The War on Democracy Page #6

Synopsis: Award winning journalist John Pilger examines the role of Washington in America's manipulation of Latin American politics during the last 50 years leading up to the struggle by ordinary people to free themselves from poverty and racism. Since the mid 19th Century Latin America has been the 'backyard' of the US, a collection of mostly vassal states whose compliant and often brutal regimes have reinforced the 'invisibility' of their majority peoples. The film reveals similar CIA policies to be continuing in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. The rise of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez despite ongoing Washington backed efforts to unseat him in spite of his overwhelming mass popularity, is democratic in a way that we have forgotten or abandoned in the west. True Democracy being a solid 80% voter turnout in support of Chavez in over 6 elections.
Genre: Documentary
Production: Lionsgate Films
 
IMDB:
8.3
Rotten Tomatoes:
77%
NOT RATED
Year:
2007
96 min
314 Views


of these planes winging over

and then dipping down

and sending their bombs into the Moneda,

From inside the palace

Allende refused to leave -

true to his promise

not too surrender the government

for which the ordinary people of Chile

had voted

He broadcast this last message

then he shoot himself

With General Pinochet in power

Washington again denied

it had destroyed another democracy

We had no contact with any of the people

that carried out the military coup

and therefore the coup

that overthrew Allende was done,,,

uh, without conduct,,, contact

with the United States,

A very different story is told

by these secret documents

In October 1 970,

the CIA cabled its man in Chile

"it is firm and continuing policy

that Allende be overthrown by a coup"

When that happened three years later

a US official cabled back to Washington

"Chile's coup dtat was close to perfect"

Fascism is a word that's often misused,,,

but you've experienced it, the real thing,

Yeah, I think so,

When,,, When did you realize

that you were,,,ensnarled by fascism?

When did it manifest itself?

I think it was evident from the very beginning,

Just the ferocity,

the sheer brute force that they used,

The disregard for any kind of human dignity,

I mean, their aim

was really to make you into a thing,

I think., in order to protect themselves

because if they made you into a thing,

then they didn't have to have

human feelings towards you,

They dehumanized you,

from the very beginning,

Once again, a Latin American elite

was delighted to be rescued by fascism

A country has to be well set,

has to be well run, well worked,

and see that everyone does the work.

cos if they don't,

then that country goes to the dogs,

This is the one man

that's been able to hold them.

I don't believe there's any torturing done

in this country,

Because, you understand one thing,

why torture somebody

when you can shoot them?,

This is where they tortured and killed them

Villa Grimaldi was once a palatial home

in a suburb of Santiago

Under Pinochet, it became a place of horror

Today, it's a memorial to its many victims

Sara De Witt then a student activist

was a survivor

What was the date that you were arrested?

Do you remember?

Oh, yes, I was picked up on 3rd April, 1 975,

seven oclock.,. on the dot,

(Pilger) So, the junta had been in power

for about 1 8months?

Yes,

So when I realize, you know,

someone had put what

I imagine was a gun in my back and saying,,,

and said to me, "Don't make any noise,

don't try to run, because we will shoot you,

"You are coming with us,"

In a strange wooden tower like this

in spaces the size of a dogs kennel

people were tortured to death

(De Witt) They took me to this room, you know,

they were punching me, hitting me,

grabbing my nipples,

telling me that I was a whore,

So, they asked me to take off my clothes

and they tied,,,they tied me up,

And then they started giving me electricity,

Now, the electricity was all the time

inside my vagina, in my breasts,

and then it was going round, you know,

round my body, my legs, my arms,

And when they did that, they would stop,

asking me questions, you know,

and then touching me everywhere

and shouting, abusing,

And then they would go -

they continue with electricity,

Duane Clarridge was head of the ClA's

Latin American division in the early 1 980s

Chile, the only reason it exists,

is because of Pinochet,

At a huge human price,

What human price? Gimme a break!

The thousands who were disappeared

and murdered,

Thousands? You count 'em,

What thousands?

And don't talk to me

about Truth Commissions,

I've seen their names

in the cemetery in Santiago,

- You're saying they're fakes?

