Chile
This extensive collection on Chile focuses primarily on the advent of the elected socialist Presidency of Salvador Allende in Chile and the 1973 fascist coup against Allende, engineered by the CIA and led by General Augusto Pinochet, with the massive repression against the left and all progressive forces that followed. Highlights include a cartoon monograph introducing Chilean history and audio interviews discussing experiences surrounding the military coup of 1973. Many of these materials were used in the production of “Chile: The Promise of Freedom,” an audio documentary by the Freedom Archives.
This collection also features materials of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), a Chilean Marxist paramilitary guerrilla organization, including monographs and pamphlets discussing the task of resistance.
Formed in 1965, the MIR emerged from various student groups centered in Santiago, and later developed a base in various industrial trade union organizations. After the coup d’état and overthrow of popularly elected socialist Salvador Allende in 1973, the organization was forced underground while they attempted to establish a guerrilla front against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The Pinochet regime's successful targeting and murder of thousands of MIR party members drastically impacted the organization's success, however after 1990 and the democratization of Chile, the party reemerged.