Annotations for Countries: Sweden

The ecology movement has recently captured the public's attention in industrialized countries. As the deterioration of the environment becomes more evident and the scientific evidence on the dangers of pollution accumulates, it is to be hope that Western Europe, Japan, and the United States will begin to implement policies to protect the ecosystem, but the programs proposed while popular at home are being seen as a threat to development in many parts of the world.

Some underdeveloped countries view ecological concerns as yet another obstacle created by the developed countries to their economic growth and are refusing to defer their dreams of industrialization because of the dangers to the ecology. The conflict between industrialized nations and the Third World over ecology is in its early stages, but important political, legal and moral questions have been raised, and these questions are of such a fundamental nature that there is some doubt as to whether they can be solved peacefully. Today we will describe the position Brazil took at the United Nations Conference on the human environment in Stockholm last year and then discuss some of the implications of their position. Though we feel that the issues advanced are of extreme importance, ironically, it seems to us that it will not be Brazil, but other poorer countries that will find themselves immersed in these conflicts.

Brazil's position in Latin America is most unique. Brazil has neither been resigned to the status of a non-developing satellite of the developed world, but neither is it moving in the direction of attaining development according to socialist models, nor is it moving towards an economics of cooperation with other underdeveloped nations. Instead, Brazil's governing military group is attempting rapid growth in industrialization similar to the developed mental methods followed by Western capitalist countries earlier in their histories. Brazil is one of the few Third World countries, perhaps the last, that has a chance of making it into the ranks of the so-called developed countries under this model of western, i.e. Capitalist development. Brazil's development seems to look favorably upon by the United States, Japan, and Western Europe, and it will presumably assume a place alongside these economically, politically and militarily.

We do, however, in the more general case, agree strongly with these articles' concerns over impending conflicts between developed and undeveloped nations over the usage of world resources. For given the disproportionately enormous resource usage patterns of the developed capitalist countries, it is reasonable to speculate that the development of most of the Third World will indeed be opposed by the economic elites of the developed nations as these powerful nations vie for control of limited resources. The following then is the Brazilian administration's arguments for its right to develop without regard to ecological considerations. The arguments are those developed in a series of articles from Brazil's daily Journal do Brazil, and it's weekly, Realidad.

The Brazilians were unusually blunt in Stockholm, arguing that the worst form of pollution was human poverty and that the industrial nation's concerns about the quality of air and water were luxuries the poor countries could not afford. Brazil's Minister of the Interior told the Assembly on Environment that quote, "For the majority of the world's population, the bettering of conditions is much more a question of mitigating poverty, having more food, better clothing, housing, medical attention and employment than in seeking atmospheric pollution and its reduction."

Brazil's Minister of the interior's argument is open to criticism because rapid industrialization in the Third World without income redistribution often does not improve conditions for the vast majority of the population. Certainly the so-called Brazilian economic miracle has caused widespread suffering among the lower classes. In fact, it has decreased the proletarian share of goods because capital accumulation for industrialization is being achieved by a reduction in workers' real wages. In fact, the situation is so appalling that even Brazil's President Médici remarked publicly last year that, "The economy is doing well and the people are doing poorly."

Yet the Brazilians press on with their policies, justifying them with the convictions that at some point in the future, industrialization will indeed produce great benefits for all classes. This may or may not be true, but from an ecological viewpoint, the important thing is that urgent attempts to industrialize will continue under this model of development.

Basically, the issue as Brazil sees it, revolves around how new ecological concerns will affect their rates of development. Brazilians want to close the enormous and widening gap between themselves and the industrialized nations. While they recognize that ecological problems are not illusory, they feel that a concern for the environment is a trap which may frustrate their desires for rapid development, and they cite three reasons for that fear.

First, devices to reduce chemical and thermal pollution will be expensive and may in addition require lowering production to levels where the environment can absorb the waste generated. It's also observed that precious investment funds would become tied up in non-productive anti-pollutant devices which do not generate new capital. Perhaps most importantly, an anti-pollution campaign would increase the prices of each item produced. The consequences of a jump in prices would be disastrous for a developing economy because it would reduce the already small market for manufactured goods and create a structural block to any further economic growth. Therefore, the Brazilians do not want to take on the economic burdens of protecting the environment. They argued in Stockholm that the rich nations never had such a burden during the 19th century when they were industrializing, and that if the Third World is ever to catch up, it must now have all the advantages the developed world once did.

