KKE Europarliament Group demands the immediate release of Chilean communist Daniel Jadue

The Europarliament Group of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) expresses its solidarity with Daniel Jadue, cadre of the Communist Party of Chile (Partido Comunista de Chile), who remains in detention by the Chilean authorities. 

 

Jadue was arrested on June 3, after a judge ordered he be held in preventative detention for 120 days over the “People’s Pharmacy Case”. 

 

More specifically, in a statement, KKE MEP Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos stressed out:  

 

KKE: Οn the 50th anniversary of the Pinochet coup in Chile and the assassination of Salvador Allende

Statement of the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE on the 50th anniversary of the Pinochet coup in Chile and the assassination of Salvador Allende:

On 11 September 1973, a military coup d’état took place in Chile, led by General Pinochet, who, with the support of the USA, overthrew the Popular Unity government.

The Chilean experience tragically confirmed the basic lesson drawn from the experience of the Paris Commune, which Marx and Engels also stressed in the Communist Manifesto, that “the working class cannot simply lay hold of ready-made state machinery and wield for its own purposes”. It must, as Lenin stressed, “smash the ‘ready-made state machinery’ and not confine itself merely to laying hold of it”.

 

Chilean communist leader Guillermo Teillier dies at 79

Guillermo Teillier, President of the Communist Party of Chile since 2005, has died at 79.

Teillier was born in Santa Bárbara, Biobío Region, on October 29, 1943.

He joined the Communist Youth in 1958, serving as regional secretary in the cities of Temuco and Valdivia. He then became regional secretary in Valdivia, where he was caught in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. In 1974, he held the same post in Concepción and Lota. 

Chile: Victor Jara's murderers are going to jail — Justice served 50 years later

A Chilean court has confirmed jail terms for seven elderly retired soldiers for the 1973 murder of beloved folk singer and Communist Party member Victor Jara in the aftermath of the coup d’etat that installed dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The soldiers, aged between 73 and 85 and free men until the ruling, will now have to report to prison to serve sentences of between eight and 25 years. The defendants had approached the Criminal Chamber of the Chilean Supreme Court to review their conviction in 2018.

 

What does the elected president of Chile come to? Gabriel Boric and his election speech

By Gabriel Lazzari.

On last Sunday night, December 19, the votes for the second round of the Chilean presidential elections were counted. The dispute was between José Antonio Kast, from the Republican Party, defender and legatee of Pinochetism, and Gabriel Boric, from Convergencia Social, member of the Apruebo Dignidad coalition, former student leader who had great national political expression after the student riots of 2011. The campaign, carried out with the mobilization of various sectors and great participation of the Communist Party of Chile, reached its end with the election of Boric by 55,87% of valid votes. 

Boric's triumph in Chile is not a victory for the working class

The following article was originally published in "El Machete", Organ of the CC of the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM), under the title "El triunfo de Boric en Chile no es una victoria para la clase obrera".

By Julio Cota.

The recent electoral victory of Gabriel Boric does not represent a root solution to the current economic and political crisis in Chile. Chilean workers and other popular strata must continue their frontal fight against any capitalist management or government. Maintaining high expectations of change or even settling for the least worst, is a trap for the Chilean working class, imposed by the monopolies and the bourgeoisie. 

Chile: Social democrat Gabriel Boric elected president

Gabriel Boric, the candidate of the social democratic coalition "Apruebo Dignidad", which is also supported by the Communist Party, prevailed on Sunday's second round of the presidential elections thus becoming Chile's youngest-ever president.

According to the final results, Gabriel Boric won 56 percent of the votes, compared with 44 percent for the candidate of the neoliberal coalition "Vamos por Chile", Jose Antonio Kast, an ultra-conservative lawyer who claims to be a political successor of fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet. 

Chilean Communist Party condemns police violence against Mapuche people

With the declaration of a state of emergency, police repression and militarization of four provinces Chilean President Sebastián Piñera responds to the extensive demonstrations by indigenous Mapuche groups.

The Mapuches, which are the main indigenous group in Chile, are claiming the lands they have lived off for centuries and now are under the control of large domestic and foreign farming and forestry companies. 

Chile's Communist Party won Santiago mayor's office

Chile's Communist Party (PC) candidate Iraci Hassler won Santiago mayor's office with 38.8 percent of the votes cast in the subnational elections.

Iraci Hassler will be the second woman to hold this office, which has not been headed by a communist since the end of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in 1990.

She was elected as a candidate in the citizen primaries convened by the Santiago's Constituent Mayoralty platform, which brought together over 50 social, political, and women's rights organizations.

