Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis

by Jared Diamond

The last provision requires a 5/7ths voter majority to change the constitution—but it’s difficult in a democracy (especially one as fractured as Chile) to get 5/7ths of the electorate to agree to anything. As a result, although decades have passed since Pinochet was voted out of the presidency, Chile still operates under a modified version of his constitution that most Chileans consider illegitimate. It is painful for any country to acknowledge and atone for evil deeds that its officials committed against its own citizens or against citizens of other countries. It’s painful because nothing can undo the past, and often many of the perpetrators are still alive, unrepentant, powerful, and widely supported. Acknowledgment and atonement have been especially difficult for Chile, because Pinochet was supported by such a large minority of Chilean voters even in the 1989 uncoerced plebiscite, because Pinochet remained commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and because the democratic government had good reason to fear another military coup if it proceeded against military perpetrators. On two occasions—when Pinochet’s son was being investigated, and when a human rights commission was beginning its work of investigating the atrocities—soldiers did appear on the streets in full military garb. Their appearance was supposedly just on a “routine exercise”—but the implicit threat was obvious to everyone.