A second fear expressed by the Brazilians was that the issue of ecology will be used by the industrialized nations as a rationalization to block the Third World's development. They are afraid that rich consumer countries unable or unwilling to control pollution at home and conscious of rendering resource supplies will use these as a justification for keeping a large percentage of the species in underdevelopment and poverty. Ecological concerns have already had an effect, in fact on loan practices from the developed world. As Kalido Mendez, a delegate to the Stockholm Conference pointed out, "It is no accident that the only contributions from the industrialized world that have not declined in the past few years have been military funds and funds designated for population control."

Kalido Mendez's fears, "Namely that the developed countries will act to block development of most of the Third World, seem very real to us. It is however, our perception of the political map that Brazil's development will be permitted even aided by the first world in an effort to make her a partner in maintaining the current power distribution."

The third fear Brazil expressed in the Stockholm conference was that the ecological issue may sometime be used as an entering wedge by the industrialized nations to interfere in the internal affairs of the Third World. While this possibility seems remote at the moment, the situation could become extremely explosive if there were an ecological crisis, such as an oil shortage. Brazilians are especially sensitive to any infringement on their sovereignty because of a developing conflict over their usage of the Amazon River basin and a not dissimilar argument with Argentina over the Parana river. Both of these questions were raised at Stockholm.

The particulars of the Amazonian basin argument are as follows, the consequences of tampering with the ecology of the Amazon may have a very serious ramification for all people. Some scientists estimate that as much as one half of the world's oxygen supply may be generated by the foliage of this huge tropical forest. Also, that the tropical forest ecosystem is a very fragile one. Misuse of the areas such as caused by heavy mining and timbering and the concomitant erosion could convert that area of extremely thin soil layers into a desert within a generation. This may be an overstatement, but it is clear that the area plays a very important role in the world's ecosystem.

The Brazilians, on the other hand feel that for their successful development, they need to be able to exploit these frontier lands much as the United States used the West as a vast reservoir of untapped natural resources for population relocation and to be meted out as incentives for investment. Thus, through expensive governmental programs like the construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway and grants of millions of acres to multinational corporations, the Brazilians are trying to develop the virgin area quickly. Brazilian army engineers have cut huge swaths through the jungle to open roads.

The international corporations, mostly United States based, have begun to exploit timber and mineral resources and plan to turn thousands of square miles of forest into pasture land. All of this is being done very rapidly with only a superficial knowledge of the Amazon's ecosystem and with the hope that these disruptions of the forest will not touch off an ecological disaster.

It should be noted as an important aside that the involvement of multinational corporations are an aggravating element in this conflict between rapid development and ecological soundness. Because they remit large profits to their headquarters, usually in the United States, they increase the extent of ecological exploitation necessary to produce the desired level of development for Brazil itself. Finally, international corporations seem to be beyond the control of any nation and try to maximize profits without regard for the wellbeing of any single country. It appears doubtful that these companies will adopt policies which follow sound ecological principles.

When Western environmentalists criticize the opening of the Amazon because it is being done too quickly without sufficient consideration for ecological consequences. The Brazilians answer quite simply, the Amazon is theirs and they will broke no interference, or to state the matter more sympathetically to the Brazilians, they have no intention of maintaining the Amazon as a pollution free zone so that the industrial nations can keep their industrial economies and consumption levels at the current high polluting levels. In effect, the Brazilians are claiming the right to develop at the cost of nature as the US did and continue to do so.

A similar and equally unbending position is taken by the administration on the question of an enormous hydroelectric plant it's building on the Parana River, the Argentinians through whose country this river also flows, argue that the project will wreck havoc with the ecology of the entire area harmfully affecting fishing and farming. The Argentinians during the conference in Stockholm unsuccessfully lobbied for an agreement that would've required a nation to supply information to its neighbor about any project which might cause damage to the neighboring country.

