Democracy Dies in a Day npr org transcripts nx-s1-5614229 November 20 2025 Transcript SERGIO BITAR At 6 in the morning I remember that somebody called saying that the navy's coming I was told if it happens it would be very violent So take care protect yourself Try to leave your houses My name is Sergio Bitar RUND ABDELFATAH HOST Sergio has been a lot of things - a civil engineer an author and at the time he's speaking about he's a government worker We'll get to all that later Right now Sergio needs to make a decision He has to leave his house But where should he go Where is even safe anymore SOUNDBITE OF VEHICLE STARTING BITAR Should I go to the palace government palace It was completely blocked ABDELFATAH The only information he could get was by tuning into the radio So he flipped it on in the car as he headed for a friend's house on the outskirts of the city SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING SALVADOR ALLENDE Non-English language spoken ABDELFATAH The president of Chile Salvador Allende came on the radio SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING ALLENDE Non-English language spoken RAMTIN ARABLOUEI HOST I will not resign he says SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING ALLENDE Non-English language spoken ARABLOUEI I will pay with my life for the loyalty of the people The seed we planted in the dignified conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled forever SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING 1 24 ALLENDE Non-English language spoken ABDELFATAH Sergio reached his friend's house Throughout the day he could hear bombs airplanes buzzed low to the ground and gunfire echoed throughout the neighborhood That afternoon over the radio the announcement came The president was dead SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC BITAR By the radio there was a list of people called by the military that we should present ourselves ARABLOUEI The next day at 7 a m Sergio's name became one of them BITAR I called my wife saying could you come I've been called ARABLOUEI His mind was racing and some embassies had called and offered asylum But if he tried to take refuge there and the embassies fell then he might be in even bigger trouble So Sergio decided to turn himself in BITAR I have nothing to hide This is a democratic government So I presented myself ARABLOUEI The soldiers took his documents and detained him along with a bunch of other people some of them who he knew BITAR So we stayed 24 hours or 48 hours And at that time I think there was a decision among the heads of the military what is called the junta should we kill these guys or send them abroad A helicopter arrived but it was no answer They took us And then they pushed us to a bus with guys with machine guns ARABLOUEI The soldiers told them if anyone moved they would be shot BITAR And they took us to a plane ARABLOUEI On the plane armed men guarded them closely BITAR We didn't know where we were going SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC ABDELFATAH Just days before Sergio Bitar worked for the Chilean government He was living in Santiago the capital city He was a husband a father ARABLOUEI Now he was a political prisoner BITAR When I look at back I realize my blindness Because we were a democratic country for many years democracy was sure secure guaranteed 2 24 ARABLOUEI Until it wasn't ABDELFATAH I'm Rund Abdelfatah ARABLOUEI And I'm Ramtin Arablouei ABDELFATAH Chile was once one of Latin America's oldest democracies That all changed in a matter of hours after a military coup on September 11 1973 ARABLOUEI For the next 17 years Chileans found themselves in the grip of brutal authoritarian rule People lived in fear There were no elections and the people had no voice Today on this show how democracy collapses and how it is resuscitated through the eyes of four people who lived through it The prisoner BITAR The conditions were how to control your mind that you feel that you are nothing ARABLOUEI The journalist JOHN DINGES I was not able to use a byline And as soon as I did the reprisals came down on me ARABLOUEI The exile JUAN GABRIEL VALDES Chilean dictatorship didn't eliminate just its enemies in the country but also outside the country ARABLOUEI And the child CAMILA VERGARA And I don't know anything And I am like you know a daughter of privilege Like what is this It was more than an awakening It's like the - I say the kind of slivers of you know truth coming ABDELFATAH Coming up - democracy dies in a day SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC NATALIE VALIER Hello This is Natalie Valier ph calling from Montreal Quebec - Montreal Quebec - and you are listening to THROUGHLINE from NPR I find it such a mind-refreshing podcast Thank you very much UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1 Part 1 - Non-English Language Spoken These Are My Last Words DINGES I got up that morning My girlfriend comes back and says things are happening ABDELFATAH This is John Dinges He's written several books on Latin America 3 24 DINGES My recent book came out in April called Chile In Their Hearts ABDELFATAH In 1973 he was an American reporter living in Chile DINGES We turned on the radio immediately ABDELFATAH All of the stations had been taken over by the military except for one - Radio Magallanes DINGES And I had my tape recorder I flipped it on record and I recorded them saying we are about to hear from the president of the republic He is in La Moneda ABDELFATAH La Moneda - the