21st May 2008: What is the political? And can we ever be impartial

As part of my thesis research I’m finally pushed into the subaltern world of the human rights activists. Most groups can be characterised by wanting to bring perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice, although recently more attention is also being paid to Mapuche indigenous rights.




21st May 2008
What is the political? And can we ever be impartial?

Not quite an impartial observer now, am I? The scene, from behind the squared weave of the raglan hood, Abu Ghraib-Style, seems oddly calm. I stand, head bowed, watching the flash of cameras in the foreground, with a military ceremony behind. Berating my slowness in Spanish, as well as wondering where exactly I now stand from a methodological point of view. I am, after all, not a sociologist (not really a historian either, but that’s another story) yet being part of a protest can’t be the best way to “objectively” get a feel for the human rights group. Yet. Yet, maybe it is? Was I ever really going to be impartial? Was my work ever going to really stand back and look on impassively? And also. Would that even have been a good thing?

I arrived to the FUNA (Chilean human rights organisation) meeting point just on time and was given, well, to say I was given a lukewarm reception would be adding too much “warm”. My presence was acknowledged and tolerated. Taking the hood, and thus agreeing to actively take part in the demonstration and not just watch, may, I feel, have been a needed show of goodwill on my part.

I stood there at the meeting point for a good twenty minutes observing the scene as the crowd assembled. Everyone there had been affected by the dictatorship. Most of those present were sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and even grandchildren of the disappeared and/or tortured. I'd been told that FUNA is different as it represents a new generation, socialised to take up the fight of the old. The leaders seemed all to be around the 40-50 mark, and maybe half of those present were in or around their twenties.

The scene from behind my checked mask seems to be changing. I notice tense looks between the photographers, as the police behind seem to be swirling in increasing menacing ways. The chanting of the protesters had been getting louder, gathering momentum, and it’s obvious the Robocops are starting to see it as a threat. I feel increasingly vulnerable, standing there in my hood. I glance to side and see all the pseudo “prisoners” are getting jittery. A couple tears off their hoods, looks at each other and then the girl grabs the guys hand and they flee, jumping the police barrier as a platoon of robocops descend on the scene. SHIT! I’ve already stored the hood away and I’m considering following the couple. I can’t be arrested- as I’m here on a student visa, they can deport me for political involvement.

Is this a political act? Could I be deported for this? It’s a human rights demonstration, but anyone who says that isn’t a political act here, misunderstands contemporary Chilean society.

We’re penned in- robocops- police in full riot gear, helmets and shields in front and to the sides, and a metal fence and the Mapoche River behind. I’m blessing the metal fence as people start shouting “What! Do you want to throw us into the river?!?” and one of the organisers starts shouting into her megaphone “And now, the FUNA human rights group is being brutally repressed for trying to exercise their right to free speech” and chants go up in the penned in crowd.

I’m panicking- claustrophobia grabbing at my throat, looking around for someone to follow as we are squeezed closer together and the police start to channel us over the river.
Violently I cough, eyes prickling. Tear gas! What! I can’t believe it… this was a non-violent protest by no more than 30 people [according to the FUNA website, 100], and we are being “controlled” by exponentially more police with riot gear and tear gas… Tempers flare… I’m trying to keep my head down... (I really can’t afford to be arrested) and try and keep a clear head. At the other side of the bridge is a police bus... they can’t mean to detain us all? What are my odds if I leg it? Slim if they want to follow really… People are being “restrained” around me… four police to one protester, slammed against the metal side of the bridge... fuck... this is getting nasty.. An organiser shouts at them to not push..."we will go if we have to” she says, “Just don’t push us”… from what I can make out, she’s arrested for merely talking back…

We get to the bus and are again hemmed in- police on three sides and the bus in front. The police grab people and push them into the bus… It seems carrying a flag is a crime now. A boy, who can’t be any older than eighteen, is grabbed by three policemen,, his flag impeding the officers in their attempt to force him into the bus. It's chaos- a 3 square metre riot. People are shouting, crying from the teargas, crying due to panic and fear, avoiding batons, avoiding batons and the like hitting their very young children, trying to stop people being hauled onto the bus, trying to avoid be bundled onto the bus themselves. It eventually leaves with about half the protesters and all the commission leaders.

There is a strange lull after the bus leaves. We are defeated, as it were. Flags to the ground and tear-stained faces. A few disjointed robocops stand about unsure what to do with the remnants of the micro-riot. Market traders try to re-jig there stalls, although trade is looking unlikely.

I’m not sure what to do- the commission leaders were who I needed to talk to, yet it seems disloyal to leave now.

A Mexican women is arrested as she leaves the scene alone, and I take it as my cue to go.

This fragment is just one facet of a much wider discussion about the Chilean police and their heavy-handedness. It is especially important as the Chilean police force is held up as a South American example, yet their continous disregard for civil liberties can only be understood withihnt the context of a society that has also priveledged order, over freedom.

This is to be continued.