Argentina is not in good economic or political shape at this time, so a military confrontation over the Parana does not seem likely. However, the problem certainly illustrates the explosiveness of the entire question of developmental projects and their effects on the ecology of neighboring countries. One can imagine, for example, how the US might react if the Canadians set about implementing a developmental plan that affected the entire Mississippi Valley. Argentina believes it is facing just such a situation now, and most other Third World nations will probably be in similar positions in the coming decade as competition for materials, energy, and the use of the environment increases.

In this report, we have emphasized the fears that underdeveloped nations feel about the ecological issue, and how it might slow their development and compromise their sovereignty. There is no doubt that if they followed the industrialized country's advice and took better care of the environment, their rate of development would be slowed. Furthermore, their assertion that the rich nations industrialized without considering the ecological balance is historically accurate, and it is also correct to say that almost all pollution comes from Europe, Japan, and the United States, but all the arguments in the world do not change certain grim realities, which must be faced by rich and poor nations alike, for there is an ecological crisis and it does involve all of humanity.

If there is a solution at all to this problem, it must fly with the richer nations. It was the industrialized nations which created the environmental crisis in the first place through decades of dumping waste into the biosphere. It was their non-rational, indeed wasteful usage of energy and natural resources that hastens us towards scarcity. The developed countries have accustomed themselves to using grossly and equitable shares of the world's limited resources, and it is a continuance of this policy, which will absolutely prohibit Third World development and make clashes between poor and rich nations over resource usage inevitable. As these practices continue, it is hardly realistic to ask the undeveloped world, not to pollute and to remain undeveloped while the developed world continues it's high pollution and consumption rates.

So the industrialized nations must cease polluting and bear the economic burden for cleaning up their own territories. More importantly, the general high level of industrial activity must be controlled. To achieve this, the richer nations must stop expanding their economies so rapidly. In other words, the industrialized nations must be willing to reduce their standards of resource use and energy use, while helping to raise the economies of other countries out of their current conditions of abject poverty. They must make a serious attempt to redistribute their wealth, which would allow the Third World countries to be industrialized in an environmentally sound way.

Unfortunately, we do not expect this to happen because we see no way it could be done given the present political, economic, and military structures of the richer nations. Perhaps an ecological disaster will be necessary to awaken people to the need for fundamental change on a global scale. Our hope is that such a disaster will not do irreparable harm to the biosphere. Perhaps wars for the control of natural resource and the usage of energy will be inevitable before people become enlightened as to the consequences of so, does equal a distribution of the world's wealth. Here to, we can only hope and plead that somehow reason and a sense of human solidarity can spare humanity this sort of bloodbath.

Two weeks after the beginning of the military coup in Chile, events there dominate the news. Although members of the Junta have made repeated claims of normalcy, and US newspapers such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have characterized the military as mild and also claimed a return to normalcy, at the time this program is being produced, the Asia Information News Service monitoring wire services from Latin America reports that the Junta has just announced a state of internal war. 

In reverberations elsewhere in South America, Excélsior reports that in Uruguay the military government has shut down opposition papers, including the Christian Democrat-oriented La Hora. La Nación of Peru reports that the head of the Uruguayan government as saying that the articles on Chile would foment unrest. Also, the Brazilian military government has prohibited its newspapers from publishing or disseminating information about activities in Chile. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Bolivian military government has announced a move to arrest at least 70 leading labor leaders who were fomenting difficulties. 

Information other than official or censored reports from inside Chile are still difficult to obtain. Excélsior of Mexico City reports that Chilean Christian Democrats are still divided. Former President Eduardo Frei, implicated as early as 1970 in the ITT strategy memoranda as participating in efforts to induce economic collapse and a military intervention in Chile is reported to be supporting the Junta. While the previous Christian Democratic presidential candidate, Radomiro Tomic, is reported under house arrest. 

The English paper The Manchester Guardian noted continuing divisions in the military. The three highest ranking officers in Santiago as well as the head of the National Police did not support the coup. 

The Excélsior of Mexico reported an interview with Hugo Vigorena, the Chilean ambassador to Mexico, who resigned when his government was overthrown. The former ambassador said his government had documents and information on a CIA State plan senator, but had received the information too late to neutralize the plan. The New York Times reported that Mr. Kubisch, Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America, claimed the documents were spurious and being peddled by a known felon. He refused further public comments offering to appear in a secret session. 

