The Jewish minority is well integrated into Chilean society and occupies important positions in politics, finance, economics, the professions and intellectual and artistic life. As in recent years, antisemitism remains a marginal phenomenon although latent antisemitism surfaces from time to time.
Co-operation between the small Chilean neo-Nazi groups has increased in recent years. This may be due to the small number of their members and to the presence of dynamic leaders such as Erwin Robertson and Hugo Lara. Evidence of ideological and financial ties with far-right and neo-Nazi groups elsewhere is cause for concern, especially in view of the prospect of an international neo-Nazi conference in Santiago in April 2000.
Demographic data
Total population: 14.24 million
Jewish population: 23,000 (mainly in Santiago)
Other minorities: almost 10 per cent of the Chilean population is classified as indigenous: the majority are Mapuches (the largest indigenous group), Aymaras and Rapanuis (Easter Islanders); smaller indigenous groups are the Atacamenos, Huilliches and Kawaskhars. Most of the remaining population are of European or mixed European-indigenous descent. The 300,000 Palestinian immigrants in Chile, including second- and third-generation descendants, form the largest such community outside the Middle East. Other immigrant communities include German, British, Swiss, French, Croatian, Italian and Korean settlers.
Religion: Roman Catholics (77 per cent), Protestants (13 per cent), other religions (4 per cent, including 400,000 members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons)), no religion (6 per cent); there are an estimated 5,000 religious organizations and movements in Chile.
Political data
Constitutional status: presidential democracy with a bicameral (senate and chamber of deputies) parliament and an independent judiciary.
Government: the Partido Demócrata Cristiano (PDC, Christian Democratic Party) heads the ruling coalition which includes three other parties: Partido por la Demócracia (PPD, Party for Democracy), Partido Socialista (PS, Socialist Party) and Partido Radical (PR, Radical Party).
Head of state: President Eduardo Frei Ruíz-Tagle (PDC) since 1993
Other political parties: Union Demócratica Independiente (UDI, Independent Democratic Union), Renovación Nacional (RN, National Renewal), Partido Union de Centro Centro Progreso (UCCP, Progressive Centre Centre Union Party)
Next parliamentary elections: December 1999
The military government (1973-90) under General Augusto Pinochet left a legacy of political and legal constraints to effective representative democracy: part of the senate is nominated; a 1978 amnesty law covers most of the cases of human rights violations perpetrated under military rule; members of the present-day constitutional tribunal, which plays a crucial legal and political role, were appointed during the Pinochet regime; and the council of national security is controlled by the military.
General Pinochet retired as commander of the armed forces in March 1998. Constitutional arrangements were made under his presidency to enable him to become a member of the senate and enjoy parliamentary immunity as a life peer. This move has brought about immense criticism from both international human rights groups and members of the ruling coalition.
Economic data
GDP 1997: US$82.6 billion
GDP per head 1997: US$5,680
Inflation 1997: 6 per cent
Unemployment 1997: 6.2 per cent
Despite the government's efforts to reduce levels of poverty, more than a quarter of the population is considered to be living below the poverty line.
Although Jews have been present in Chile since the time of the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century, Jewish immigration to Chile has increased significantly since the early twentieth century. The first wave of Jewish immigrants came from Russia, Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
Although there were restrictions on immigration, Jews from Germany and Austria arrived in Chile before and after the Second World War. The last wave of Jewish immigrants came from Hungary after the 1956 revolution.
There are many Chileans of German origin. In the 1930s and 1940s many of them expressed public sympathy for Nazism and lobbied for support of the Nazi-Fascist Axis.
In 1932 a group of Chilean nationalists, some of German origin, founded the Movimiento Nacional Socialista de Chile (MNS, National Socialist Movement of Chile) under the leadership of Jorge González von Marees. Politically defined as a fascist movement, it was antisemitic, anti-communist and anti-capitalist. On 5 September 1938 the MNS carried out an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government of Arturo Alessandri Palma; most of the participants were massacred by police. Every year on that date Chilean neo-Nazis gather in the Cementerio General in Santiago to commemorate the suppression of the Nazi putsch by the Chilean police (see Parties, organizations, movements).
Colonia Dignidad (Dignity Colony), a small German settlement in the southern town of Villa Baviera (near Parral), was founded in 1961 and has since the mid-1960s been accused of being a haven for ex-Nazis. The German government has periodically, over the years, investigated its activities. During the Pinochet regime, rumours circulated that it was also used as a centre for governmental repression of political opponents.