presidential palace DINGES There are troops surrounding the palace and he is going to address all of Chile SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING ALLENDE Non-English language spoken ARABLOUEI This is the last opportunity for me to address you SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING ALLENDE Non-English language spoken ARABLOUEI The people must not let themselves be destroyed or riddled with bullets but they cannot be humiliated either DINGES He was not giving us any hope that he could beat back the coup SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING ALLENDE Non-English language spoken ARABLOUEI Long live Chile Long live the people Long live the workers DINGES He implied that he was not going to leave alive SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING ALLENDE Non-English language spoken ARABLOUEI These are my last words and I am certain my sacrifice will not be in vain DINGES It was an amazingly eloquent speech for history SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING 4 24 ALLENDE Non-English language spoken SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC DINGES Then we said well what do we do ARABLOUEI In the years leading up to this day the day of the coup Chile had been in crisis It had some of the highest income inequality in Latin America Despite high mining taxes profits from Chile's main industry copper mining didn't trickle down to everyone BITAR And it was in the hands of American companies ARABLOUEI This is Sergio Bitar You met him at the top of the episode He was born and raised in Chile BITAR We don't know what we received for that All the profits go abroad Mostly when you go out from the area where middle classes existed you saw the poverty the lack of housing children without food The mortality rate was very high unemployment kids going - walking barefoot ARABLOUEI A movement of working-class people began to demand change SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC ABDELFATAH Enter Salvador Allende Allende was a self-proclaimed Marxist and in 1970 he ran for president with the promise of a full socialist makeover of Chilean society He wanted the Chilean government to take control of the U S -dominated copper industry He promised to increase wages for the poorest Chileans and vowed that every child would get a free half-liter of milk every day Allende also wanted to redistribute farmland taking it from rich landowners and giving it to the poor SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING ALLENDE Non-English language spoken ARABLOUEI I ask you to go home in joy with the fair victory we have achieved SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING ALLENDE Non-English language spoken ABDELFATAH Allende won the election SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING ALLENDE Non-English language spoken 5 24 ARABLOUEI We'll have to put more passion and more love to make Chile ever greater and life in our homeland more just SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING ALLENDE Non-English language spoken BITAR So that's the beginning of my political life ABDELFATAH Sergio was in the U S studying at Harvard when Allende was elected He didn't consider himself a socialist but he saw Allende as an opportunity for change BITAR So I said to myself I will go back and I will be available to work with the Allende government ABDELFATAH He was appointed the minister of mining As Allende made moves to nationalize the copper industry alarm bells started ringing in the U S BITAR Instead of seeing a movement towards democracy they were seeing risk to their security the security of their businesses ABDELFATAH This was the Cold War era and the U S government feared communism was spreading across Latin America DINGES This wasn't Castro This wasn't the Cuban Revolution This wasn't a takeover This was a parliamentary system that had won enough of a majority to govern and they were implementing a radical economic and social change ABDELFATAH But still the U S saw Allende's reforms as a threat The U S government instituted an invisible blockade against Chile They cut off loans and foreign aid in order to as the Nixon administration put it make the Chilean economy scream ARABLOUEI By October 1972 when John landed in Chile DINGES There was a general strike against the government SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #1 Chanting in non-English language DINGES Small businesses and truckers had basically closed down the country ARABLOUEI The rich were panicking because Allende was instituting policies that threatened to take their land and their money and redistribute it But the poor were also suffering as Chile's economy descended into chaos Inflation was the highest in the world There were food shortages everywhere 6 24 DINGES It was in the middle of a crisis The country was very divided SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC ARABLOUEI Messing with the economy wasn't the only way the U S put its hand on this scale President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger collaborated with all kinds of U S government officials and the CIA to destabilize Allende The CIA poured millions of dollars into covert operations to support opposition groups and spread anti-Allende propaganda ABDELFATAH They paid almost $2 million to El Mercurio Chile's New York Times to slant its coverage against Allende The paper ran headlines like Marxists Threaten Middle Class and Reds Plan to Attack Army ARABLOUEI The