The degree of difficulties inside Chile is still unknown with any precision. The official announcements of the Junta vary, beginning with a claim of 61 dead moving most recently to an admission of perhaps 250 persons killed. However, various international news agencies reported such items as that within the first 40 hours of the beginning of the coup, a Santiago hospital log indicated 500 bodies stacked in the hospital because the morgue was full and refused to accept further bodies. 

Inter Press, the Chilean news agency, which was forced to move its transmission facilities to Argentina following the beginning of the coup, reported requests from Chilean hospitals for medical supplies. Santiago hospitals were reported to be out of most medical supplies. 

The Asian News Service carried an interview from Argentina with the director of the Brazilian soccer team, which left Chile after the beginning of the coup. He reported upwards of 10,000 dead within the first three days. The Dutch newspaper Allgemeine Tagblatt reported on a telephone interview with a Dutch diplomat in Chile who reported in the initial days that the Junta was treating resisters with unimaginable violence and estimated casualties in Santiago alone at 6,000. 

Le Monde from Paris reported an interview with two Chileans held in the national soccer stadium, but released because they were the son and nephew of high-ranking military officers. They reported tortures, clubbing and executions of major proportions. British papers carried reports by two British subjects who said much of the same. 

In interviews with the US press, two American citizens, Adam and Patricia Schesch, released from the stadium after a considerable telephone and telegram campaign by citizens of their home state of Wisconsin, also noted that in the first days of the coup they saw numerous prisoners beaten to death and estimated that they directly saw 400 to 500 persons executed. Asia News Service estimated 20,000 to 30,000 dead within the first week. 

In Caracas, Venezuela, the daily paper Últimas Noticias reported an interview with a Venezuelan journalist who had been held in the national stadium for three days before being allowed to leave. He reported that he had been arrested because there were some magazines in his home published by Quimantú, the government publishing house. The Venezuelan journalist said that he could hear the cries of people being executed in the eastern grandstand of the stadium, that the blood was hosed down each morning, that survivors could see piles of shoes belonging to the previous night's victims and that the bodies were removed and blue canvas bags loaded into armed military trucks. 

A number of embassies in Chile are reported surrounded and in effect under siege to prevent persons from seeking asylum. The Guardian reports that the governments of Sweden, Finland, and Holland have announced that all aid destined for the Allende government would be frozen and not given to the Junta. Also, in a number of countries, including Mexico, Venezuela, Switzerland and Sweden, the Chilean ambassadors and diplomatic personnel have resigned rather than serve the Junta. 

Excélsior reports that the Chilean ambassador to the US is in Chile and is alive but under arrest. He has been replaced in the US by a naval officer. In London, the naval attaché has taken over the embassy there and locked out the ambassador. 

Diplomatic recognition of the Junta was initially accorded by Brazil and the two regime of South Vietnam, and the Junta claimed recognition by 17 countries as of the 22nd of September. However, according to Excélsior, that list includes Austria, Denmark, and Mexico, whereas Austria and Denmark have issued denials and Mexico announced that it would apply the Estrada Doctrine of maintaining officials at the embassy in Chile, but not extending actual recognition. 

Another reaction. La Opinión of Buenos Aires, Argentina, reported that the commander-in-chief of the Argentinian army has asked the government to immediately put an end to the US military missions in Argentina. He said that the recent events in Chile strengthened the conviction that, "the presence of North American missions in Argentina is not convenient for us."

Excélsior reported that the Chilean Junta, after outlawing the five political parties that had formed the Popular Unity Coalition and after informing the remaining parties to enter a recess, disbanding the Chilean legislature, has announced the writing of a new constitution. General Lei of the Air Force indicated that the new constitution would prevent the re-establishment of Marxism and would allow major participation by the armed forces in the political life of Chile, including in the future parliament. 

Excélsior continued that the new constitution would be actually edited by a yet-to-be-constituted jury commission and would be a corporate-type constitution in the style of the system instituted by Mussolini in Italy. That from the Mexican daily Excélsior. 

In commenting on developments in Chile, the English paper The Manchester Guardian reviewed the ITT memoranda that spoke of the need to induce sufficient economic chaos and violence into Chile to create the conditions for a military coup. The Manchester Guardian also quoted Henry Kissinger as having said, "I don't think we should delude ourselves that an Allende takeover in Chile would not present massive problems for us." 

