Letter from John Wake, Harlow
The renaming of Harlow’s ‘Allende Avenue’ at the behest of Harlow Conservatives dishonours the memory of the thousands of people forced into exile, the thousands of people tortured, and the thousands of people murdered by the military dictatorship that replaced Salvador Allende’s democratic government in Chile.
If the aim was simply to honour Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine, then Harlow Conservatives could have chosen to rename Second Avenue, Third Avenue, or Fourth Avenue. However, Harlow Conservatives wanted an excuse to remove the name of Salvador Allende, a democratically elected President of Chile overthrown in a military coup.
Chile was once known as the “England of South America” on account of its tradition of democratic government. Salvador Allende was elected as its first socialist president in 1970. In 1973 the Chilean armed forces, with the assistance, encouragement and support of the USA, overthrew his government and installed a junta that ruled for seventeen years.
Harlow Conservatives are practising a form of denialism. Augusto Pinochet, the tyrannical military dictator of Chile, was a friend of Margaret Thatcher. Harlow Conservatives seem intent on erasing his crimes from the historical record.
Pinochet’s regime “disappeared” thousands of people, and in attempting to “disappear” the memory of a democratic politician overthrown in a military coup, Harlow Conservatives have taken the side of dictatorship against democracy.
[Editorial note: in September, around the date of its 50th anniversary, Left Horizons will publish articles on the coup in Chile]
