I argue that the unexpected strong support for the ‘No’ vote resulted in part from abundant news coverage of party registration drives and government concessions meant to encourage opposition participation. Ultimately, Pinochet suffered a defeat that surprised many including the general himself. In contentious environments, people tend to falsify their publicly expressed preferences to reflect what they believe is the position of the majority (Kuran 1995), which creates a “spiral of silence” (Noelle-Neuman 1974) that masks the true degree of discontent.
The fear and uncertainty among the population after 15 years of repressive rule cast doubt on whether or not citizens would participate and vote their true preferences. Believing he would win, Pinochet took measures to ensure that the plebiscite appeared legitimate to international observers including actions meant to encourage opposition participation. The editors of "Chile: The Other September 11" have gathered articles, essays, speeches and poems written and given by key figures in the South American theatre, including Ariel Dorfman, Salvador Allende, Pablo Neruda, Beatriz Allende, Joan and Victor Jara and Fidel Castro.A 1988 plebiscite determined whether General Augusto Pinochet would continue to rule Chile for an additional eight years. Now famously indicted for multiple charges of human rights violations, Pinochet ruled the South American country with an iron grip, dissolving all organs of political expression and imprisoning and torturing 30,000 Chileans, 3,000 of whom were executed or disappeared. During the last 28 years, September 11 has been a date of mourning, for me and millions of others, ever since that day in 1973 when Chile lost its democracy in a military coup, that day when death irrevocably entered our lives and changed us forever." In 1973, General Pinochet successfully took power from the democratically - elected Chilean government and its President, Salvador Allende, in a US-backed coup whose terror lasted for 17 years. Chilean author Ariel Dorfman comments in its aftermath: "I have been through this before. SeptemA date etched in letters of fire and dust on the consciousness of a generation. "A Call for Remembrance" - Pilar Aguilera and Ricardo Fredes marshall an incredible collection of contributors in this timely reminder of the atrocities committed by General Pinochet in 1973.
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