U S government was also trying to court Chilean military leaders DINGES Augusto Pinochet is the No 2 military person in the army ARABLOUEI Pinochet was a bit of an enigma He grew up in a middle-class family and joined the military as a teenager He climbed the ranks doing just enough to get promoted but not so much that he stood out In September 1972 Chile's military is trying to purchase tanks from the U S government So Pinochet heads to Panama where the U S had bases DINGES They wine and dine him ARABLOUEI And at one point a member of Pinochet's delegation has a conversation with some American officers who tell him DINGES I'm not quoting it exactly If there's a plan to overthrow the Marxist government we want you to know that we will support it And Pinochet did not tip his hand And I'm pretty convinced that at that time he hadn't decided whether he was going to be involved in the coup But the U S has basically given him the green light ARABLOUEI The U S was saying OK we won't organize the coup for you but we also won't stand in your way And we think it's a good idea DINGES So Pinochet returns to Chile ARABLOUEI And when he gets back he gets a big promotion DINGES Allende names Pinochet as the commander of the army the top military officer People did not suspect They thought OK that's good because Pinochet is a loyalist He's somebody who believes in the constitution ARABLOUEI In other words Pinochet could be a stabilizing force that would help uphold democracy in Chile at a time when life in Chile was reaching a breaking point 7 24 ABDELFATAH In the summer of 1973 SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #1 Non-English language spoken DINGES There were demonstrations every week SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #2 Chanting in non-English language DINGES And there were demonstrations by the right demonstrations by the left SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2 Non-English language spoken DINGES It was chaotic In those final days there were a coterie of high-ranking officers who had decided that they were going to pull off a coup ABDELFATAH They met with Pinochet on Sunday September 9 DINGES And he was reluctant His choice is divide the armed forces and oppose this military coup which would be bloody almost a civil war or take charge of it He decides that he's going to lead the coup ABDELFATAH That brings us back to September 11 1973 when John turned on the radio to hear President Allende's final address SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING ALLENDE Non-English language spoken DINGES We said well what do we do ABDELFATAH John and his roommate set out for the big working-class neighborhood of the city the hub for Allende supporters DINGES They were going to lead the opposition if any coup came ABDELFATAH They get to this part of Santiago the industrial belt where all the factories are At the first factory DINGES The workers said go home It's going to be really really dangerous 8 24 ABDELFATAH Then they went to a second factory where the workers had blockaded themselves inside and were waiting for a weapons delivery DINGES They'd been told that they were going to arrive in a green truck They waited all day ABDELFATAH The green truck never arrived The weapons didn't come SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION ARABLOUEI Back at the presidential palace explosions rang out DINGES They bombed La Monera with the air force and once they bombed it it was clear that the resistance was over ARABLOUEI The military moved into the palace Allende was on the second floor DINGES By the time they got up there Allende was dead ARABLOUEI From a bullet to the head SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3 Non-English language spoken ARABLOUEI General Augusto Pinochet was in power now SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3 Non-English language spoken DINGES There were military barriers on the corners people with automatic weapons behind sandbags ARABLOUEI The military imposed a curfew DINGES During that period we're listening to the radio There's no information going on On a regular basis we would hear gunshots ARABLOUEI John and his roommates hunkered down for the night waiting to see what would happen SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC ABDELFATAH Coming up dawn breaks on a new reality for Chile SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC 9 24 JULES Hi this is Jules ph from Toledo Ohio I love listening to THROUGHLINE on my drives and on my runs and really anytime You're listening to THROUGHLINE from NPR UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1 Part 2 - Non-English Language Spoken The Two Faces of Dictatorship BITAR When you are in prison the most dangerous enemy is the sense of time If you lose the sense of time you lose your mind ARABLOUEI This is Sergio Bitar again In the hours and days that followed the bombing of La Moneda Sergio's whole life was turned upside down He was detained and he was taken by Pinochet's forces to the very southern tip of South America to a prison on Dawson Island BITAR It's very cold The south of Magellan Strait is one of the closest islands to the Antarctic SOUNDBITE OF SONG BRAZAS A CENIR BITAR With the worst guys they had in order to impose on us singing of military songs every day every morning ARABLOUEI Like the navy hymn BITAR The military anthem of each branch SOUNDBITE OF SONG BRAZAS A CENIR UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP #1 Singing in Non-English