Amidst the deafening noise of media outlets publishing reports, interviews, and accounts regarding the 1973 military coup in Chile, I find a lack of even a mention of the role played by the media in Magallanes.

During the Unidad Popular government, only two or three media outlets supported the Allende government in Magallanes, with special reference to Radio La Voz del Sur, directed by Daniel Ruiz Oyarzo, and El Magallanes, directed by journalists Arturo Ampuero Navarro and Nicolás Neira Neira.

On the very day of the coup in Magallanes, both media outlets were shut down, their journalists were detained, and from that moment on, only Radio Polar, along with the regional outlets Radio Minería and La Prensa Austral, remained in operation.

And it is a historical truth that these local media outlets, Radio Minería and La Prensa Austral, within their own means and the orientation they adopted, played a fundamental political and communicational role in justifying and backing the military coup, in justifying and endorsing the abuses and human rights violations in an early period, in justifying and adopting as their own the military's versions regarding the detentions and even the executions of political prisoners, such as those that occurred in Tierra del Fuego.

In history, nothing is black or white, but there are facts and historical responsibilities that cannot be denied, that must be assumed before the citizenry, that should give rise to a profound reflection in the present, despite the silence of so many years that have passed.

These media outlets supported and backed the coup-plotting military from early on the morning of September 11 , as Radio Minería of Punta Arenas led the "network of stations" of the Regional Military Junta (with blaring military marches) where, at 08:30 hours, the first proclamation of the insurgent military was read in the unmistakable voice of Army reservist Selmiro Salgado.

And it is no coincidence that we find in the pages of La Prensa Austral of Punta Arenas, starting with its edition of September 12, 1973, the complete list of political and social leaders of the Unidad Popular, all summoned by the military to report to military barracks, a list that was provided to La Prensa Austral by the coup-plotting military.

If someone were to state that in Magallanes the newspaper La Prensa Austral and Radio Minería of Punta Arenas were part—directly or indirectly—of the conspiracy that led to the 1973 military coup and that for many years they were media outlets clearly aligned with the government and favorable to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, it would be a value judgment, but it would not be lacking in historical truth.

La Prensa Austral and Radio Minería, primarily, were media outlets that acted in political opposition to the government of Salvador Allende in Magallanes, and the day after the military coup of September 11, 1973, they logically became government mouthpieces.

They were media outlets that took a political and editorial stance against the government of Salvador Allende and the Unidad Popular, a legitimate position during a period of functioning democracy, and subsequently, from the morning of September 11, 1973, they crossed the line and poured their best efforts into favoring the new military rulers.

And so, 40 years later, who assumes the ethical responsibilities implied by that support and that sycophantic communicational work with the military in power and with the dictatorship that was installed by blood and fire in Chile, as it was in Magallanes?

Has a serious and profound analysis been conducted in Magallanes of the role played by local media outlets in the 1973 military coup and in the 17 following years of dictatorship? In this matter, there are more questions than answers, more shadows than light, more silences than truths. Manuel Luis Rodríguez U.

Source: http://coyuntura-politica.blogspot.com/, September 4, 2013