In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, only the slightest attention was given to the “originating significance” of the date in recent world history. That significance was again ignored yesterday by just about all of the American news media and probably by most of the world … except where it mattered. Among the sources I read this morning, only Al Jazeera English used their wire sources to file the following report from Chile:
Thousands of Chileans have marched in the capital Santiago to remember the more than 3,000 people killed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet that was launched 38 years ago with a military coup on September 11, 1973.
Organised by a group of relatives of those killed, the march on Sunday led to a memorial erected at a cemetery to commemorate the victims of Pinochet's 17-year long regime.
They marched peacefully through the streets, unable to approach the presidential palace La Moneda because of the tight police cordon.
Salvador Allende, the first and only Marxist to come to power in Chile through a popular vote, died at the palace when military forces surrounded it during the coup. He is believed to have committed suicide.
The full story discreetly avoids any mention of American involvement in this coup, but this was definitely an event that stands out in the chronicle of episodes that could only cultivate ill will towards the United States. Chile still remembers, and apparently Al Jazeera decided it was worth taking the time to remember Chile remembering.
2 comments:
Hello,
I don't quite see the link between the article title and the article content. Are you suggesting that the Al Qaeda chose this date based on the events in Chile?
Thanks.
I was far from the first to have done so. There were even those who observed it ten years ago. "Statistically speaking," however, I suspect that very few either recognized or appreciated the connection. Because this was the first time I had read of Chile having a major public event in memory of "their own 9/11," a reminder of the significance seemed in order.
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