach a decision, and Allende tried, in order to appear fair, to pardon us at the same time that he pardoned Marambio and his gang. "I sent him a letter by our office boy. 'Give this to his aide-de-camp personally,' I said to him. I told him in the letter that I was returning the pardon, because I did not consider myself to be on the same level as the troop of delinquents he was accustomed to pardoning. The next day an office boy arrived from La Moneda, bringing the letter back with no comment."
CORA Enters with a Military Force TFP. "Well, and then what happened?" -"Afterwards, the mayor requested the expropriation of the place, in -view of the fact that there were 'internal guerrillas' of the extreme right there . . . An inquest of the property was carried out by a person who, for a leftist, had at least a minimum of judgment. He was asked to do the inquest so that he would declare it badly worked, which would deny us the right of a reserve." TFP. "What does an inquest mean?" -"An inquest, that is to say, an agricultural inquest. It's an investigation of the socio-economic state of cultivation of a place in order to assign it a point score.'' TFP. "Was that man a functionary of CORA?" -"He was a functionary of CORA. For a leftist he acted in a more or less decent way; he did not rank the place badly worked, but well farmed. That fact automatically gave us the right to a reserve. "Nevertheless, on April 28, 1971, the Corporation of Agrarian Reform had its agents and armed Carabinieri enter the main houses at 8: 00 o'clock in the morning. They wanted us to move out within two hours so that they could take over the whole place. I was there at that moment, and invoked the right of reserve. But they told me that it was denied. Why? Because - they said - our place was a center of guerrillas.''
"At That Moment
My Father Died" TFP. "What is the right of reserve?" -"I t is the right to keep part of a place, 197 acres of basic irrigated land, which means on our place about 3,706 acres of unirrigated mountainous land to raise sheep. TFP. "Did that reserve include the houses?" - "It .ought to include the houses, but they violently dispossessed us of everything. Out with you! At that moment my father died." TFP. "There, during the act?" -"Not during the act, but he felt bad. It was necessary to set out in the middle of the night for Santiago and halfway there he died from th~ effect that all this had on him.
CRUSADE 73
''They Wanted to Blot Out the Traces of the Family" This whole action was directed by Mayor Codelia and the deputy Marambio. They intended to uproot us violently and wipe out all traces of our family and its wholesome influence over the province, and to construct in its stead a leftist political center. "But the case caused such a national commotion that they recognized their error, and the next council of CORA handed the reserve over to us with the great fanfare and publicity. The reserve included the houses. "Today the reserve which is left to us is being worked, and the expropriated 'settlement' as well. The people who live there never gave in to the Unidad Popular. Because of that, they have been denied credits and all kinds of technical assistance." TFP. "Have they denied credits to the very farm workers settled on the expropriated place?" -"They have totally denied them."
"A Russian 'Kolkhozy' " TFP. "How did they divide the settlement, was it a cooperative?" -"No, not even that. It is a 'settlement,' nothing more. CORA is simply the proprietor of the place, and the farm laborers work as a community." TFP. "Is it a kind of Russian 'Kolkhozy' ?" -"It's a perfect Russian 'kolkhozy.' The productivity of the place has fallen vertically. During the 20 years that I was managing the hacienda, when the tanks were full and we could irrigate with the pumps, ~e used to cultivate about 370 acres as truck farm, fatten 200 steers, and sow about 500 acres of wheat. Th~ugh the tanks filled last year, they are cultivating only what the laborers eat. They don't sell anything on the market. What ts produced is scarcely sufficient for the consumption of the 'settlement.' The reserve, that is to say, the part we have kept, that, yes, continues to produce.'' TFP. "Isn't the reserve irrigated?" -"No, it's pure hills. The reserve is a sheep pasture, except for the vineyards which remained in our hands." TFP. "And that production, just for the personal consumption of the 'settlers,' how much is it?" - "It's about an acre and a quarter per person. The number of people in 74 CRUSADE
the 'settlement' is about 56 at this moment, 56 or 60, more or less.'' TFP. "What has been the reduction in land actually cultivated?" -"From 370 acres to 74 acres. And this is not counting another 864 acres which they could cultivate with the tank filled with plenty of water for irrigation.'' -"And what do they do with the rest?" -"Nothing. It's wasted, totally. Absolutely wasted. They cut down all of the woods on the place. It was a farm with many trees, and was very beautiful. We planted new trees and cut the old ones to make charcoal; ht.it they cut everything flat ... to make quick money selling charcoal, and now there's not a tree left. And this is not only what happens at Nilahue, but on all the expropriated places . . . it happens on a national scale.''
