The emotional tribute to Guerrero, Parada and Nattino

“In our colleagues, we should highlight the value of unity, the value of commitment, not only militant, but also with a full life, with just and noble causes. Today we highlight that in the context of seeking the necessary unity to confront the denialist right.” “It is exciting to be here again and to pay tribute to this crime that is in the memory, in the retina and painfully in the hearts of those who believe and those who believed and those who will continue to believe and forge a society of full rights.”

Santiago. 4/2024. Groups of relatives of politically executed and disappeared detainees, the College of Teachers, the family, mayors and leaders and militants of the Communist Party (PC), paid tribute to Manuel Guerrero, Santiago Nattino and José Manuel Parada, 39 years after their deaths. cruel murders by agents of the civil-military dictatorship.

In the caravan and subsequent event at the Memorial of the 3 Chairs in Américo Vespucio, next to the airport where their bodies were found with their throats cut, the commitment to memory, truth, and justice stood out, along with a call for unity. to stop the right and the denialist extreme right.

An emotional political and cultural event that featured human rights groups, the teachers’ union, councilors, family members and the Communist Party as speakers.

The mayors of Renca, Claudio Castro, of Recoleta, Daniel Jadue, of Pudahuel Ítalo Bravo, expressed the motivations that led them as community leaders to be part of the commemoration. They thanked the College of Teachers for persisting in the work of memory in the face of these horrendous crimes and were also grateful that this work of persistence “allows us to meet once again, every year, and that we are more colleagues, that there are more young people involved in “in such a way that we also prepare to take over the baton of this promotion of human rights.”

They noted that “it is exciting to be here again and to pay tribute to this crime that is in the memory, in the retina and painfully in the hearts of those who believe and those who believed and those who will continue to believe and forge a society of full rights.” because, they added, “a just and more democratic society is still valid and necessary…we want to give a message to the family, to deliver the message to the College of Teachers, to the Communist Party, of course to the group, to the family members. This tribute must invite us to unity and reflection on how we continue to strengthen changes and unity.”

Meanwhile, the president of the Group of Relatives of Political Executed Persons, Alicia Lira, delivered heartfelt words where she addressed relevant issues of the political moment and the recent commemoration of the 50 years of the civil-military coup: “We share beauty, love, the commitment of our Manuel, José Manuel and our Santiago, but also of Rafael, Eduardo and Paulina, who are in our history, they are part of our country, that country that fills us with pride, that fills us with love and that has been the strength of the family members, of the social organizations that have raised these flags of justice, truth, non-repetition for 50 years.

For the family, Manuel Guerrero Antequera expressed: “When we talk about memory, in the case of Manuel, José Manuel, Santiago, of all those we commemorate regarding these dates; of the 17 years of the dictatorship, it is well worth it on this occasion to ask ourselves what memory we are referring to, how it is that we should work on the memory of people like Santiago, José Manuel, and Manuel and so many others; That memory is not just any memory, it is certainly not one that only brings the present of terror, because terror was precisely inflicted to paralyze us, terror and crimes as symbolic as graphic, as terrible as burning people alive, and ‘throwing away’ nearby Carmen Gloria Quintana and Rodrigo Rojas De Negri; like cutting throats, like kidnapping at the doors of a school, like crushing Víctor Jara’s hands, like torturing and disappearing the bodies of so many classmates.”

He added that “the function they seek precisely is to paralyze memory and paralyze us in that terror is what some have called the doctrine of shock in Chile and in Latin America and the rest of the world.” This, he maintained, so that “it was possible to disarm the solidarity State, to disarm a benefactor State, it was necessary to implement State terrorism… crimes against humanity, that is how difficult it was for the reaction, and for the powers that are against social transformation. ”.

For the teaching union, the metropolitan leader, Luciana Cortés, stated that it will always be a commitment for teachers to organize and carry in memory the names of the three martyrs, especially Professor Manuel Guerrero, who was also a leader of the teaching profession. . “Greeting those who always accompany us in our memory activities, the relatives who are here today of Manuel, Santiago and José Manuel, who are present today on the path of resisting memory and human rights.” The College of Teachers and Professors, he argued, “has as one of its central purposes to promote and defend human rights, memory, the development of a culture for life, peace and social justice.”

Finally, Lautaro Carmona, President of the Communist Party, referred to several elements of the political situation within the framework of this commemoration. He reaffirmed the commitment to “never give up, never give up, to hold the flags for which they fought and which are the flags of the fight for democracy, freedom, justice, for a better society for all and particularly with a future perspective focused on the quality of life of our people.” He added that “we do it at a time when Humanity is shocked because we are witnessing the extermination of a people due to the decision of a country (Israel) to wage war against the Palestinian people. All the expressions we raise will never be enough to express position and raise solidarity with the people of Palestine, just as we do in this space as a tribute to our colleagues.”

Carmona added that “now the news was abuse again, force over the logic of coexistence. Ecuador decided to invade the territorial immunity that corresponded to the Mexican Embassy in its country, at the risk of ending the lives of Mexican officials, they entered to arrest someone who had requested political asylum, putting international law and its own identity in suspense. coexistence of our Latin America.”

“Also in our colleagues – indicated the president of the PC – we highlight the value of unity, the value of commitment not only militant, but with a full life, with just and noble causes. Today we highlight this in the context of seeking the necessary unity to confront the denialist right. We have that commitment and we reaffirm it on this day.”