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As the United States and other countries around the globe face severe challenges to their systems of democracy from the forces of authoritarianism, the U.S.-backed coup in Chile has taken on new meaning, a full half century after General Augusto Pinochet's military seized power on September 11, 1973. To commemorate this grim anniversary, Peter Kornbluh, author of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, will assess the current relevance of this important history and what policy lessons we can draw from the Chilean experience.
Peter Kornbluh is a Senior Analyst at the National Security Archive, where he has worked since 1986. As director of the Archive’s Chile Documentation Project he has played a large role in the campaign to declassify thousands of secret documents relating to the history of the U.S. government's involvement in the overthrow of the Allende government and advent of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.
On the 30th anniversary of the U.S.-backed military coup, he published The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, which was pivotal to uncovering the extent of U.S. complicity with a brutal dictatorship. The book contributed to the international campaign to hold Pinochet accountable for murder, torture, and terrorism.
On the 50th anniversary of the coup this past September, a revised edition of the book was published in Chile for the first time, titled Pinochet Desclasificado. The book rose to be #2 on the best seller list. A special documentary drawn from the book and broadcast on mainstream Chilean television--"Operation Chile: Top Secret"--became the most watched TV programing related to the 50th anniversary of the coup in Chile. The film is currently being re-edited in English for a release to a global audience later this year.
This event is part of the 2024 series hosted by the Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice (ICPJ) Latin America Caucus, the Huron Valley Democratic Socialists of America (HVDSA), and U-M Latin American & Caribbean Studies (LACS).