The Case of Carlos Aristias TFP. "Do you remember some other concrete cases where something similar has taken place?" - "Senor Carlos Aristias, a friend of my father, was a man who took land away from the river to make his place. He planted about 1000 acres of fruit trees. He had a first-class dairy. And just because he helped some laborers who had been expelled from a neighboring 'settlement,' they expropriated absolutely everything. Now he is working in Salta, Argentina. TFP. "And did they make a 'settlement' there?" -"Yes. They haven't 111ade any innovations. What existed has gone down, causing a decline in production ... "In Marchigue, in the province of Colchagua, the ranch Halcones, which belongs to our neighbors, the Mendez Prendez, was expropriated, even though it was very well operated. Today it has only 2000 sheep instead of the 8000 it once had. "The hacienda Los Coipos once had 15,000 sheep and 1000 cattle; now there are 2000 sheep and not a single cow. "The despoiliation of cattle in Chile has been incredible. They ate the steak, they sold it, and now you can't find a steak anywhere.
Only for Themselves "Beef has disappeared in Chile, because the 'settlers' are not interested in burdening themselves with the risks of development. They only want to
receive their 'salary,' or rather the monthly draft from the State Bank 'against profits,' and to harvest no more than they need for themselves." TFP. "How's that?" - "It's what I've heard. They are sitting in their houses, and at the end of the month they go to the bank to pick up the monthly draft. "The 'settlement' works much Jess than before. They used to work eight hours ; now they work four. Yet the 'settlers' have a salary a little less than, but similar to, that of a laborer on the haciendas or on the reserves which are still left. The 'settler' con~ tracts a credit directly, with the Bank o~ the State, and every month it sends 1m a draft against profits. And that !s the salary of which I was speakmg.'' TFP. "And what if there are no profits?" - '_'It doesn't matter. They extend the time of the debt.'' !FP. "Well, that means nobody is ~Oing to produce anything doesn't It?" l ~"If th ey have a fixed salary agamS t profits, no matter what happens, a nd fodder for their animals ~~ef they c1;1ltiv~te only that portio~ a nd which 1s set aside for their ohn personal use. But cultivation for t e purpose of selling has in general come to an end. And the f h . collected ew arvests which are . are not turned over to the agencies of the State such as CORA or the Comp . m . any o f Agricultural Comerce,d m order to pay off their debt. I nstea they II h th bl k se t em on the sly on ed ac market, and split the procee s among themselves. Thus they never cover their debt to the s!ate.
?
Agrarian Reformist Slavery T~e UP knew that if they did not contmue to 1en d t h e 'settlers' money, th~Y would lose them politically. In or !er to continue this policy the Centra Bank of th e S tate made ' inorganic • . issues fofhpaper money. And that was one. o t e causes of t h e galloping . m. fl ation of 300 percent per year wh1c . h we now h ave. This _Policy had another conseque~ce m that through it the farm 7or ers were turned into true slaves or th e following reason · A 'settler' on a place proceed ed to contract · sueh a gr~at debt with the State that he ~~u never hope to pay it. Therefore, ey, would never allow him to leave t he settlement • "As long as· he did not cover his debt, the 'settler' could not leave,
though he could be dismissed for the causes listed in law 16,455. Since he could not withdraw voluntarily, the settler was tied there, like a slave, whether he liked it or not."
Marxist Hatred Spares Nothing TFP. "I read once about the occupation of a piece of land belonging to a widowed lady, whose name I can't remember, and that at that time she was assaulted and died." -"Yes, it was Dona Matilde Palma, whose land is in Temuco,. in the southern part of the country. "Another much commented upon case was that of a lady in Valdivia. The Marxists surrounded the property, captured her husband, and expelled him from the place. The lady was left isolated in the house for two days at which point, the official press repo~ted she had committed suicide. But one couldn't tell how this socalled suicide occurred. According to a good source in that area, she was killed for resisting the attempts of the aggressors to rape her."