language ARABLOUEI Day and night Sergio and the other prisoners were under the watchful eye of Pinochet's armed forces BITAR We felt that they had some sort of manual with orders on how to deal with the prisoners or how to break the prisoners And the way to do it is to feel that the other one is an animal You are not a human being That's part of the logic ARABLOUEI Sergio and the others did hard physical labor for 10-plus hours a day with little to no food Many were tortured kept in isolation with glaring lights in their eyes BITAR It was hard to understand where you were who you were what was happening The mind is not able to recognize this is not conscious about what is surrounding you What would happen to my wife to my children to theirs At that time your body reacts in a different way What happens at the moment is survive ABDELFATAH In the days and months after the coup Chile descended into chaos as the Pinochet regime took control of all facets of Chilean life 10 24 SOUNDBITE OF DRUMBEAT DINGES The democracy was over They dissolved Congress SOUNDBITE OF DRUMBEAT DINGES They rewrote the constitution SOUNDBITE OF DRUMBEAT DINGES They raided all of the universities and took over them by force SOUNDBITE OF DRUMBEAT ABDELFATAH This is John Dinges again As an American reporter in Santiago he was on the ground trying to figure out what was actually happening in real time DINGES It was obvious that they were arresting people because of their sympathy with the Allende government ABDELFATAH People were detained across the city DINGES They were raiding the poor people's areas and the factories ABDELFATAH Twenty thousand people were held in the national stadium which overnight transformed from a soccer pitch to an open-air prison Some of the people who were sent there never returned DINGES We had vague reports of a lot of violence going on in the countryside And in fact a lot of the deaths were owners of farms telling the police to kill certain peasants because they had been leading the political movements ABDELFATAH And still amid this violence and chaos DINGES Life was still going on ABDELFATAH Many people were still going to work to school and to buy groceries DINGES In some sense it's easier because the economic chaos that was happening right before the coup where there were food shortages there was a black market There were protests all over the place All of that ended And it was on the surface more peaceful ABDELFATAH A veneer of civility and normalcy seemed to return to Chile Countries like the United States quickly recognized and legitimized the military government also known as the junta 11 24 DINGES The immediate violence calms down by the end of 1973 The patrols the constant raiding of houses all of that had died down They emptied the national stadium and the other stadiums ABDELFATAH The junta played up the idea that rule of law had returned to Chile In the poor working-class neighborhoods that narrative was a hard pill to swallow DINGES There the number of people who had lost their jobs the number of people that had been taken to prison or had been forced into exile ABDELFATAH They had seen the violence of the military coup with their own eyes It was their family members that were gone dead or simply disappeared DINGES The environment of fear was much much stronger ABDELFATAH In 1974 some prisoners began to be released including Sergio Bitar who immediately left the country John and others took it as a sign that the violence had finally come to an end DINGES So we thought that things were returning to normal ARABLOUEI And for some Chileans life wasn't just returning to normal It was better than ever DINGES There was the rich neighborhood the Providencia and Las Condes neighborhoods and they were overjoyed I mean they broke out the champagne on September 11 For them this was heavenly This was what they had always dreamed of - that Chile would go back to the time when they were in charge and basically things were arranged in line with their privilege VERGARA So basically it depends on where are you - from where are you looking the dictatorship and who is suffering the dictatorship ARABLOUEI This is Camila Vergara a lecturer in political theory at the University of Essex She grew up in Chile during the 1980s Her family like many middle-class and wealthy families supported Pinochet VERGARA I am like you know a daughter of privilege I come from a family of landowner in the south ARABLOUEI The way her grandfather saw it Allende and his communist cronies had threatened to destroy everything he had worked for by redistributing farmland to poor farmers VERGARA My grandfather says these communists we need to kill them all We need to just like get rid of them in a way This was the narrative of the regime ARABLOUEI And frankly as a child from a wealthy family Camila had no real conception of the regime's violence 12 24 VERGARA If you are really in the richest 10% which means that you are dressed a certain way you have a car you have all these other things that insulate you from the repression Because when you're on the top you're not really suffering you are profiting from right ARABLOUEI After the coup Pinochet undid Allende's efforts to bring Chile's land and resources back under national control They returned more than 300 businesses into private hands and foreign investors and with help from a group of Chilean economists educated in the U S called the Chicago Boys transformed Chile's economy into a laboratory of neoliberal capitalism VERGARA They