Resistance to dictatorship and piercing the immunity of the General.

• Author: Normey, Robert
• Position: Law and Literature

A look at Carmen Aguirre's Something Fierce: Memoirs of A Revolutionary Daughter (2011); Heraldo Mendoza's The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet (2008)

There was a 9/11 before 9/11. It was at least as momentous to the people of Chile as the one that is more familiar to North Americans. On September 11, 1973 the democratic dreams of all Chileans of goodwill were brutally destroyed when a coup d'etat overthrew the democratically elected government of the democratic socialist Salvador Allende. In the nightmare that unfolded, with the savage imposition of military misrule under General Augusto Pinochet, it is estimated that at least 3000 people were murdered or "disappeared" and at least 30,000 were tortured (see the Valech Report, on torture and political imprisonment). Pinochet's subsequent 17-year rule was marked by suspension of civil liberties, an enormous number of detentions without trial and the almost total curtailment of freedom of speech and association. At least 1000 books were banned outright. The illegality and contempt for the rule of law even extended beyond Chile's borders, as various leftists and officials from the Allende government were hunted down and murdered as part of Operation Condor. At the time of his death in 2006, Pinochet faced more than 200 criminal complaints and many of his subordinates had been convicted of horrific crimes.

With the films The Battle of Chile and Missing forever etched in my mind and the Clash's song Washington Bullets a favorite in my iPod collection--"Please remember Victor Jara in the Santiago Stadium"--I was prepared to be shocked all over again by watching the 2008 documentary film The Judge and The General. That film depicts the efforts to successfully prosecute General Pinochet and asks how a society and a legal system confronts the dirty deeds of a once-powerful political leader who continues to enjoy considerable support. This year I planned to add to my understanding of that seminal event in the Americas, the overthrow of Allende and its aftermath, by reading Carmen Aguirre's memoir, Something Fierce. I had not got around to reading it when the Canada Reads Contest for 2011 took place on CBC Radio and TV. Those of you who follow books in Canada will know of the controversies that erupted when one panelist weighed in with her inflammatory remarks about authors of two of the books in contention. For our purposes, I would just like to touch on the comment that Carmen Aguirre...