Class Vengeance TFP. "In general, has the physical volume of agricultural production diminished from the beginning of the Agrarian Reform of Frei up to the present.?" -"It has dropped very, very, much." TFP. "You don't remember any statistics, do you?" -"There was a 70 percent reduction in the production of beef in the period from 1965 - when the Agrarian Reform began - to 1975. "The 'settlers' would buy part of the cattle and then send them to the market to make money. Thus, the cows of a dairy would be sent to the slaughter 'ipso facto.' There are even pathetic cases, such as that of the owner of Cruceron Viejo in Osnoro. fle had obtained a bull which had won all the prizes in the last farm hoW in Osorno. The farm was ins aded and like great maestros, as if vâ&#x20AC;˘t were ' someth.mg extraord.mary, t hey 1 strated the bull. As a result, the bull d~ed Subsequently, they ate it, and h~ng its hea? up i~ the entrance ~f he place, with a sign underneath 1t \ading: "We ate the Champion of tlJe show." And they felt that they h d really accomplished somthing, a t they were taking a kind of class h eance b ta . th" y domg at. veng
"The Quality of Chilean Wine Fell Off Tremendously" TFP. "And in the vineyards?" -"In general, the vineyards were respected during the Frei Administration. Since they were not expropriated, the quality of the wines did not worsen very much. But during the Allende regime, the quality of Chilean wine fell off tremendously. The reason for this is that until then the vineyards and wineries which were under joint State and private ownership were actually run by their old proprietors. Therefore, they normally set aside the high quality wines for 'label' bottling, keeping only a small portion for themselves. The rest, the poorer wines, they sold in demijohns in their own areas. Today, with the vineyard in the hands of 'settlers,' something else is going on. The care of the vineyards leaves much to be desired, and the quality of the wines has slipped. They are much more acid, because snails and bugs, which formerly were carefully separated, are mixed right in with the grapes. Consequently, the quality of Chilean wine has fallen off terribly.
Eighty Percent of the Wheat Imported TFP. "And the wheat, how was it?" -"The drop in wheat production has been very great, but not so much as in the case of cattle." TFP. "What percentage, don't you remember?" -"No, I don't remember exactly. But I can give you a datum. Chile has not been self-sufficient in respect to wheat since 1940, at which time 20 percent of the wheat for internal consumption had to be imported. But this year we have had to import 80 percent of the wheat needed for the country. The decline in wheat production has been very pronounced during this last period, though not during _the first part of Frei's regime. According to declarations of the National ~gricultural Society, the wheat p~oduct10n calculated for this year :viil descend t? what Chile produced m 1~7_5, that 1s to say, approximately 3 million tons, I don't remember exactly."
The Policy Behind All the Capitulations TFP. "You are a counselor of the National Agricultural Society?"
-"Yes, I am a counselor." TFP, "What can you tell us about Benjamin Matte's activities as head of the NAS?" -"First of all it must be noted that all of Chilean politics of the past decade was decisively influenced by the famous 'dialogue' between Nikita Khrush~hev and John F. Kennedy, who believed they were going to save the world by means of the 'structural reforms' which they preached for the underdeveloped countries. This convinced easily frightened people in Chile that the situation of the poor people could be remedied by means of 'structural reforms.' Therefore when the Christian Democrats pre~ sented their project of Agrarian Reform, some ingenious but well-intentioned people and a few cowards of the NAS, believed that by entering into dialogue with the administration they would help construct a prosperous and happy agriculture and a farm worker redeemed from 'oppressions.'
lf They Fought in the Beginning "Gradually it became clear that this message of Khruschev and Kennedy for South America, was nothing more than the implantation of Marxist totalitarianism, in which Russia was swallowing up the United States. Nevertheless, in spite of the internal resistance in the NAS, the directors continued to dia logue, thinking that by giving in little by little they were going to save the fundamental things. In this way, they continued to lose ground. Accordingly, when the hard resistance began, the evil was already very much advanced, and it was impossible to go back. Now they see their error. If at first, they had resisted energetically, perhaps they could have avoided the disaster which came later. Only when that disaster became evident, did the strong resistance begin, but in inferior conditions.