In 1997 police attempted in vain to arrest Paul Schaefer - a suspected child molester, an active neo-Nazi sympathizer and the apparent head of the 'state within a state' at Colonia Dignidad - who had gone into hiding in a remote valley in the Andes after police entered the colony in May and discovered that he had illegally adopted 300 German children. Schaefer, who served as a medical orderly in Hitler's Wehrmacht, came to Chile in 1961 after fleeing paedophilia charges in Germany.
Indigenous Chileans suffer widespread discrimination because, as elsewhere in Latin America, darker-skinned members of the population are generally among the most disadvantaged. Despite a 1993 law which recognizes the ethnic diversity of the indigenous population and gives it a voice in decisions affecting its lands, cultures and traditions, there is still only marginal participation by indigenous Chileans in such decisions. In general, Chilean society has shown more tolerance towards immigrants than towards its indigenous population.
Although immigration to Chile has been less significant than to other Latin American countries such as Argentina and Brazil, immigrants of European (German, British, Swiss, French, Croatian and Italian) origin have assimilated into the middle and upper classes. Arab immigrants from the Middle East (mainly Christians) are also socially and economically integrated into Chilean society. In recent years, however, small groups of Asian immigrants, most notably Koreans, have experienced some intolerance.
Far-right parties are almost non-existent in Chile. Those that do exist are mostly ultra-nationalist rather than overtly racist or antisemitic.
One of the oldest neo-Nazi groups is the Movimiento Nacional Sindicalista (National Syndicalist Movement), founded in 1947 by Ramón Callís. The group, now led by Misael Galleguillos, supported the military dictatorship of 1973-90 and has historical ties with the ultra-nationalist group Patria y Libertad (Fatherland and Freedom), which was active in the 1970s against the government of Salvador Allende.
Former members of the MNS (see Antisemitic legacy) and other neo-Nazis constitute the Comité 5 Septiembre (5 September Committee) which is named after the defeated Nazi putsch of 1938. Led by Galvarino Sepúlveda, the group organizes the annual commemoration of the event and attempts to preserve the memory of the MNS in Chile.
The Movimiento Nazi Chileno (Chilean Nazi Movement), also known as the Eugenio Lutz Group, is led by Eugenio Lutz, a Nazi veteran. Founded in 1991, it has both an adult and a youth section. Membership of the adult section is said to include a number of ex-Nazis.
The Guardián de los Andes (Guardian of the Andes) is a small neo-Nazi paramilitary youth group founded in 1994. Led by Rafael Núñez, a former philosophy student at Santiago's Catholic University, it has adopted Nazi military regalia including uniform and flag. Its ideological mentor is Erwin Robertson, a prominent Holocaust-denying historian at the Universidad Metropolitiana in Santiago, and it claims to be supported by both Chilean and foreign neo-Nazi groups.
Robertson is also head of the far-right Centro de Estudios por una Alternativa Iberoamericana (Centre for Research into an Alternative Latin America), which seeks to develop a 'third position to counter the hegemony of North American capitalism and Soviet politics'.
Movimiento Nacionalista de Chile (National Movement of Chile) was founded in 1984 by Marcelo Saavedra as Tercera Posición (Third Position) and later known as the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (Revolutionary Nationalist Movement). The group uses paramilitary paraphernalia (black uniforms and armbands bearing the group's emblem) and supports the Islamic revolution in Iran.
Neo-Nazi skinhead groups have appeared in Chile in recent years. As in Europe and North America, they have adopted Nazi symbols and profess hatred towards hippies, punks, homosexuals, drug addicts, Jews and foreigners in general. Although potentially violent, the Chilean groups are poorly organized, without a legitimate leader, and they have little influence. They generally take part in neo-Nazi meetings and events marking Hitler's birthday and the 1938 Nazi putsch.
The 1938 putsch was remembered in 1997 by representatives of various neo-Nazi groups who assembled at the Cementerio General in Santiago. Speakers included Hugo Lara (see Holocaust denial), Erwin Robertson and Marcelo Bollman. In his speech Bollman blamed Jews for all Chile's misfortunes and said: 'The hand of the rabbi, with his cup full of blood, should not be allowed to rise.'
A further memorial ceremony took place two days later, on 7 September 1997, with more than forty participants. The event was recorded for broadcasting on the web-site of the Publicaciones sobre Skinheads en Internet (Publications on Skinheads on the Internet).
Plans have apparently been laid for an international national socialist congress to take place in Santiago in April 2000. In a 'Worldwide protest against Nazism', Yoram Rovner, director of the Organo Oficial Judio Independendiente (Official Independent Jewish Organization), wrote to anti-racist organizations throughout the world asking them to demand that the Chilean government prohibit the congress. He concluded his letter as follows: 'Silence means complicity. This time we cannot remain silent.'