The Manchester Guardian also referred to a meeting in October of 1971 between William Rogers, the Secretary of State, and representatives of corporations with investments in Chile, in which Rodgers made it perfectly clear that the Nixon Administration was a business administration and its mission was to protect business. 

Also, Murray Rossant, president of the 20th Century Fund, wrote in The New York Times of October 10th, 1971, that the government policy towards Chile was being formulated and that the Secretary of Treasury, John Connally, and other hard liners insist that Chile must be punished to keep other countries in check and favor a Bolivian-type solution of providing overt or covert support for anti Allende military men. That from The New York Times. 

In the most recent economic news from Chile, the black market, which was the primary cause of food shortages during the Allende period and which had been a major method of creating economic difficulties for the Allende government, has finally been outlawed. Although congressional opponents to Allende had prevented any legal moves against the black market during Allende's government, Excélsior reports that the military Junta has declared an end to black market activities. 

According to Excélsior, the Junta has also announced that gains made under Allende will not be rolled back, although all illegal worker takeovers of means of production will be cancelled and the illegally-taken-over factories, machines, and land will be returned to private entrepreneurs. Also, foreign corporations will be asked first for assistance and soon will be asked to invest and resume involvement in previously nationalized sectors. 

Excélsior also reports that the Junta has announced the formation of a Man of Public Relations composed of leading businessmen to travel internationally to explain the coup, discuss the reentry of foreign capital, and to improve Chile's new image. Already, according to the recent Junta announcements carried by the major wire services, the reported book burnings and cleaning of bookstores was carried out by overzealous persons and that at any rate the military was not against ideas and did not think that the burning of books would kill ideas. The Junta's only intention was to rid the country of alien ideas. 

The most recent information available is that despite disclaimers by the Junta, the cleaning of bookstores and the burning of books continues. The French Press Agency reports that the house of poet Pablo Neruda was vandalized by soldiers who conducted an exhaustive search, tored open beds, and burned posters, magazines, and books. 

The US government confirmed that it had granted diplomatic recognition to the Junta and the Junta declared what it called internal war, firing the mayors of all large villages and cities, the governors of all the provinces, and the presidents of the universities, replacing them with military personnel, and announced a review of all university faculty appointments. That from the Asian Information Service's compilation of wire service reports from Latin America. 

Excélsior also reports that the behavior of the Chilean junta appears to be causing diplomatic problems. For example, a crisis arose recently when a Chilean citizen was shot and killed by military police while he was in the yard of the Argentine embassy. The Argentine government called the incident an armed aggression against Argentine representatives in Chile. The diplomatic crisis deepened when the Argentine embassy was again fired upon by the Chilean police within 24 hours. Similar problems have also caused the junta to announce that it is considering breaking diplomatic relations with Sweden. 

Meanwhile, the repression by the junta continues to draw international criticism. The US Conference of the Catholic Church called upon the Chilean clergy to openly manifest their opposition to the systematic repression of human rights by the Chilean junta. The North American spokesman said that certain representatives of the Chilean church had committed errors in allowing the junta to use their clerical positions. Also, the Bertrand Russell Tribunal, an international body originally convened to investigate torture and political repression in Brazil, announced recently that it would expand its focus to investigate repression in Chile as well. 

The Mexican daily Excélsior, in a Christmas editorial, severely criticized the Chilean junta and particularly blasted the Christmas message of General Pinochet, the head of the Chilean military government. In that message, Pinochet asked the Chilean people to show patience and understanding for the severe measures the government had to undertake for the good of the country. 

Our feature this week, taken from Excélsior of Mexico City and from a United Nations speech of Mrs. Hortensia Allende deals with international reaction to the policies of the military Junta of Chile. This government headed by General Augusto Pinochet came to power in a coup on September 11th, 1973. At this time, the democratically elected Marxist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown. Governments throughout the world are voicing opposition to the brutal repression, which has taken place in Chile since that time. 

