Below is Luis Badilla's story.
Fifty years ago - on 11 September 1973 - around seven in the morning I called my archbishop, Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, whom I had known as a child since he was the Rector of St John Bosco College and I was a student there. I wanted to inform him of what had been told me, two hours earlier, by friends residing in the city of Valparaíso, the main port of Chile, and where he had been a bishop appointed by John XXIII. Albeit confused and without answers, the news was horrendous and incredible: the city between the mountains and the Pacific was in the hands of the Navy, the first to show - in the middle of the night - the true nature of Pinochet's coup plotters. There was already talk of people being executed on the street or in their own homes [...] The coup plotters showed up, openly, occupying the radio and television station, around 5 in the morning.
Don Raúl listened to my story, nervous and horrified, without saying a single word. At the time we parted, he said to me: "Protect yourself and your family well. You know, I didn't sleep last night. I worked and prayed. The night was cold, very dark. It seemed like morning didn't want to come. There are no stars today, Luis. ”
Allende, his family and Cardinal Silva Henríquez
I met President Salvador Allende, with whom I collaborated, and two of his three daughters: Isabella and Beatrice. I was lucky enough to meet his widow Hortensia Bussi, after the coup,, a kind and meek woman, who despite her age and fragile health traveled the world advocating the cause of democracy and the defence of human rights. With her and Beatrice I made several trips to Europe in the 1970s to meet government officials and facilitate the reception of Chilean refugees [...] More than once I was the bearer of messages between the President and the Cardinal, and today looking back with gratitude I am sure I met two moral giants forgotten too soon.
Last attempt to save the country
By May 1973, the political situation in Chile was already irreversibly deteriorating and there was but one question: when and how will the military coup take place. Salvador Allende, squeezed between those who wanted a policy of radicalisation in an extreme socialist direction and those who preferred a pause to consolidate the reforms won (a choice considered by some as 'moderate social democratic'), decided to take the initiative to establish a sincere and transparent dialogue with the opposition, the Christian Democrats. At various times he experienced a dialogue with the former President and charismatic leader of the Christian Democratic Party, formally led by Senator Patricio Aylwin, but controlled by former President Eduardo Frei. It wasn't possible. Frei always refused any meeting because, as the facts after the 1973 coup show, he was already part of a plot to overthrow Allende.
Former President Eduardo Frei decides
In the end, with the mediation of Cardinal Silva [...] a meeting between Allende and Aylwin was possible. It was Friday, 17 August 1973. True and sincere dialogue between the two did not follow any initiative. Everything was paralysed. The political situation of the country on the eve of the thousand days of government of the Popular Unity coalition was irreparably compromised.
Some testimonies claim that on the night between 10 and 11 September Salvador Allende wrote the draft of his speech to the nation to announce a referendum, ensuring that if he lost he would immediately present his resignation. There was no alternative to get out of the crisis constitutionally.
The request to Pope Paul VI
While he was writing this draft and Cardinal Silva was praying, the Armed Forces, which had been plotting since April as Pinochet himself acknowledged days after the coup, had set up a military machine to overthrow President Allende [...]
The failure
Today, 50 years later, it must be said that President Allende and Cardinal Silva did everything to the last moment to avoid one of the worst tragedies in Latin America in the twentieth century. Salvador Allende ended his life with suicide at the end of his political experience, which failed due to many political errors, but also due to the absolute inconsistency of the alliance that supported him. In the midst of the detritus of pain, mourning and suffering, the Chilean people immediately identified the anchor to save themselves in their best-known and most loved shepherd: Raúl Silva Henríquez. But this is another story, one of hope that never remains silent. The story of a priest and bishop who dedicated his life to defending human dignity without hesitation and without backing down in the face of power.
A few months after I left Chile with his help, and help from the then Archbishop of Panama City, Marcos McGrath (1924 - 2000), we met in the Vatican in the offices of the deputy director of the Osservatore Romano Fr Virgilio Levi (1929 - 2002). I then asked Don Raúl why Pope Paul VI had not condemned the coup even though he was severely critical. The cardinal replied: "It was I who begged His Holiness not to address the question publicly because Pinochet would have reacted badly, increasing the violence. So I thanked the Holy Father very much. His was a painful act of love for the Chileans.”
Then I had the opportunity to meet Pope Paul VI to whom, in one of these meetings, I asked the same question. "I have been asked by the Chilean bishops and I think I have helped many persecuted people" the Pontiff replied.
The complete article, by Luis Badilla, edited by "Il sismografo" is available at the following link.
