In a Shadow Country

In the seven months since a coup by the Chilean armed forces overthrew the Marxist government of Salvador Allende Gossens, a four-man military junta headed by Army General Augusta Pinochet Ugarte has ruthlessly eliminated leftists (real and suspect), suspended all political activity, and reversed many of the socialistic moves undertaken during Allende's presidency. But the junta is also beginning to find many of Chile's problems difficult and intractable. TIME Correspondent Rudolph Rauch reports:

Chile is two countries today. There is the Chile you can see--the Chile in which newspapers touch on nothing more serious than garbage disposal --and the Chile that is both more shadowy and more real. In official Chile the streets are clean, the stores are full, and copper miners are working hard to boost production. In this Chile some government offices have signs saying, "Be brief. I have three years to make up."

The second Chile is the shadow country in which people who talk too much or ask too many questions simply disappear. Santiago, once a lively capital, is curiously silent these days. Serious matters such as politics and high prices are never discussed on the telephone. Early this year a military patrol passing through a field near the capital asked a question of a campesino. The farmer touched his cap and answered, "Si, senor." He should have said, "Si, Senor Comandante." He was arrested for lack of respect to the army and, according to a lawyer familiar with his case, has been detained for 70 days.

Rape and Torture. Convinced that they narrowly escaped execution by leftist extremists last September, the junta leaders are determined to root out all traces of opposition. Midnight arrests still take place, and torture is, by common consent, a tool of the government's newly centralized intelligence apparatus. Its most common forms are electric shock and beatings; with women prisoners, multiple rape has been used to force confessions. "The members of this government think they are going to be murdered in their beds," explains one diplomat. "They see no reason to go easy on anyone who might have something to do with that plot."

Since the coup, a number of VIP prisoners have been awaiting trial on Dawson Island in the Strait of Magellan. These prisoners, most of whom were close collaborators of Allende, including several former Cabinet ministers, have not been tortured. But they have been put on a strict and often ruinous military regimen. For many, the hard work and meager diet of bread and beans have proved merciless. After several months on Dawson Island, Allende's Foreign Minister, Clodomiro Almeyda, was brought to Santiago wearing tattered clothing and in precarious health. In February, former Minister of Interior and Defense Jose Toha Gonzalez committed suicide, according to the government. When brought from Dawson, the 6-ft. 4-in. Toha weighed only 114 Ibs.

Trials of some political prisoners are under way. More than fifty Miristas (members of the now outlawed leftist revolutionary movement) in Temuco were recently sentenced to terms ranging from 61 days to 20 years for such acts as land seizures and truck hijackings during the Allende years. Trials of the Dawson Island prisoners are expected to begin later this month.

The junta has promised to allow the Fair Trial Committee, a group of American lawyers that includes former Democratic Congressman Charles O. Porter and Ramsey Clark, to witness the proceedings. The group hopes to capitalize on the junta's habit of doing everything by the book, at least in public. Indeed there is some feeling that the regime may deal lightly with leading Allende supporters, since they have been punished enough on Dawson Island. Says one legal observer: "It's possible that the junta will blacken these guys' names and then give them reduced sentences. That way the world cannot complain."

Apart from eradicating all traces of Allende's leftism, the regime's main drive has been to restore Chile's economy to some semblance of order. It has been only partially successful. The prohibition of strikes and the recall of a less politicized management to the copper mines have helped raise production from 50,000 to 70,000 tons monthly. The abandonment of all attempts at land reform and the freeing of prices have raised agricultural production. Though the rate of inflation has decelerated since last year, it is still expected to run over 200% in 1974. Meanwhile, a January wage increase of 50% has already been wiped out by skyrocketing prices. Foreign loans worth $400 million have flowed into Chile since the coup, but the U.S. congressional mood is against direct Government aid.

Ebbing Support. Says one embittered official who has served the junta in several high posts: "They speak about social problems, and then they do useless things. After a declaration about creating a Chile for all Chileans, a pronouncement will trail off in an order for new bus routes on a Santiago mall." Without well-formed, long-range goals, the junta has geared itself largely to immediate solutions. Monjitas Street in Santiago, for example, is lined with carabineros whose principal job is to shoo jaywalking pedestrians back onto the sidewalk with a frenzied chorus of whistles.

A government that tells people how to cross the street is beginning to annoy even Chileans who approved the coup as a radical but necessary alternative to Allende's excesses. Leaders of the Christian Democratic Party, who initially welcomed the ouster of Allende, have protested the regime's suppression of political rights. Doubts about the junta's practical program and total domination of society are thus beginning to make themselves felt. "You know, it was the women of Chile who brought down Allende," said one woman who supported the coup until she learned of the torture of a close friend. "The women of Chile will do the same to the junta." That is an overstatement. The junta will not be overthrown soon. But unless it changes its style of governing, it will have to turn increasingly to repressive measures to retain power in the face of slowly ebbing popular support.

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