Last month, for the 22nd year in a row, the world mourned the deaths of the nearly 3,000 victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But there was another event marked by the date, one that, though equally as tragic, received a small fraction of the coverage given to the attacks.
On Sept. 11, 1973, Chilean President Salvador Allende was ousted in a violent coup, and replaced by the fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet. The coup resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, followed by further human rights violations under Pinochet’s rule–the total estimate for the number of people killed, imprisoned or tortured by Pinochet is more than 40,000.
Most Americans treat 9/11 as a day to remember the lives lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center, but the coup deserves to be remembered as well. And yet, very few people in America were talking about it on the day of its anniversary, despite the US’ own involvement in the event–something that should be talked about, as this relates the coup to the other 9/11.
The Sept. 11 attacks were not justified, but they were not entirely unprovoked. They were a reaction to decades of events like the Chilean coup, Operation Condor and the Vietnam War. Decades of US imperialism, of wars and invasions where the US attempted to exert control over another entity halfway across the globe, and thousands of people ended up dead as a result of it.
Though the coup wasn’t the direct cause of the attacks, it was part of the long string of events that led to the attacks, and understanding this context can help prevent further tragedies from happening. The US clearly didn’t understand this, however, as the president’s reaction to 9/11 was to launch an invasion against a completely unrelated power, leading to a war lasting nearly a decade, and the death of more than 100,000 people. The Iraq War was an improper response to a tragedy, and yet, it was supported by 62% of Americans as it began. The anger that people felt over 9/11 blinded them to the reality of the situation, to the cause of the attacks, and it led them into a foolish and long war that was equally as brutal as the event that caused it.
The 9/11 attacks should still be mourned every year, as they are one of the most tragic events of the 21st century. But enough time has passed, and we should use the date to acknowledge the cause and effect of the event as well. The coup deserves to be talked about, not only by Chileans, but by Americans. Our role in it should be a point of shame, not something that we sweep under the rug–as should our role in the other coups, war, invasions and violent campaigns of the 20th century.
We Americans like to ignore any tragedy that didn’t affect us directly, and we especially like to ignore tragedies that we actively participated in. That isn’t limited to this issue alone, either. The genocide of the Native Americans and the issues of slavery and segregation are often simplified by schools and politicians–we like to pretend that racism was solved, that we live in a colorblind country where everyone is equal, but that isn’t true in the slightest.
These are ongoing issues that we have done nothing to solve, simply because we don’t like talking about them. We don’t like to acknowledge that these problems are real, because that would make us look like the bad guys. But we need to talk about them–because these problems are deeply ingrained in our society, and if we continue to ignore them, they will only get worse.
The 9/11 coup deserves to be talked about in conjunction with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They were both tragic events, and the deaths they caused should be memorialized. But it is also important that we understand how the two disasters of the date are connected. Because if we remember them, it is possible for the world to become a better place, one where these kinds of tragedies are not so common that one date shares multiple memorials.
