Eduardo Contreras and the fight for democracy

They are not the compendas, known colloquially today as “kitchens”; nor the supposed wisdom of experts; nor the skill or the wrist of a leader or a group of leaders, those who make it possible. The gesture of Eduardo Contreras, his practice of law as an instrument of struggle in favor of justice and transformation, demonstrate this and will endure as an example for current and future generations of leftist militants, of what the conviction, the will and the defense of principles can.

Hernán González. Teacher. Valparaiso. 5/29/2024. The death of the human rights lawyer and communist activist, Eduardo Contreras Mella, raises a reflection. That of the meaning of will and conviction as an explanation of the political and the centrality that these have in historical change.

In fact, Eduardo Contreras was the lawyer who, together with Gladys Marín and as a result of a discussion, reflection and agreement of the leadership of the Communist Party of Chile regarding the need to defeat Pinochetism to enable the transition towards a true democracy, filed the criminal complaint for which he was arrested in London by Judge Baltazar Garzón, within the framework of the investigation of the Caravan of Death case.

While some ran to explain why Pinochet carried a diplomatic passport or did not; and they debated among intricate theories to justify the agreements signed with the dictatorship to give rise to what some classified as genius, Eduardo Contreras, Gladys and the communist leadership fought, just as they did together with the student, human rights, union and other leftist forces, to prevent him from assuming office as senator for life, and to have him tried in Chile.

We know the rest of the story and how it ended. Pinochet returning to Chile, getting off a plane in a wheelchair and in an act between undignified and sarcastic, raising his arms high, to finally be dismissed for insanity.

But from then on, Pinochetism began its definitive decline. By the way, the right that first rushed to London to defend him and try to rescue him from his disgrace, quickly distanced himself, generating the discomfort of the “military family” and the human rights violators who felt that even though they have remained firm in the defense of impunity, they were left alone. Alone at least as far as the demand for genocide is concerned, to give way to historicism of a dubious nature as a form of justification for their past complicity and the reactionary nature of their thinking.

From then on, the country witnessed new compromises and attempts to patch democracy with inventions, late-night agreements to legitimize the AFPs, the ISAPREs; the impunity that many of the crimes committed by the dictatorship or the education, school and university business continue to enjoy (the list could continue to grow) and all this to try to postpone what would finally happen on October 18, 2019.

Filing the complaint against Pinochet demonstrated – just as the social mobilization and the fight against the dictatorship in all the possible forms that the people had at hand in those painful circumstances – that the fight against abuse, against arbitrariness and despotism of the powerful who, like Pinochet, feel unbeatable until the people confront them, provoking the atavistic terror that inspires them and so they unleash the worst violence imaginable against them, is necessary, is possible and is finally the explanation of the change and transformations.

They are not the compendas, known colloquially today as “kitchens”; nor the supposed wisdom of experts; nor the skill or the wrist of a leader or a group of leaders, those who make it possible. The gesture of Eduardo Contreras, his practice of law as an instrument of struggle in favor of justice and transformation, demonstrate this and will endure as an example for current and future generations of leftist militants, of what the conviction, the will and the defense of principles can.