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The 1973 Chilean coup and the origins of transnational human rights activism*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2013

Patrick William Kelly
Patrick William Kelly*
Affiliation:
Department of History, The University of Chicago, 1126 E. 59th St, Chicago IL 60637, USA E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The 1973 Chilean coup gave rise to an unprecedented growth in a global human rights consciousness. In its aftermath, transnational activists from a diverse array of political and ideological backgrounds found common cause – indeed, a common language of human rights – in campaigns to ameliorate the repressive acts of the Chilean military junta. This article focuses on two models of activism in particular: Amnesty International, whose 1973 investigative mission set the terms of the global debate about human rights in Chile; and transnational solidarity activists, especially Chilean exiles from leftist parties, whose vision of social activism narrowed as their interest in human rights surged. These campaigns – while not without tensions over the role of politics in the moral appeal to human rights – both articulated a transnational discourse of human rights and created new activist techniques to foment moral outrage by revealing the prevalence of torture through the power of personal testimony.

Keywords

1973 Chilean coupglobal civil societyhuman rights activismsolidaritytransnational
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 165 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

For his unwavering support of this article and all else, I am indebted to Mark Philip Bradley. The article also draws on wise advice from Michael Geyer, Mauricio Tenorio, Sam Moyn, Jan Eckel, Jim Green, Diana Schwartz, Elizabeth Dale and her legal history webinar, and the Latin American History Workshop at Chicago. For sharing their time and stories, I would like to thank José (Pepe) Zalaquett, Roger Plant, Tracy Ulltveit-Moe, and Tom Quigley. The research for this article was funded by the Social Science Research Council–ACLS International Dissertation Research Fellowship.

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38 California State Archives, State Government Oral History Program, Frank C. Newman, oral history interview, conducted in 1989 and 1991 by Carole Hicke, Regional Oral History Office, University of California at Berkeley.

39 Interview with Roger Plant.

40 Newman, oral history interview, p. 287.

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42 Newman, oral history interview, p. 299.

43 Interview with Roger Plant.

44 AI-USA, series II.5, box 3, AMR-22, ‘Report of the mission to Santiago, Chile, 1–8th November 1973’ (henceforth Amnesty Report on Chile).

45 On Amnesty's evolving mandate, see Amnesty International: a chronology, 1961–1976, London: Amnesty International, 1976; see also Amnesty International, Report on torture, London: Gerald Duckworth, 1973.

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54 AI-USA, series II.5, box 3, AMR-22, AI Research Department to all National Sections, ‘Second anniversary of the coup in Chile’, 5 August 1975.

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60 FSA, ASI, 9, 1, Comisión Investigadora de los Crímenes de la Junta Militar en Chile, Primera Sesión, Helsinki, 1974; The complete list of countries that attended the first session is: Belgium, Finland, France, Denmark, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Vietnam, Panama, Ecuador, the United States, Brazil, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Chile, Argentina, Great Britain, Bolivia, Uruguay, Canada, Sweden, Austria, the German Democratic Republic, Japan, Cuba, Venezuela, the Federal Republic of Germany, India, Norway, Poland, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Algeria, and Australia.

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69 Jacob Söderman, correspondence with author, 31 January 2010.

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