The Strong Resistance Did Not Come from the Great Proprietors "It is necessary to make one thing clear. The strong resistance in Chile did not come from the great land owners. It came when Land Reform began to affect the medium and small proprietors, who are more numerous . of their rights, and' more consc10us more 'nationalistic' in the good sense
CRUSADE 75
of the word. They were helped by the enormous Chilean middle class, including the merchants, the truckers, the bank employees, the pilots of LAN (the Chilean National Airline), a combination which was decisive for the overthrow of the Marxist government of Allende. "The resistance of the owners of large farms and ranches was slight, because they are more cultured and more Europeanized. Perhaps they reasoned on the basis of a n international criteria instead of a Chilean criteria as such. They let them selves be influenced by the Krushchev-Kennedy 'dialogue,' a nd forgot the defense of their legitimate interests.
"The Right Love of Oneself Is Just" "They believed that defending their interests was a form of egoism, whereas Catholic doctrine says clearly that a right love of oneself is just. One must love one's neighbor as oneself, but not more than oneself. Exactly, but not more than oneself; otherwise it would be suicide. "This, then, is more or less what happened in Chile. I blame the people of CEPAL, a troop of failures in their own activities who have come here to make money in the country,
and impose doctrines absolutely foreign to the ideals of our nation."
The "Progressive" Clergy Agitated the Countryside and Formed Terrorists TFP. "And the 'progressive' clergy?" - "The 'progressive' clergy .. . It would be better not even to speak of them. They simply forgot all about the apostolate of the Church and dedicated themselves to political agitation. Inspired undoubtedly by the doctrines of Teilhard de Chardin, they went about the countryside agitating the farm laborers. They dedicated themselves much more to revolutionary formation than to Christian formation as such. They justified adultery, free love, everything as long as there was 'spirit,' and that 'spirit' meant simply-class hatred and an ardent desire to transform society. In this way, they formed some persons who were absolute failures, and absolutely unsuitable to work for the country, but very suitable for shooting from the tops of buildings at the military forces on September 11."
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The words of Jorge Baraona synthesize the life of tensions, risks, and
injustices to which the hard working men of the Chilean countryside were subjected by the socialist and confisc_atory agrarian reform process iniha ted by Eduardo Frei. Spoiliation, c~ass struggle, and moral and physical v10lence unleashed themselves like a storm of da rkness during the regime of the M arxist Allende which commi_t~ed ~me_ of the g;eatest crimes agamst Justice recorded in the history of the country. We took leave of Dr. Baraona, expressing our desire that Chilean agriculture resume once again the path tha_t gave it its former grandeur and which should not have been interrupted, for by this route comes true progress, that which arises from the harmonious continua tion of the Christian Tradition toward the future. May Chile very soon return to the f~ll. force of the natural right of in?1~1d~al J?ri:'ate property; may the m1qmtous InJustices committed against the Chilean farmers and ranchers be m ade up for; and may t ranquility in order return to reign among them. M ay they b_e able once again to create the prosperity of other times for themselves, for their families for those who work with them, for th~ whole nation _th_at prosperity which has been annihilated by the tragic socialist adventure.
The Middle Man (Continued from page 37)
exchange needed for the importation of raw materials, and the parts essential for production. By suffocating private activity, they succeeded in gaining control of 90 percent of the production a nd d istribution of the country."
Ninety Percent of the Distribution Fell into the Hand's of the State TFP. " D id they actually get to the point of controlling 90 percent?" - "Yes 90 percent of the distribution in 'the country was in their hands." - "The 10 percent _remammg was openly d efended by ~ me~sure taken by this Confederation m January 1972. W e followed the same system as the U nidad Popular government, that is, the 150,000 middlemen of this Confederation acquired the old 76 CRUSADE
CODINA, which was a distributor, and we turned it into the CENADI; Na tional Center of Commercial Dist ribution. We could hardly sustain ourselves during these last three years with the 10 percent that was left, but at least we continued to exist."
