Love and labour for Chile

Press, 9 May 1980, Page 1

Love and labour for Chile

Isabel Allende is a businesswoman, a mother, and an international traveller whose name stirs strong emotions. Above ail, she is a campaigner for the Chilean Socialist Party and an ambassador of Popular Unity. In Christchurch yesterday. as part of her busy, week-long speaking tour of New Zealand, Miss Allende, who is 35, spoke briefly to reporters before being whisked away for a much-needed rest and a function in the evening. Dressed immaculately in an elegant beige suit and a black polo-neck jersey to help insulate her against the unaccustomed cold, Miss Allende spoke repeatedly of ‘‘international solidarity” with her cause.

Although English is only her second language, she has easy familiarity

with such words as “political oppression,” “selective repression,” and “dictatorial regime.” Her father, Salvador Allende, was murdered when he was President of Chile, in' 1973, by a military coup that claimed 30,000 lives and effectively put another 100,000 people behind bars. Since then, Miss Allende has been exiled, working in Mexico City to achieve her dearest wish — the return of Popular Unity government to Chile after the overthrow of the Pinochet regime which, she says, is oppressive, dictatorial, and dangerous. Popular Unity is not solely a Marxist party: it was, and is, she says, a coalition of the Christian Party, the Marxist Party, and the Social Democrats.

Miss Allende speaks often of “our struggle,”

which she explains is’ the “struggle to restore democracy once again to Chile” and “to destroy Pinochet.” Miss Allende is touring New Zealand as a guest of the Chilean Working People’s Solidarity Committee. to show her people’s gratitude for the Federation of Labour trade ban. on Chile and to give examples of the oppression of the Pinoche't regime — examples such as the disappearance without trace of 2500 people since the coup in 1973. Or the murder of the former Chilean ambassador in Washington, Mr Orlando Letelier, by President Pinochet’s secret police. Or the exile of a million or so Chileans. She believes that international solidarity against President Pinochet, in the form of the international

trade ban by members of trade unions, and in the form of outspoken disapproval, has already had some effect on his rule.

“Pinochet has had to try to change his image, although he has not been very successful,” she says. “There are no concentration camps now, like there used to be after the coup. There is still repression, but it is more selective.” Miss Allende feels confident that the Pinochet regime will be overthrown. Already, she says, there is' growing disagreement among his supporters. :

But, she says, she has no thought c” standing for office in any new government in Chile that would replace that regime. She realises, though, that her name is an international symbol, because of her father, who she says,

earned himself a deserved reputation as a democratic ruler and who became very popular in Chile during his 24 years as a member of the Government and three years as president.

Miss ' Allende has received tremendous support at her public meetings in Auckland and Wellington, and at the Federation of Labour conference which she attended on Wednesday.

At the conference she received a standing, ovation.

When she is not campaigning, Miss Allende works, as a sociologist in Mexico City and spends time with her husband, David, who is an electrical engineer, and her two children — a boy who will be 15 next week and a girl, aged eight.