Mexico City's Excélsior reports that the Mexican government, for example, has announced that it will withdraw its ambassador from Santiago. The Argentine government is also considerably annoyed with the Junta. After protests at the torture and execution of several Argentine citizens in Chile, there was an awkward border incident when Chilean Air Force planes machine-gunned a Jeep 12 miles inside Argentina. Next, a Chilean refugee was shot dead while in the garden of the Argentine embassy in Santiago; only hours later, the house of the Argentine cultural attache in Santiago was sprayed by gunfire. Nevertheless, the Argentine government continues trade with Chile, including arms, and has afforded some credits to the Junta. 

The Indian ambassador in Chile issued a protest at the treatment of refugees in the Soviet Embassy in Santiago, which is now under Indian protection since the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with the Junta. Cuba has frozen all Chilean credits and stocks in retaliation for the attempt by the Junta to lay its hands upon $10 million deposited in London by the Cuban government for the Popular Unity Government. The Prime minister of Holland, Excélsior reports, made a radio speech severely criticizing the Chilean Junta and praising the Popular Unity Government. He suggested possible forms of aid to the resistance in Chile. Although the People's Republic of China has maintained relations with the Junta, there seems to have been some break in communication. The Chinese ambassador was recalled at the end of October and requests for the acceptance of the new Chilean ambassador to Peking have so far met with no response. Surprisingly, reports Excélsior, there have even been criticisms of the Chilean Junta in Brazil, and these have not been censored in the Brazilian press. 

The event which has drawn the most international attention to Chile recently was a speech made by Mrs. Hortensia Allende, a widow of Dr. Salvador Allende, who spoke before the United Nations Human Rights Commission in late February. It was the first time in the history of the United Nations that a representative of an opposition movement within a member state was permitted to address an official meeting of the UN. United Nations is restricted by law from discussing the internal affairs of its member nations, but the circumstances of the coup and the subsequent actions of the Junta have increasingly isolated it in the world and made the issue of Chile an international one. The following is an excerpt from the translation of the speech delivered at the UN Human Rights Commission. 

"I have not come to this tribunal distinguished delegates as the widow of the murdered President. I come before you as a representative of the International Democratic Federation of Women and above all, as a wife and mother of a destroyed Chilean home as has happened with so many others. I come before you representing hundreds of widows, thousands of orphans of a people robbed of their fundamental rights, of a nation's suffering from a state of war imposed by Pinochet's own troops, obedient servants of fascism that represents violations of each and every right, which according to the Declaration of Human Rights, all people should follow as common standards for their progress and whose compliance this commission is charged with safeguarding."

Mrs. Allende continues to describe how she feels. Each article of the UN Declaration of Human Rights is being violated in her country. According to these postulates universally accepted throughout the civilized world she says, all human beings are born free, equal in dignity and rights. In my country, whose whole tradition was dedicated not only to establishing but practicing these principles, such conditions are no longer being observed. There is discrimination against the rights and dignity of individuals because of their ideology. Liberty does not exist where man is subjected to the dictates of an ignorant armed minority. 

The declaration establishes that every man has the right to life, liberty and security continues, Mrs. Allende. Distinguished delegates, I could spend days addressing you on the subject of how the fascist dictatorship in my country has outdone the worst of Hitler's Nazism. Summary executions, real or staged executions for the purpose of terrifying the victim. Executions of prisoners allegedly attempting to escape, slow death through lack of medical attention. Victims tortured to death are the order of the day under the military Junta. Genocide has been practiced in Chile. The exact figures will not be known until with the restoration of democracy in my country, the murderers are called to account. There will be another Nuremberg for them. According to numerous documented reports, the death toll is between 15 and 80,000. Within this framework, it seems unnecessary to refer to the other two rights enunciated in the Declaration of Human Rights, liberty and security do not exist in Chile. 

Mrs. Allende continues, "I would like to devote a special paragraph to the women of my country, who in different circumstances are today suffering the most humiliating and degrading oppression. Held in jails, concentration camps, or in women's houses of detention are the wives of the government ministers who, besides having their husbands imprisoned on Dawson Island, have had to spend long periods of time under house arrest, are the women members of parliament from the Popular Unity Government who have had to seek asylum and have been denied safe conduct passes. The most humble proletarian woman's husband has been fired from his job or is being persecuted, and she must wage a daily struggle for the survival of her family." 