- There aren't thousands,

- Well,,,

- There aren't thousands, sir,

There are thousands, each name documented

by human rights organizations

some of them remembered here

on the memorial wall at Villa Grimaldi

(Pilger) You have a couple of friends there?

(De Witt) Yes, yes,

I have friends,

Mainly people from my training,

I got,,, There is a girl there, Jacqueline Rigi,

Another one Cecilia Larrain,

She was pregnant, Cecilia,

three months pregnant, when they took her,

They took another woman, Elizabeth Recas

who was seven months pregnant,

She went missing as well,

Doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

No, because, erm.,, sometimes, you know,

I think about,,, what were they feeling,

you know, when they were being killed?

And why, you know, and whether they,,,

Sometimes, I think too much,

and I start feeling, you know, like the pain,

What do you feel when you are being killed?

And in such a way that I find it,,,

- Well, I find frightened, really,

- Yeah,

Because you wish, you know, that you

could have done something for them.

Such,,, The isolation, You must feel totally,,,

I don't know, I don't know, What do you think?,

- Alone,

- Very, very much alone,

It was a period in which almost everybody

in the present situation

regards as a dark time,

in which the CIA played a major role,

That's right, They played a major role

in overthrowing whatshisname,

Whatshisname was Salvador Allende,

- Yeah, fine,

- He was democratically elected,

Right, OK

Is that OK to overthrow

a democratically elected government?

It depends

what your national security interests are,

Are you denying that Pinochet

caused huge suffering in that country?

I don't,,, l,,, l,,, Huge, I don't buy,

That he committed crimes, I agree,

- But it's worth it? Is that what you're saying?

- Yes,

- Those crimes are worth it?

- Yeah,

Sometimes, unfortunately, things have to be

changed in a rather ugly way,

By the late '70s, most of Latin America

was controlled by dictators

including those, like Pinochet

who are openly fascist

All of them were backed directly and indirectly

by the United States

They sent their henchmen too be trained here

at the School of the Americas in Georgia

Officially, it was described

as little more than a boy scout camp

teaching American values

such as respect for human rights

In fact, from these manuals were taught

interrogation and torture techniques

Major Joseph Blair taught at the School

of the Americas in the early 1 980s

The doctrine that was taught

was that if you want information,

you use physical abuse,

you use false imprisonment,

you use threats to family members,

you use virtually any method necessary

to get what you want,

- Torture?

- And killing,

- Killing?

- Killing,

If there's someone you don't want,

you kill them.

If you can't get the information you want,

if you can't get that person to shut up

or stop what they're doing,

you simply assassinate 'em,

and you assassinate 'em

with one of your death squads,

(Rapid gunfire)

This is a death squad in action

in El Salvador

Actually, it's the national police

many of whom were trained

at the School of the Americas

Here on the steps of San Salvador cathedral

they're gunning down mourners attending

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John Pilger

John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist and BAFTA award-winning documentary film maker. He has been mainly based in the United Kingdom since 1962.Pilger is a strong critic of American, Australian and British foreign policy, which he considers to be driven by an imperialist agenda. Pilger has also criticised his native country's treatment of Indigenous Australians. He first drew international acclaim for his groundbreaking reports on the Cambodian genocide.His career as a documentary film maker began with The Quiet Mutiny (1970), made during one of his visits to Vietnam, and has continued with over fifty documentaries since then. Other works in this form include Year Zero (1979), about the aftermath of the communist regime in Cambodia, and Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy (1993). Pilger's many documentary films on indigenous Australians include The Secret Country (1985) and Utopia (2013). In the British print media, Pilger worked at the Daily Mirror from 1963 to 1986, and wrote a regular column for the New Statesman magazine from 1991 to 2014. Pilger has won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award in 1967 and 1979. His documentaries have gained awards in Britain and worldwide, including multiple BAFTA honors. The practices of the mainstream media are a regular subject in Pilger's writing. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "The War on Democracy" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 5 Jan. 2025. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_war_on_democracy_23063>.

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