Time | Vision |
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| Introduction by Jon Snow | Jon Snow: It was the height of the cold war when Augusto Pinochet, backed by America, violently overthrew Chile's Marxist but democratically elected government. The Chilean secret police prepared huge prison camps to hold every left wing sympathiser and the Soviet block lost an important friend in South America. As the numbers of Chileans arrested, tortured and imprisoned grew into the hundreds of thousands, their communist allies watched in horror. The media was banned from Pinochet's prison camps but one extraordinary film crew, working with East Germany's then Stasi intelligence services, did persuade Pinochet to allow them in. Operating on Western passports they pretended they were producing a piece of Western-backed propaganda. It was a classic case of cold war double-crossing. Working with 16mm black and white cine cameras the film crew succeeded in producing a major propaganda victory for the communists. Their documentary broadcast only across the Soviet block at a time when the rest of the world could only guess at what was happening behind Pinochet's closed doors. This is their film. |
10.00.00 | Aerial Chacabuco prison camp, music |
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00.25 | Pinochet sitting down | V/O: A General with an impeccably white military jacket but his uniform is stained. One of the bloodiest regimes presently carries his name, the rule of Pinochet in Chile. |
00.38 | General Pinochet | Pinochet: I do not believe that this has been a real victory over Marxism; Marxism is like a ghost, it is very difficult to catch even impossible to trap. |
00.55 |
| V/O: The "anti-communist" didn't suspect that he was to show his lament in front of Communists. As a result of this meeting, the general ordered the preparation of an official document. |
00.11 | The document | V/O: Signed and stamped. The General of the honourable military board here orders the Majors of Military Zones of northern Chile to offer assistance to our film crew. |
01.24 | Desert scene-scape | V/O: A report on the land and people of the North was our pretext. We had traveled to the north in the Spring of 1973. We knew the harsh desert beneath the scorching sun. The soil destroyed by salt-mining, without a drop of rain all year round.... |
01.45 | Shot of letter | V/O: Greetings. By order of the president of the military junta; signed, sealed and stamped. But the letter contains the following sentence - "without visiting the detainees". There it is in black and white. |
02.04 |
| Pinochet: The President of the junta is afraid that we will convey the reality of the Chilean concentration camps. |
02.12 | Concentration camp | V/O: If it was finally possible to convey this reality, it was because a general fell into our trap. |
| General |
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02.21 | Panorama | V/O: We had rented a light ‘cherokee' plane with six seats for the trip. It had the registration ‘KSO' which was notified to all northern airports. |
02.34 | Letter | V/O: We had also been given permission to fly over Pinochet's military-controlled land. The permit was two single sided sheets, back to back in a transparent plastic folder, so that whoever wanted could turn it and see both sides of the document. |
02.50 | General Joaquin Lago | V/O This general had checked our permit and was so impressed by its high origin he showed his readiness to help. With this, our situation turned our way because the express order "without visiting the detainees" was not read by the general. |
03.14 | General Joaquin Lago | General: I am General Joaquin Lago, Commander in Chief of the Operation Unit of this region and at the same time Chief of the zone under siege. |
| Aerial view of the concentration camp |
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| Prisoners |
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03.45 | General Joaquin Lago | General Joaquin Lago: The detention camp of ‘Chacabuco' was put there to make the best use of the abandoned installations of a salt factory fortress. |
04.01 | Camp prisoners | V/O: For 35 years Chacabuco has been abandoned, until the junta gave it a face, a new destiny. |
04.09 | General Joaquin Lago | General: The installation that was already there was put to good use... it offered us buildings and equipment. |
04.20 | Arial view of ‘Chacabuco' | V/O: The Atacama desert that surrounds Chacabuco is known as the driest desert in the world. Scorching days and ice-cold nights characterize the climate. Those that are brought here are imprisoned in an especially diabolical way - by the indifferent embrace of the desert. |
04.42 | Guard duty | V/O: In Chacabuco, the key in the hands of the concentration camp guard has only a symbolic meaning. |
04.49 | Panoramic view | V/O: This is a carefully chosen place. So no matter what the jailers do, the location itself means physical and psychological torture. |
04.59 | General Joaquin Lago | General: The reason why they have been brought here to this detention camp, truthfully speaking, is provisionally while legal proceedings are under way. |
05.10 | Two prisoners getting into van. | V/O: Two prisoners are moved to the Head Quarters of the military zone where a court-martial will decide their sentence. Two years or twenty? This is uncertain because as is known outside Chile, sentences can be long and arbitrary. |
05.25 | Prisoners | V/O: Some travel to an unknown location, the rest remain to await their fate. |
05.34 | General Joaquin Lago | General: Some, because of their dangerousness, though there are no charges against them, should remain until they understand that the path they took was wrong. |