"The Declaration of Human Rights states that slavery is prohibited, as are cruel punishment and degrading treatment. Is there any worse slavery than that which forces man to be alienated from his thoughts? Today in Chile, we suffer that form of slavery imposed by ignorant and sectarian individuals who, when they could not conquer the spiritual strength of their victims, did not hesitate to cruelly and ferociously violate those rights."

Mrs. Allende continues, "The declaration assures for all mankind equal treatment before the law and respect for the privacy of their home. Without competent orders or formal accusation, many Chileans have been and are being dragged to military prisons, their homes broken into to be submitted to trials whose procedures appear in no law, not even in the military code. Countless Chileans, after five months of illegal procedures, remain in jail or in concentration camps without benefit of trial. The concept of equal protection before the law does not exist in Chile. The jurisdiction of the court is not determined by the law these days but according to the whim of the witch hunters. I wish to stress that if the 200 Dawson Island prisoners are kept there during the Antarctic winter, we will find no more than corpses come spring as the climatic conditions are intolerable to human life and four of the prisoners are already in the military hospital in Santiago." 

Mrs. Allende said, "The Junta has also violated the international law of asylum, turning the embassies into virtual prisons for all those to whom the Junta denies a safe conduct pass for having had some length with the Popular Unity Government. They have not respected diplomatic immunity, even daring to shoot those who have sought refuge in various embassies. Concrete cases involve the embassies of Cuba, Argentina, Honduras, and Sweden. Mail and telephone calls are monitored. Members of families are held as hostages. Moreover, the military Junta has taken official possession of all the goods of the parties of the Popular Unity Coalition, as well as the property of its leaders." 

Mrs. Allende continues, reminding the delegates, "the Declaration of Human Rights establishes that all those accused of having committed a crime should be considered innocent until proven otherwise before a court. The murder of folk artist Victor Jara, the murders of various political and trade union leaders and thousands of others, the imprisonment of innumerable citizens arrested without charges, the ferocious persecution of members of the left, many of them having disappeared or executed, show that my country is not governed by law, but on the contrary, by the hollow will of sectors at the service of imperialism." 

The declaration assures to all, freedom of thought, conscience, expression, religion and association. In Chile, the political parties of the left have been declared illegal. This even includes the moderate and right-wing parties, which are in recess and under control to such extent that the leaders of the Christian Democratic Party have expressed their total inconformity with the policies of the Junta. Freedom of the press has also been eliminated. The media opposed to the Junta has been closed, and only the right wing is permitted to operate, but not without censorship. Honest men who serve the press are in concentration camps or have disappeared under the barrages of the execution squads. 

Books have been burned publicly recalling the days of the Inquisition and Nazi fascism. These incidents have been reported by the world press. The comical errors of those who have read only the titles have resulted in ignorant generals reducing scientific books to ashes. Many ministers sympathetic to the sufferings of their people have been accused of being Marxist in spite of their orthodox militancy following Jesus' example. Masons and layman alike have been tortured simply for their beliefs. It is prohibited to think, free expression is forbidden. 

Mrs. Allende said the right to free education has also been wiped away. Thousands of students have been expelled for simply having belonged to a leftist party. Young people just a few months away from obtaining their degrees have been deprived of five or more years of higher education. University rectors have been replaced by generals, non-graduates themselves. Deans of faculties respond to orders of ballistics experts. These are not gratuitous accusations, but are all of them based on ethics issued by the military Junta itself. 

"In conclusion", says Mrs. Allende, "the Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right of all men to free choice of employment, favorable working conditions, fair pay and job security. Workers must be permitted to organize freely in trade unions. Moreover, the Declaration of Human Rights states that people have the right to expect an adequate standard of living, health and wellbeing for themselves and their families. In Chile, the Central Workers Trade Union confederation, the CUT with 2,400,000 members, which on February 12th, 1974 marked 21 years of existence, has been outlawed. Trade unions have been dissolved except for the company unions. Unemployment, which under the Popular Unity Administration had shrunk to its lowest level, 3.2% is now more than 13%. In my country, the rights of the workers respected in the Declaration of Human Rights have ceased to exist." These excerpts were taken from the United Nations speech of Hortensia Allende, widow of Dr. Salvador Allende, leader of the former Popular Unity Government of Chile.