Chile Bearer of Unwelcome Tidings

• Share

Even before Pope John Paul II arrived, the rhythmic chant thundered through the packed stadium in Santiago. "Chi-Chi-Chi, le-le-le!" shouted 80,000 exuberant teenagers, stomping their feet and shaking the arena. Then they began to chant "Pin-o-chet, go away!," conscious that they were on the site where scores of Chileans were killed and hundreds tortured after the 1973 coup in which General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte toppled elected Marxist President Salvador Allende Gossens. His voice trembling, the Pope acknowledged the "sadness" of the place and urged his audience "not to remain indifferent in the face of injustice" but cautioned them to avoid being "seduced by violence and the thousands of reasons that seem to justify it."

All across the country, from the presidential palace to the tiniest hovel, Chileans watched and listened to what the Pontiff said and how he said it. While the visit was only one stop in a two-week South American tour that also included Uruguay and Argentina, the six-day Chilean stay was the centerpiece. The question on everyone's lips: What would the activist Pope tell his authoritarian host and oppressed flock? Pinochet, 71, is one of South America's two remaining military dictators.* A practicing Roman Catholic, as are 10 million of Chile's 12 million people, he has ruled with an iron hand, claiming that the threat of Communism justified his repressive regime. Opponents accuse the government of imprisoning, torturing and killing thousands of ordinary citizens. Americas Watch, the U.S. human rights group, recently called Chile a "model of the national-security state."

Chileans received their answer from the Pope even before he set foot on Chilean soil. En route from Rome to Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital and the first stop on his tour, he was asked by reporters whether he planned to press human rights issues in Chile. "That is my task this time," John Paul replied. "People would want to tell us to 'stay in the sacristy, do nothing else.' They say it is politics, but it is not politics -- this is what we are." In answer to another question, he described the country's system of government as "currently dictatorial." Indeed, activist Chilean Catholic bishops and priests, along with a coalition of centrist and leftist political parties, want Chile to follow the examples of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay, whose military governments have given way to civilian rule since 1980.

Hours before the Santiago rally, the Pontiff visited Santiago's La Bandera slum, where Luisa Rivera, one of 600,000 people who gathered for the occasion, told him, "We want a dignified life without dictatorship." Replied John Paul: "Today has deeply affected my spirit." Earlier in the day the Pontiff had paid a 42-minute visit to Pinochet at La Moneda, the 182-year-old presidential palace. Details of the conversation were sparse, but a Vatican source said the Pope planned to urge Pinochet to forsake violence and allow democratic elections.