Presentation by Alicia Lira Matus, President of the Group of Relatives of Political Executed Persons
Regional Meeting of the World Peace Council convened by the Institute of Friendship with the People (ICAP), regional coordinator of the CMP for the Americas and the Caribbean, and by the Mexican Movement for Peace and Development (MOMPADE)
Mexico, September 2023
This year marks 50 years since the civil-military coup d’etat in Chile and I want to leave by thanking the permanent solidarity and support that all our peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the entire world had, in the terrible days that we experienced during the Pinochet dictatorship.
We continue fighting as an organization so that in Chile there is all the truth, all justice, and guarantees of non-repetition are given so that State terrorism never returns.
Also noteworthy is that we are living in very complex political times with a reactionary right alongside a neo-fascist right in politics and economics, which hinders any bill that favors the most heartfelt demands of the vast majority, with a large sector disappointed in politics and with a slow process in the reparation of victims of human rights violations, by the Government of Sebastian Pinera, which is why it remains distant from the organizations, and many groups that do not want anything, just reject everything, with distrust, even attacking relatives of victims of the dictatorship as in last year’s march, although there is a government that has had some commitments on human rights issues, others, but there is still more commitment missing, just clarify that this is not a left-wing government and hence, about speaking against Venezuela, but he still appointed a chili ambassador in Venezuela again after more than 4 years.
In Chile, as a Group of Relatives of Political Executed Persons we participate in the Observatory for the Closing of the School of the Americas where we follow up on the issue of imperialist militarization.
Chile continues to send troops to the School of the Americas where the worst violators of human rights were trained, including Manuel Contreras, Alvaro Corbalan and Miguel Krassnoff, DINA and CNI agents, who committed crimes and torture against our colleagues.
As everyone knows, the UnitV States is responsible for the coup d’etat in Chile since it corrupted and trained the Chilean Armed Forces at the School of the Americas. He also financed the Chilean right, the newspaper El Mercurio, and the truckers, to destabilize the government of our beloved president Salvador Allende.
In Chile, in the last decade, more than 1,470 Chilean officers have been trained in the United States and since the founding of the School of the Americas in Panama in 1946, to date more than 6,000 Chilean soldiers have been trained in the United States.
As we always say, we oppose training at the US Army School of the Americas because there continues to be indoctrination under the National Security Doctrine that teaches us to view our people as «internal enemies.»
Although the School of the Americas has had a different name since 2001, and today it is called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), for us it still has the same objectives of yesteryear, which is to indoctrinate the Chilean and Latin American military under the political orientations of the US that we already know defend their own imperialist interests.
Although it is true that today they use other forms of domination and interventionism against our countries, it is strategic for the United States to continue training Latin American military personnel who can ultimately use these links to carry out coups d’etat.
This is what happened in 2019 in Bolivia. At least six of the coup plotters were alumni of the infamous School of the Americas; among them. the commander of the Bolivian armed forces, Williams Kaliman.
On the other hand, we must report that this year the head of the Southern Command, Laura Richardson, visited Chile, who met with the Minister of Defense and other authorities to pressure Chile over Lithium, to maintain military cooperation, as well as to put to our country against China and against Russia.
The head of the Southern Command also supervised the «Fused Response» military exercises in Chile, which were carried out jointly between soldiers from the Southern Command and the Chilean Army and which tested «the capabilities of the special forces of both institutions.» .
Laura Richardson said that the goal of these exercises is «to work together, to strengthen ourselves» and that «it is very important that we can communicate» and «that we work as closely as we can.»
Months later, between July 24 and August 11, 2023, the Combined Joint Exercise «Estrella Austral 2023» was held, which brought together more than 1,200 troops from the Chilean Armed Forces, 500 US Army commandos and 24 Spanish.
The history of Latin America and the world knows only too well how disastrous and dangerous the United States is. We oppose these military exercises with the United States.
The Militarization of Peru On the other hand, we are concerned about the strong military presence of the United States in Peru. Last June. more than 1,200 US soldiers entered Peruvian territory, with weapons of war and military equipment, and are carrying out joint military exercises that will last until December 2023.
In Peru there has also been, since 1983, a military biological laboratory called the US Naval Medical Research Unit, which is also known as NAMRU-6. It has three facilities: in Lima, Iquitos and Puerto Mandonado. The objective of this «Unit» or military laboratory is theoretically to carry out surveillance of «a wide range of infectious diseases of importance to public or military health.»
The former congressman of Peru, Richard Arce, requested information from the Peruvian authorities about NAMRU-6 but the information they were given «was too generic and it was clear that there was a lot of ignorance.»
Also in Honduras, NAMRU-6 opened, in recent years, a new unit within the Soto Cano Air Base where the US Army Joint Task Force-Bravo operates. In any case, we are very concerned and it is a danger for all of us that the NAMRU-6 laboratory exists, studying and manipulating «contagious diseases» in Peru.
History knows what biological warfare means and Cuba knows it very well, which suffered, in the seventies, an attack by US imperialism with Biological Weapons which intentionally introduced dengue hemorrhagic fever and the swine fever virus.
This is why we are concerned about Namru-6. It is a threat to all of us and we must keep it in mind and demand its closure. Final words Briefly, we want to reiterate again our solidarity with Cuba and for the end of the criminal blockade that the United States maintains against the Cuban people.
We want to reiterate our support for the cause of the Malvinas and the end of the United States and NATO military bases on our continent and around the world.
We want to reiterate our support for the CELAC Proclamation that Latin America and the Caribbean are a Zone of Peace. In that spirit, we advocate for peace around the world. For this reason, we join all those who call for negotiations on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, a conflict that we all know has been encouraged by US and NATO imperialism. Finally, I thank ICAP and MOMPADE who have organized this Regional Meeting of the World Peace Council
Thank you so much!!