drafted a manifesto of this new society in which it was based on the individual rational consumer in a way And it was basically the Bible of neoliberal economics And this Bible then became the program of the Pinochet regime ARABLOUEI The idea was simple - the government had little role to play in the economy Staterun services were largely privatized Price controls were lifted No big labor unions The economy ran best when there was ample competition and very little to no regulation Only the best would rise to the top ABDELFATAH The change was a shock Almost immediately the price of common goods shot up The price of sugar for instance went up 500% This was great for profit margins and sugar CEOs like Camila's mom and in theory these riches were supposed to trickle down In reality that's not how it played out VERGARA The system is created for the rich to get richer in a way and the poor to get stuck SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC ABDELFATAH John Dinges saw these disparities firsthand and it wasn't long before he realized that nothing had actually returned to normal DINGES Hundreds of people were being arrested and put in secret prisons In other words people that had been arrested and after months had gone by were not appearing and this then is the phenomenon that is known as disappearance ABDELFATAH Over the course of Pinochet's regime more than a thousand people disappeared without a trace - 3 000 were killed and 40 000 were tortured or imprisoned ARABLOUEI As a reporter for Time Magazine and The Washington Post John's stories made U S readers face what was happening in Chile ABDELFATAH And ironically enough even though the U S welcomed Pinochet and helped establish the conditions that led to Allende's overthrow some of the loudest voices against Pinochet's regime were coming from the Chilean diaspora in the United States SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT 13 24 ORLANDO LETELIER I would say that something that was really very impressive was the capacity of - the capacity of human being to resist SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC ABDELFATAH Orlando Letelier the former ambassador to the U S under the Allende government emerged as one of the leaders of Chile's exile community VALDES When Orlando Letelier came he had access to ambassadors even to ministers And we decided of course that - and he was appointed as the head of the exiles in the U S ABDELFATAH This is Juan Gabriel Valdes He's Chile's current ambassador to the U S At the time of the coup he was a student in the U S studying abroad After Pinochet took power he decided to stay in the United States and become Letelier's assistant to fight for Chile from afar VALDES Orlando Letelier - he was very effective communicating from a moderate point of view what we wanted to do which was to recuperate democracy ABDELFATAH Letelier had been imprisoned at Dawson Island at the same time as Sergio Bitar and he wasn't afraid to tell people what he had seen firsthand including the press In 1975 he told NPR this SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT LETELIER There were I would say at least 60 or 70 minors people boys from 15 to 16 17 years old All of them were tortured All of them ABDELFATAH As Letelier's calls against Pinochet gained more and more attention Juan Gabriel remembers being afraid that something would happen to his friend and mentor VALDES The Chilean dictatorship didn't eliminate just its enemies inside the country but also outside the country ABDELFATAH And that fear proved to be well-founded SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC VALDES I was with my children at home and suddenly I received a call from Orlando's secretary And Orlando's secretary said to me something happened There was an accident apparently and everybody's left the institute and they're running there Orlando was so careless when he drove and it's raining and probably he had an accident And then this woman called me and said are you going home to see the FBI or are you going to the hospital And I said what does the FBI has to do with an accident An accident It was a bomb And I couldn't believe it ARABLOUEI The Chilean government denied involvement in the car bombing that killed Orlando Letelier and a young American colleague 14 24 ABDELFATAH Did you ever buy that story VALDES Never ABDELFATAH Or did you kind of know VALDES Never ABDELFATAH Yeah you knew it was Pinochet VALDES I was absolutely sure it was Pinochet ARABLOUEI Decades later in 2015 newly declassified U S intelligence documents concluded what Juan Gabriel and others already suspected - General Pinochet had personally ordered the killing of Letelier on U S soil At the time the junta denied involvement but the opposition was getting louder and louder ABDELFATAH The long tentacles of the dictatorship were starting to create cracks in the facade and soon they would split wide open ARABLOUEI That's coming up LEAH MARGOLET Hi This is Leah Margolet ph from Paris France I'm a teacher and I love THROUGHLINE And you are listening to THROUGHLINE from NPR UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1 Part 3 - Non-English Language Spoken The Road Back VERGARA I must have been around you know 9 years old or 8 years old ABDELFATAH It was the 1980s and Camila Vergara was excited to spend the day with her mom VERGARA My mom was a CEO of the sugar industry which was a state industry and I would never see her ABDELFATAH Camila was usually at home VERGARA Very isolated from the