A “segunda independência” chilena, 11 de setembro de 1973: a construção do projeto refundacional através do Memorial del Ejército de Chile (1974-1990)

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the construction of the Chilean military regime's political project during the period of 1974-1990. This analysis is centered in army officers' discourse as published in the journal Memorial del Ejército de Chile, official organ of that institution. The goal was to ascertain whether this discourse could be linked to a political culture that was present in the Chilean public sphere even before the coup d'état of September 11, 1973. A secondary goal was to study officers' teaching activities by, although in partial way, addressing authors' training in military institutes, and by examining the connections between activities that took place during this period both outside and inside the Andean nation. The aim was to describe a re-foundational project that was based on a specific understanding of Marxism and politics. A project that derived from a distinct reading of national identity, and from an attempt to construct new institutions which were to be based on a nineteenth-century 'portaliana' heritage, in opposition to liberal democracy, which was adopted in 1932. In general terms, the goal of this research is to understand to which extent military officers' discourse, as published in Memorial del Ejército de Chile, became an auxiliary rhetoric to the foundational narrative that was constructed by the high summit of the Junta de Gobierno.