"We Kept Business Closed f rorn Arica to Punta Arenas" TFP. "Did you suffer many losses ?" - "Of course. And we went through moments that were really dramatic and tragic during different actions of our union which culminated last year in the movement of O ctober, in which we kept business closed from Arica to Punta Arenas for 27 days. There were all kinds of pressures, breaking open of business places, requisition of merchandise ( which "nothing more was ever heard of") , arrests . . . our national president, R afael Cumsille, the whole board of directors, a nd all the provincial directors were arrested. There was a really incredible persecution of the foreign middle men, in
wh ich they even t h reatened to expel t h. em from the country. In fact, .m the city of Punta Arenas three middle m en who had worked in Chile for 25 years, were expelled and all of their goods were seized." '
Aggressions and Closing for Many TF_P. "And were there m any bank~ptcie~ among the small and medthmm-sized businesses during these ree years?" - "There were, without a doubt. r any businesses had to close their oors ve~ early, because they had no merchandise to sell. W e calculate that approximately 30 percent of the small a nd medium-sized businesses in t e. Confederation were forced to close t e1r establishments. Their situation w~; unsu st ainable and unbearable. For example, the JAP's gave some of our colleagues certain minimal q~otas of sugar . . . certain quotas of 01 , a barrel of 200 quarts for instance. But at the same time ,t he agitators
- Y ~ 11
Jf,.
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The end of commerce. All of the shops are closed.
of the JAP would advise the people in the locality that this merchant had a barrel of oil. "This meant that soon there would be two or three thousand people in the street asking him to divide two hundred quarts of oil among them. ·When this ran out, he was attacked by the people who were unable to believe there was no more oil. Then the political agitators would accuse him of being a hoarder, and the cause of the incident." TFP. "Do you recall any specific examples of aggressions provoked by agitators against middle men?" - "In Buin, a middle m an, an old man was attacked in his home by the people from a queue, who were directed by the ex-governor, a woman militant of the Communist Party in the Department of San Bernardo. His borne was sacked, and he was ·left blind. To this day he is an invalid as a result of that aggression. "Last year, in the month of A.ugust, one of our colleagues, Garcia, died after defending a supermarket being assaulted. "In places where the political activities of the U P was especially intense as in the villages San Gregorio, La 'Bandera, "Ho-Chi-Minh, and "Ch e Guevara, the middle men had abandon their stores and homes, beto use they were being physically perca uted and attacked in every possible sec
mayors to give permits to people to set themselves up on the street, without any legal control, without paying any tax. What is more, the distributors controlled by the State handed over to these stalls products to which the established middle men had no access. "And this was an enormous immorality, because they established the most fabulous black market in the history of the country. A bag of sugar cost 6000 Escudos." TFP. "And in a legal store what did it sell for?" - "For 80 or 90 Escudos. A package of Hilton cigarettes which we sold for 8 Escudos was being sold for 200 Escudos.
- "Household appliances, such as refrigerators, radios, etc., which did not exist in established businesses, were stored in private homes of elements belonging to the regime. You could buy these articles from them at 5, 10, 20, or 50 times the normal value."
Commercial Establishments Were Empty TFP. "To what extent do you believe the small middle man was decapitalized during the government of Allende?" - "It's d ifficult to give a n exact figure. \\le middle men measure our capital by the merchandise in our
wat;P. " What were the stalls which UP h ad set up in flimsy shacks on e th he sidewa lks.?" t - "T his was simply political favorit. They paid Marxist aldermen and
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CRUSADE 77
commercial establishments. The only answer I can give you is that the commercial establishments were practically bare, and the only thing that appeared in their books was a lot of numbers, that is, a capital which was absolutely devaluated, because the country was scourged by a new situation, scarcity with inflation." TFP. "Can we say that when you sold products in your businesses you could not replace them, and this coi;stituted the decapitalization of business?" -"Exactly, and also because ~he businesses had to pay taxes over inflation that is to say on profits that were ~ot such but the pure fruit of inflation."
Teamsters ( C ontin ued from page 49)
bought at 150 Escudos a quart, and so forth. "After four days, there being no money left, we began a campaign on the radio, asking for the help of our compatriots. Little by little, it took
Camps full of trucks. hold, and we were completely relieved of the problem of supply. "Since each union had to look after its own supply problem, it was a real drama for us. Imagine feeding six or seven thousand persons every day, just here in this province (Santiago) . "And there were times when many syndicates from the provinces of the interior asked us for help, and we asked them for help . . . What they could spare, they divided with others,
and what we could spare, we gave to the others. And that, I believe, was the great success of our movement that union with the public which ex~ isted from the first moment ..." TFP. "Did people come here all day long bringing things?" - "Not only did people come here, but we_ had a system of help organized for gomg to get things in people's homes. We would walk 30 40 or 50 blocks to get a modest pa~kaiie. The
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donation might be a couple of pounds of sugar or a jar of coffee ... Ettie by little we piled up the great heap we needed. "I can tell you about something which really moved us very much. Here are 8 Escudos and 75 centesimos sent by a Chilean woman in very modest circumstances, an old woman who is moreover blind. We are keeping the can and the coins, because for us they are real trophies. , "She also sent us a medal which the Pope gave her, we don't know how Jong ago. Her only fortune was these 8 Escudos and 75 centismos, all, as you can see, in small change."
