Max Chandler-Mather on the 50th anniversary of the Chilean coup and US and Australian involvement
Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the overthrow of the government of Chile in a brutal and illegal military coup supported and partly organised by the CIA with the support of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and the Australian Government.
The Greens attempted to move a motion making clear Australia’s role in the coup, but the Greens were blocked and Labor moved a motion that completely removed any reference to Australia’s role.
So the Greens moved to suspend the normal operation of parliament to force the debate.
On behalf of the Greens I moved a motion in the House calling on the Government to acknowledge the coup, and apologise to the people of Chile for the actions of ASIS in supporting this coup and the harms caused by the dictatorship of General Pinochet.
The coup plunged Chile into 17 long years of dictatorship, and extinguished a democratic Government that dared to stand up to the financial and military interests of the United States empire and redistribute wealth and power to ordinary people.
Predictably, Labor and the Liberals then voted to block this motion again. The Australian Government still insists on secrecy around their full involvement in the coup. They’d rather not have to admit to the public their role in helping destroy Chilean democracy, or the system still keeping Australians in the dark about what our intelligence agencies do in our name. But in the Greens we remember. We say solidarity with the people of Chile, and sorry for what the Australian Government did to your country.