05.48 | Prisoners | V/O: Prisoners held indefinitely without charge, without trial, without sentencing; based on the principle of the so-called ‘Preventative Prison'. In Hitler-style concentration camps, this means the total loss of their rights. |
06.06 | Mario Molinazo | Mario Molinazo Interviewer: Were you politically active with a political party? |
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| Prisoner: No |
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| Interviewer: How long have you been here? |
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| Prisoner: Since 19 September |
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| Interviewer: Profession? |
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| Prisoner: Mechanical Engineer |
06.20 | Eduardo Valmino Rojas | Eduardo Valmino Rojas |
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| Interviewer: Were you politically active? |
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| Prisoner: I was a left wing sympathiser |
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| Interviewer: How long have you been here? |
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| Prisoner: I arrived at the camp 10 December. I arrived at the national stadium 13 September. |
06.36 | Mario Urzua | Mario Urzua Interviewer: Where are you from? |
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| Prisoner: I am from Santiago, a student at university. |
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| Interviewer: Were you politically active? |
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| Prisoner: No |
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| Interviewer; Why are you here? |
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| Prisoner: It is not clear what are the concrete cause is. It has not yet been clarified. |
06.57 | Fernan Gonzalez | Fernan Gonzalez Interviewer: Were you politically active? |
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| Prisoner: With the Socialist party |
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| Interviewer: And when did you arrive? |
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| Prisoner: 9 November |
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| Interviewer: Are you awaiting trial? |
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| Prisoner: We are indeed awaiting trial because we are all here without charge. |
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| Interviewer: Thanks |
07.18 | Luis Enriquez Alvarez | Luis Enriquez Alvarez Interviewer: Were you politically active? |
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| Prisoner: Yes |
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| Interviewer: With which party? |
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| Prisoner: Communist |
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| Interviewer: Are you awaiting trial? |
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| Prisoner: I do not know what trial can be called. I was at work when I was taken to the National Stadium and now here. |
07.38 | Orlando Bermiento | Orlando Bermiento |
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| Interviewer: Were you active with a political party? |
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| Prisoner: The countryside Labour Group. |
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| Interviewer; How long have you been a prisoner? |
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| Prisoner: Since 22nd September |
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| Interviewer: Are you awaiting trial? |
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| Prisoner: There are no charges against me. I do not know what I am accused of. I do not know if I am awaiting trial or what they will decide to do with me. |
08.02 | Camp gates, prisoners | V/O The Commander of Chacabuco shouldn't have to fabricate this scene for our camera: the camp's main street turned into a boulevard. |
08.12 | Doctor | V/O And neither should he allow us to show in Allende's Doctor, a man able to remain sane even under the harshest conditions. |
08.21 | Bertram Ramiro Bartolin | Bertram Ramiro Bartolin Interviewer: Where are you from? |
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| Prisoner: I was working in Romanero. |
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| Interviewer: Are you a doctor? |
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| Prisoner; Yes, a doctor |
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| Interviewer: Were you with a political party? |
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| Prisoner; No |
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| Interviewer: Why are you here? |
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| Prisoner: I was summoned by an edict on 12 September |
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| Interviewer: And since then you have been here? |
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| Prisoner: In the Stadium of Chile, the National Stadium and now Chacabuco |
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| Interviewer: How long do you think you will be here?, |
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| Prisoner: I do not know |
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| Interviewer: And what do you do in the camp? |
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| Prisoner: I am in charge of medical attention at the camp clinic we have inside. |
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| Interviewer: Are there many sick? |
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| Prisoner: There is a population of 850 with 30 to 40 sick. |
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| Interviewer: Serious illness? |
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| Prisoner: The most serious are neurosis and mental disorders. |