"We Knew What We Were Fighting For" TFP. "And the families? While the teamsters and their drivers were in the camps, they were obviously separated from their families ..." - "Well, I am a soldier of this cause. I don't have any post of leadership in my union, but the leaders called me . . . to take charge of the problem of supply here. Like a soldier I have received the order and carried it out. "My wife was the head of twenty eight women who took our cause to the National Congress, and my daughter went with her. My oldest son, who-is also a trucker, was in our union doing different things. "Some of the wives came to fix our food and many took part in collecting ~lothes and helping in the camps, because that was fundamental." TFP. "Then were the families separated during this whole period?" - "Separated physically but united spiri tuallY• "And I believe that was what gave ur movement its strength. We were 0 ot fighting alone, but with our drivnrs and our families. Besides we had ~h; support .~f the great majority of our fellow c1t12ens. "We knew what we were fighting f We were in the first place defend. or. something of our own. Many of ing colleagues have 30 or 40 years in our . his line . . . we h a d a mystique, we t d something to defend. ha"But the movement later began to ke on another sense, and then the ta ment came when we were not dem o ding our trucks, nor our tires, nor fe~ parts; we wete defending someohu. g more important to us, the future t in I d of our father an .
t~amster wore a scapular on his breast. In this photograph, we see the rdeolog,~a! background of the struggle of the Chilean people. It is a sign that their ,deals are not dead, and they would give their lives for them. ~very
"As Chileans, we ought to feel proud that we have done our part for our fatherland. Those colleagues who out of cowardice or love of ease were not with us, they should not be at ease. Their consciences are going to bother them as lon_g as they live." At that moment a husky young man, Sr. Gustavo L eiva, joined the group. TFP. "Tell me, Sr. Leiva, were there physical attacks by the leftists?" -"Naturally there were certain
confrontations between those in favor of the stoppage and those who wanted to break the strike. Obviously there were blows exchanged. "We answered them as we were able, but we were totally without arms to face the hordes and real armies which they had to impede us. "All of the young people and some of the older ones took part in the defense. Sons openly defined themselves in favor of their fathers, and the ideals of their fathers were their own."
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CRUSADE 79
"The Catholic Faith Helped Us" TFP. "Tell me, Sr. Diaz, what about the religious aspect? Was there religious fervor? Did you make novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel to ask H er protection during that difficult crisis?" -"I am a Catholic, and happy to be able to say how much the Catholic Faith helped our movement. We distributed thousands of Scapulars of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. patroness of Chile, in all the camps ( showing us a handful of Scapulars of Our Lady of Mbunt Carmel). "That made the fervor increase more and more every day. We constantly had visits from priests who , came to give us their regards and who brought a word of encouragement. In most of the camps Mass was celebrated every day.
An Act of Gratitude to Our Lady of Mount Carmel "Last Sunday, here in the Basilica of the Savior, we of the Transportation Union had a Mass offered to the Virgin of Mount Carmel in thanksgiving for the help wh ich She gave our movement. The National President of the association, Juan Jara, and the majority of the leadership of the other unions were present at the Mass which, for those of us who were ab!~ - to be there, was very moving . . . because we had a lump in our throats when we saw the fervor with which mature men, old men, and women assisted at that Mass. "When we got our machines rolling, we were able to fulfill a great desire we had to make a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the town of Maipu, about 10 miles from here. We wanted to show Her, who had helped us so much all of our gratitude and all of our l~ve.
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The interview has shown that men like Don Ezequiel Diaz, who had no post of leadership in the union but offered to assist in the organization of the movement, were the ones who made possible the final results: the fall of Allende. This is an indication that it was the Chilean people themselves, with the natural leaders that had come from among them, who overthrew the antinatural distatorship of Marxism."
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