Combates entre la memoria y la historia de Chile : Conflictos sobre el pasado reciente

The reestablishment of democracy in Chile has seen an intense debate about the events of the recent past, especially on the issue of human rights. From the very beginning, the Concertacion Government has been determined to discover the truth of the repression carried out by the national security forces with a series of commissions that have gathered the testimonies of victims and their relatives. These efforts have been resisted by conservative sectors linked to the dictatorship and the Armed Forces. There has been intense conflict in the media during the past 20 years about events that occurred during the rule of Salvador Allende and the Military Regime. In this regard, a great diversity of information has been produced which, together with the debate evoked, has enabled historians not only to rigorously and thoroughly reconstruct the operation of the state terror but also to explain how a significant sector of Chile’s civil society allowed that situation. This article presents, on one hand, different methodological tools in order to study the recent past and, on the other hand, the social discussion on how to do it.

Memorias enfrentadas : las reacciones a los informes Nunca Más de Argentina y Chile

This paper analyzes the most immediate responses of human rights institutions, the Armed Forces, political parties, and society following the publication of the Report of the National Commission on the Disappeared (Conadep) in Argentina and the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (CNVR) in Chile. The publication of these reports had a great national significance because, only one year after the reestablishment of democracy, they officially recognized the human rights violations committed during the preceding dictatorships. Each of the four sectors mentioned in this article responded to the reports in its own way, according to its demands and political ideology.