real world ABDELFATAH But on this day her mom surprised her and said VERGARA Oh let's do something together I will take you to a ballet in central Santiago ABDELFATAH So Camila put on her leotard her tutu and slippers and then they drove into the city When they arrived at the Teatro Municipal a towering white stone theater Camila and her mom eagerly walked up to the gates VERGARA And it was closed 15 24 ABDELFATAH Her mom was confused Had they gotten the date wrong Were they too early too late Where was everyone VERGARA And suddenly SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #2 Chanting in non-English language ARABLOUEI Thousands of people come flooding down the street The crowd's chants mixed with the loud barking of police dogs SOUNDBITE OF DOGS BARKING VERGARA We were caught in the middle of the protest My mom immediately started trying to cover me And the police repressing the people who protested beating up people tear gas everywhere So for the first time in my life I was exposed to the glimpse of what is happening SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS #2 Chanting in non-English language ARABLOUEI The protests had begun in May 1983 Copper miners took to the streets first They demanded an end to government repression disappearances mass arrests police violence censorship of the press ABDELFATAH And an end to a catastrophic economic crisis the country had been plunged into a year earlier largely a result of the Chicago Boys' experimental policies Unemployment was over 25% Wages had dropped more than 30% for those who still did have a job Almost half the population was living in poverty ARABLOUEI It was a tinderbox waiting to erupt And when the copper miners took to the streets the fuse was lit Before long hundreds of thousands of others joined them in Jornadas de Protesta Nacional a series of massive national protests VERGARA It was more than an awakening It's like the - how you say - the kind of slivers of you know truth coming in ARABLOUEI And for Chileans living in exile these protests were a kind of invitation to return home and attempt to take down Pinochet BITAR We went to Mendoza the city that is close to the mountains from the side of the Argentinians and we go across the border ARABLOUEI Sergio Bitar understood the risks of crossing that border He could be arrested imprisoned again 16 24 BITAR So it looks a little bit crazy But ARABLOUEI But it was something he felt he had to do BITAR To be in my country and to fight against the dictatorship VALDES Some people believe that security is more important than freedom and they will discover after some time that when freedom is lost there is not security anymore ARABLOUEI Juan Gabriel Valdes also returned to Chile around this time with his family And he says almost from the moment they got there they knew the government was keeping a close eye on them VALDES Four days or five days after I came back my wife and myself we were invited by friends The person who was in charge of our children called us at 10 at night saying there are two people here who entered I had to allow them to come into the house And they are looking at your pictures They are taking some of the pictures in your albums These kind of things began to happen very often ABDELFATAH Both Sergio and Juan Gabriel got involved in the growing opposition movement BITAR The so-called democratic alliance ABDELFATAH Disagreements quickly arose - what were their goals Who was allowed in What kind of resistance was off-limits VERGARA There was a guerrilla movement putting bombs everywhere So we had you know outages of power that were due to the guerrilla people ABDELFATAH But many in the movement disagreed with that approach BITAR We cannot fight a dictatorship through the armed resistance or violence ABDELFATAH Sergio says their weapons would never compare to what the government had So instead of fighting fire with fire BITAR We had to do it through rules within the rules ABDELFATAH And they realized they needed to make the umbrella bigger to bring more people into the movement - conservatives trade unions democratic socialists They couldn't afford to box people out if they didn't agree on everything The main thing they all needed to agree on was that democracy was the way forward for Chile not Pinochet The rest they could figure out later BITAR No one of us can get democracy back alone So we have to start building actions together and to define a strategy 17 24 ARABLOUEI They figured their best shot at ousting Pinochet would be in October 1988 when something called a plebiscite was scheduled to take place Basically the plebiscite would be an election in which Chileans would vote yes or no to keeping Pinochet as president for another eight years It was a footnote that Pinochet had included in the new constitution he passed in 1980 to give the world the illusion of term limits and fair elections VALDES I remember my best friends at the time in Spain telling me you are getting into a very difficult situation BITAR A plebiscite designed by the dictator They will count the votes Are you crazy It's impossible ARABLOUEI Impossible but the only chance of ousting Pinochet while playing by the rules BITAR So we said let's create a big mass of people to vote ARABLOUEI Convincing people to vote would be an uphill climb BITAR The central key issue is to combat fear The dictatorship uses fear as a control of the mind and the people and people were afraid If I go if I say if they see me they can kill me they can take me they