In February 1997 groups linked to the Movimiento Nacionalista de Chile (see Parties, organizations, movements) organized three paramilitary expeditions into Chile's southern island areas under the slogan 'Chile for the Chileans' and in protest against a 'Jewish conspiracy'. Probably mistaking Israeli tourists for soldiers, they claimed that Israeli soldiers in the area intended to take over parts of Patagonia to solve Israel's demographic problems (see Publications and media).
Reporting on the expeditions, Radio Agricultura alluded to 'evidence' of a so-called 'Jewish takeover' in Patagonia. It cited various justifications for the expedition: an increase in the Jewish population in the area; the large presence of Israeli soldiers dressed as civilians (Israeli tourists); Israeli intelligence information supposedly obtained by the Chilean armed forces; and the presence of 'the Jew Thompkins', a US citizen who owns land in the area.
In April 1997 a security guard at the Sephardic synagogue in Santiago was threatened by two armed persons.
In June 1997, on three consecutive Saturdays, individuals yelled antisemitic abuse at the entrance of the HaShomer HaTzair youth movement in Santiago. Santiago's Exequìas Allende Jewish community was also the target of antisemitic abuse on the Jewish Day of Atonement.
In 1997 the well-known academic Hugo Lara, speaking at the commemorative ceremony on 5 September (see Parties, organizations, movements), promoted Holocaust denial.
In 1997 Ciudad de los Césares (see Publications and media) published an eighteen-page article dedicated to Holocaust denial, 'Crimen Atrox: Una Introducción a la Teologìa Dogmatica del Holocausto' (Atrocious Crime: an introduction to the dogmatic theology of the Holocaust). The article expressed support for the works of Holocaust-deniers Ernst Zundel (see Canada), Arthur Butz and Germar Rudolf.
Antisemitic and neo-Nazi literature such as the work of the Holocaust-denier David Irving (see United Kingdom) and translations of Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion can be found in bookshops in main urban centres. Leading newspapers often publish letters written by Chilean neo-Nazis and a number of neo-Nazi publications are in circulation, the most popular of which is Ciudad de los Césares (City of Caesars), a quarterly edited since 1990 by Erwin Robertson (see Parties, organizations, movements). This publication quotes extensively from authors such as Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Ernst Junger and Carl Schmitt, and has links with other far-right publications such as Memoria in Argentina and Orion in Italy (see Italy).
Another far-right publication is Pendragón, which has been published since 1995 by Editorial Excalibur, the Centro de Estudios Graálicos (Centre for Grail Studies) and the Centro de Estudios Culturales Arcania (Centre for Cultural Studies of the Arcane). Pendragón is edited by Alexis Lûpez, an admirer of Hitler and a relative of Dante Peche, an elected member of the Lo Prado municipal council who was one of the organizers of a public commemoration of Hitler's birthday in 1997.
The Movimiento Nazi Chileno (see Parties, organizations, movements) irregularly publishes Hoja Informativa (Information Leaflet) which often includes antisemitic material.
In April 1997 a pamphlet published in Valparaíso claimed that having obtained its 'religious' state in 1948, Israel was now attempting to establish an 'earthly' state in the Chilean-Argentinian region of Patagonia with 'more than 3 million Jews' (see Antisemitic incidents).
The results of an opinion poll, conducted by the Fundacion Ideas in Santiago and published in the daily newspaper La Tercera in November 1997, showed high levels of intolerance towards homosexuals, indigenous people, Jews and the disabled. Of 1,394 people surveyed, one in five believed Jews were not to be trusted and should not be placed in positions of responsibility; 21.4 per cent believed Chile was a more developed country because it did not have a black population; 21.7 per cent thought white people were more attractive than those with darker skin; and 69.3 per cent believed foreigners should not be allowed to have important jobs.
There is no specific legislation banning discrimination based on race, sex, religion or social status in Chile. In the light of expressions of racism, xenophobia and antisemitism in the media and ongoing discrimination against the indigenous population, politicians are beginning to call for the implementation of such laws.
At a 1997 seminar entitled 'Diversity and Tolerance: Reality and Perspective', organized by the Institute of Political Science at the University of Chile, the Institute's director Professor Ricardo Israel called for the introduction of legislation against discrimination and violence on ethnic, racial or religious grounds.
In March 1997 following the 1996 scandal in which senior government officials expressed concern over perceived Jewish influence in Chile's government (see Antisemitism World Report 1997), CREJ organized a workshop against xenophobia, racism and antisemitism which was attended by President Frei. CREJ's chairperson Elimat Jasûn and the actor Nissim Sharim both supported President Frei's speech at the workshop in which he appealed for tolerance of cultural diversity.
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Institute for Jewish Policy Research and American Jewish Committee