Pablo Neruda — Song of Love to Stalingrad (1942)

Pablo Neruda, the emblematic communist Chilean poet and diplomat — one of the 20th century's most influential Latin American cultural figures — was significantly inspired by the heroism of the Soviet people in the Second World War. He was particularly impressed by the brave struggle of the defenders of Stalingrad in a battle that played a decisive role in the outcome of the war. 

In 1942, Pablo Neruda wrote the "Song of Love to Stalingrad" (Canto de Amor a Stalingrado), praising the bravery of the Red Army and the Soviet people. What follows is a English translation of this extroardinary poem:

Chile's Right on the footsteps of Pinochet: The anti-democratic persecution of Hugo Gutiérrez

Chile's right-wing President Sebastian Piñera (left) and 
Communist Party MP Hugo Gutiérrez.

Fascist dictator Pinochet may be gone, but his political descendants of the Chilean right are following his footsteps. 

After the extreme repression and violent crackdown against the popular protests in October 2019, the reactionary government of Sebastian Piñera and its political allies intesify anti-communism and attacks on the people’s democratic rights. 

The target of these attacks is the Communist Party of Chile (Partido Comunista de Chile) and its activity. More specifically, during the last months, the bourgeois state mechanisms are trying to dismiss Communist Party deputy Hugo Gutiérrez. 

KKE denounces the persecution against Chilean communist deputy Hugo Gutiérrez

Communist Party of Chile deputy Hugo Gutiérrez.

In a protest letter addressed to the Chilean Embassy in Athens, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) denounces the persecution of Hugo Gutiérrez, deputy of the Communist Party of Chile (PCC). 

The KKE letter, signed by Politburo member and MP Giorgos Marinos, expresses the Party’s condemnation of the anti-people policy of Sebastián Piñera and denounces the state repression against the recent huge mobilizations of the people of Chile. 

KKE: Question on the violent suppression of the mass popular demonstrations in Chile

The violent suppression against the mass – militant popular demonstrations and strikes in Chile by the Pinera government, “EU partner”, which have caused the death of 18 demonstrators, was condemned by the European Parliament Group of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) with a Question by the MEP of the Party, Lefteris Nikolaou–Alavanos towards the European Commission.

In his question, the MEP of the KKE stated the following:

Chile Protests: The Communist Party condemns Piñera government's repression

In a press conference held in Santiago on October 19th, the leadership of the Communist Party of Chile (Partido Comunista de Chile) condemned the policy of repression exercised by the right-wing government of Sebastián Piñera during the last days of uprising in the country's capital. 

The Communist Party's President, Guillermo Teillier said: "Applying the Internal State Security Law causes outrage to protesters. Politics are militarized and democracy is locked", adding that "if President Piñera is unable to govern, he must step aside and call for new elections". 

"History is ours, and people make history" — Salvador Allende, 11 September 1973

This speech was delivered at 9:10 am on September 11, 1973, in the midst of the US-sponsored coup d'etat against the democratically-elected government of Chile. Barricaded inside La Moneda presidential palace, Salvador Allende gave his life defending Chilean democracy. 

"My friends,

Surely this will be the last opportunity for me to address you. The Air Force has bombed the towers of Radio Portales and Radio Corporación.

Who killed Pablo Neruda?

On April 2013, the remains of Chile's Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda had been exhumed in a bid to determine the cause of his death after his assistant alleged he was murdered by Gen Augusto Pinochet's military regime.

Pablo Neruda's bones were interred in the garden of Isla Negra, his beloved beach house on Chile's Pacific coast. He is buried next to his wife and muse, Matilde Urrutia.

Four years later,the investigation into Pablo Neruda's probable cause of death, has found that Chile's most famous poet did not die of prostate cancer. The panel of experts focused on identifying pathogenic bacteria that might have caused his death. Forensic experts told a news conference in the capital Santiago, they were certain Neruda had not been killed by the disease.

Remembering the 1973 Chile coup: A useful lesson about the “peaceful transition” to Socialism

EDITORIAL

Santiago de Chile, 11 September 1973. With the active support of the US, a military coup under the leadership of General Augusto Pinochet overthrows the Salvador Allende's “Popular Unity” government. President Allende dies heroicly while defending the presidential palace. In the following years, more than 40,000 people are tortured and imprisoned. More than 3,000 people are officially dead, either executed or “vanished”. Thousands of citizens arrested. In October 1973, the popular songwriter Víctor Jara, and 70 other political killings were perpetrated by the death squad, Caravana de la Muerte. The Pinochet regime was ruthless and brutal.