can take my job ARABLOUEI It was risky They needed people to buy into the idea that it was worth that risk to get out and vote no to another term for Pinochet So they turned to the most powerful tool they had - television SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC ARABLOUEI On channels across the country including Television Nacional de Chile Chile's PBS VALDES I was called to be the leader of the television campaign which was allowed by the dictatorship and was the first time in which the opposition would show itself on TV ARABLOUEI You might be wondering why a dictator would give an opposition movement that's trying to oust him any TV time Chileans were surprised too when the junta passed a law that allowed yes and no sides to both have free time for their own political commercials It was meant to give the whole process a veneer of credibility So in the month leading up to the Election Day the opposition was given 15 minutes of airtime on national television every day Pinochet and his crew were sure it wouldn't make any difference that the yes side would dominate and they figured it would appease the international community especially the U S which had long since soured on Pinochet ABDELFATAH The no campaign was given a late-night time slot 18 24 VALDES The government considered that the program at 11 o'clock at night would be considered irrelevant by the majority of the population and they wouldn't see it ABDELFATAH But Juan Gabriel was determined to make the most of those 15 minutes every night He hired an army of ad men VALDES People working in publicity filmmaking sociologists and political analysts ABDELFATAH And they set out to sell democracy BITAR It's not just complaining for what we suffered If we do that you never win In order to win you have to propose something better than what you are living now ABDELFATAH In other words give the people hope SOUNDBITE OF SONG CHILE LA ALEGRIA YA VIENE UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP #2 Singing in non-English language BITAR The whole campaign was la alegria a viene - happiness is coming SOUNDBITE OF SONG CHILE LA ALEGRIA YA VIENE CLAUDIO GUZMAN Singing in non-English language ABDELFATAH These ads were high-quality optimistic BITAR The young people singing ABDELFATAH With lyrics like whatever they say I'm free to think because it's time to win freedom BITAR And the colors ABDELFATAH The campaign had a rainbow logo BITAR The feeling of community ABDELFATAH They avoided heavy ideological language and instead emphasized BITAR How you can eat better food have your kid go to school have some place where to go if you are ill SOUNDBITE OF SONG CHILE LA ALEGRIA YA VIENE ROSA ESCOBAR Singing in non-English language spoken ABDELFATAH Let's say no 19 24 SOUNDBITE OF SONG CHILE LA ALEGRIA YA VIENE UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP #2 Singing in non-English language spoken ARABLOUEI Each night more and more people tuned in to those 15 minutes and support for the no campaign which would vote out Pinochet grew BITAR Step by step step by step step by step ARABLOUEI On the eve of Election Day no one had any idea what would happen SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1 The United States has heard reports that the Chilean government plans to cancel the referendum or nullify its results ARABLOUEI And on the morning of October 5 1988 when the polls opened BITAR The fear was that people will not come out and will not vote I went out to visit all the voting places and it was impressive because it was very hot I remember And the lines were long long long all the day So that gave us the hope that we could win SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2 By 10 o'clock this morning there were lines six blocks long in many voting places here in Santiago People complained they had to wait for ARABLOUEI Ninety-seven percent of the country's registered voters came out to vote including Pinochet himself dressed not as a general but in civilian clothes The question was simple should Augusto Pinochet continue on as president for another eight years Yes or no SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3 The first results that were announced showed the no vote winning VALDES There was a moment that day which created an enormous alarm The Ministry of the Interior that is in charge of giving the results of the election and the plebiscite stopped giving the results around 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock in the afternoon ARABLOUEI The no vote was expanding its lead by this point BITAR Pinochet called the commanders in chief at one in the morning to his office So I said what What's going to happen here VALDES Some people thought that the military would not recognize the result 20 24 VERGARA I remember very vividly because there were phone calls being made and Pinochet didn't want to step down ARABLOUEI But his generals and the U S government had told Pinochet we're done VERGARA We are not going to support the dictatorship anymore You need to move on VALDES And that night the government came back to the television and said SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING AUGUSTO PINOCHET Non-English language spoken BITAR The no won SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3 And from that point on the mood in the headquarters of the no command was joyful VALDES And I think we danced and we cried and we sang until 4 in the morning 5 BITAR It's a feeling of expansion of big feeling of joy means that we are We exist We have rights SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1 Chile today could be on its way back to democracy SOUNDBITE OF SONG CHILE LA ALEGRIA YA VIENE UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP #2 Singing in non-English language VALDES Probably the most unforgettable day in my life BITAR A moment that my life started again SOUNDBITE OF SONG CHILE LA ALEGRIA YA VIENE UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP #2 Non-English language spoken ABDELFATAH Nearly 56% of Chileans voted no which was a majority - a win - but not a resounding majority Even after years of torture censorship and repression Camila Vergara says it wasn't simply a vote on democracy versus dictatorship VERGARA Imagine the fear Everybody was afraid of the military coming back out 21 24 ABDELFATAH Would a no vote lead to chaos violence another economic recession By 1988 the economy was in much better shape and a new middle class was emerging Some saw that as Pinochet's free market model working So it was complicated Still Pinochet's reign as president finally came to an end VERGARA The idea of defeating the dictatorship with a pen and pencil that was kind of the narrative ABDELFATAH But in reality defeating the dictatorship didn't automatically mean democracy was restored VALDES We knew that it was not just a matter of replacing Pinochet with somebody else It was a much more complicated thing and we had to make concession of course We negotiated with the military VERGARA The first democratic government Pinochet was the leader of the armed forces ABDELFATAH Wow VERGARA Yes ABDELFATAH Wow VERGARA The police basically was the same police There was no purge And then Pinochet after stepping down from the military became senator for life in the Senate and therefore with full immunity So basically he insulated himself and his you know people and not only insulated himself he was an active voter in the Senate vetoing reform Almost you know a decade of Pinochet in some kind of position of power during the young democracy ABDELFATAH In 1998 Pinochet was arrested in London on charges of genocide torture and kidnapping He was ultimately found unfit to stand trial and was released back to Chile where he died in 2006 ARABLOUEI Today Chile is in the middle of a close presidential race The current election just went into a runoff The next vote is scheduled for December 14 Thirty-seven years after the plebiscite vote there is still a big gap between the hopes and dreams of those TV ads and the reality of people's lives For Sergio Bitar that doesn't mean they failed It simply means there's more work to do BITAR It's a work in progress and it's a cultural progress also The idea of negotiations is part of democracy The guys in power have the big responsibility of behaving in the way they want the society to become You can try to build a democracy with aggression If you have a corrupt guy and winning lots of money well you cannot have a democracy under these conditions 22 24 ARABLOUEI Camila Vergara who is now a lecturer in political theory at the University of Essex says this isn't just a problem Chile is facing today VERGARA What we have today in the so-called free world is an oligarchy that keeps benefiting Every year it doesn't matter who wins the election They are the ones who are increasing their wealth So basically is a system that formally looks like what we call democracy - separation of powers universal suffrage freedom of speech - but the people on the top the wealthy few the powerful few are the ones really calling the shots controlling everything passing law to benefit themselves more than others And that we see through the growing inequality of the system SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC ABDELFATAH That's it for this week's show I'm Rund Abdelfatah ARABLOUEI And I'm Ramtin Arablouei and you've been listening to THROUGHLINE from NPR ABDELFATAH This episode was produced by me ARABLOUEI And me and LAWRENCE WU BYLINE Lawrence Wu JULIE CAINE BYLINE Julie Caine ANYA STEINBERG BYLINE Anya Steinberg CASEY MINER BYLINE Casey Miner CRISTINA KIM BYLINE Cristina Kim DEVIN KATAYAMA BYLINE Devin Katayama IRENE NOGUCHI BYLINE Irene Noguchi ARABLOUEI Fact-checking for this episode was done by Kevin Volkl ABDELFATAH Thank you to Anna Sofia Vera ph Peter Kornbluh Micah Ratner Mayeesha Galiba Laura Schwartz ph Johannes Doerge Beth Donovan and Tommy Evans ARABLOUEI This episode was mixed by Jimmy Keeley ABDELFATAH Music for this episode was composed by Ramtin and his band Drop Electric which includes NAVID MARVI Navid Marvi SHO FUJIWARA Sho Fujiwara 23 24 ANYA MIZANI Anya Mizani ARABLOUEI And we've got a favorite to ask We know there are a lot of great NPR shows out there and we all know who's the best wink wink NPR is celebrating the best podcast of the year and you get to crown the winner of the People's Choice Award Vote for us at npr org peopleschoice May the best pod win ABDELFATAH And finally if you have an idea or like something you heard on the show please write us at throughline@npr org and make sure to rate us and leave us a comment on Apple or Spotify It helps other people find the show Thanks for listening SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC Copyright © 2025 NPR All rights reserved Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www npr org for further information Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio Audio on npr org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record 24 24