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| Interviewer: What are the symptoms? |
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| Prisoner: Insomnia, agitation, trembling. |
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| Interviewer: What brings them on? |
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| Prisoner: The circumstances we are in, the uncertainty of trial |
09.36 | Music, prisoners |
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10.00 | General Joaquin Lago | General: I have seen statements from their relatives who have visited them and even with the twisted propaganda they hear on the outside they leave comforted, having seen their people in perfect condition, relaxed and full of health, not only physically but most importantly spiritually. |
| Concentration camp |
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10.41 |
| V/O: We are not supposed to see the unmistakable signs of a concentration camp regime. We were given explicit orders: film nothing explicit, no barbed wire, no military guards. |
10.54 | Religious service | V/O We were allowed to film the church service, which not only Chacabuco's believers of different faiths attend. It allows for meeting and collective expression. They sang a story of the passion of Christ, transformed here into a key message; the suffering and bravery of the good man. The soloist is comrade Doctor Manuel Y Pinza, who was responsible for childcare for the National Administration of the Allende government. |
11.27 | Singer |
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11.47 | Aerial view |
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11.51 |
| V/O: Chacabuco prisoner Angel Parra composed this sacro-profane song for the community of prisoners of which many were brought from the National Stadium of Santiago. |
12.03 | Photographs | V/O Here, photographed with a hidden camera, images of a passion play of our time reach us. |
12.11 | Music, torture stills |
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13.16 | Negatives | V/O The photographs were taken from a hidden place; an apartment in a high building overlooking the National Stadium with a powerful telephoto lens. In this way it was possible to secretly obtain the graphic evidence of what the world knows already from eyewitness statements. |
13.34 |
| V/O: In the National Stadium, prisoners were beaten and killed. Electric current was applied to the prisoners, they were treated with fascist brutality. |
13.46 | Naked man | V/O That naked man, are they bringing him in or taking him away? And if they are taking him away, will he ever come back? Where are they taking him with that blanket over his head? In the Santiago Stadium, not just torture and death were present, but also firing-squads. A secret, secretly observed while the executioners believed themselves safe from prying eyes. |
14.19 | Concentration camp | V/O When the gates of Chacabuco were opened to our camera, the Commander of the camp - that's him - did not allow us out of his sight. We toured the camp following a prescribed route, and we were accompanied. |
14.33 | Pen pointing to plan | V/O: But if one is led here, one cannot know what happens here. One day we will learn where prisoners in Chacabuco were tortured and interrogated - where the dark cells are. It will be the word of the prisoners against the word of the Junta, which is trying very hard to show these camps as humanitarian installations. This is how it was after the coup... |
15.04 | Police arresting individuals | V/O This is the way they were taken out, taken out of their beds in the middle of the night; detained in the work-place, arrested in the street. |
15.13 | Bodies in truck | V/O This is the way they were packed and transported in trucks, kicked and pulled about. Dressed in what they were wearing at the time of arrest, they remain in Chacabuco, one of the 151 concentration camps that were in Chile. |
15.30 | Guards | V/O The regulations stipulate that the guards cover their heads to protect themselves from the sun. But not all the prisoners were wearing hats or caps - so essential for Chacabuco - at the time of arrest. |
15.45 | Concentration camp on coast, music |
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16.08 | Sign | V/O Another prison, Pisagua. |
16.17 | Prisoners and soldiers | V/O At Pisagua camp this is the first group of prisoners with which we came into contact. The sound had not yet begun being recorded when all of a sudden the scene changes. |
16.30 | Prisoners marching | V/O First we thought they were soldiers training, then we found out they were prisoners of a special category; they were exclusively young comrades that march and have to sing martial military anthems. Our camera is not supposed to see them. They were called to fall in. We will meet them again, and we will be able to secretly film them, but talking with them is absolutely forbidden. |
17.08 | Luis Verlazquez Galvez | Prisoner: My name is Luis Verlazquez Galvez. Interviewer: How long have you been a prisoner at Pisagua? |
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| Prisoner: Since 6 December 1973 |
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| Interviewer: Are you politically active? |
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| Prisoner: Active with the Communist party. |
17.19 | Jose Steiner Montes | Interviewer: Politically active in any party? |
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| Prisoner: No, I was an independent of the left |
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| Interviewer: And now you are detained here as a prisoner? |
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| Prisoner: I am detained until my case is investigated |
17.31 |
| Interviewer: And you, why are you here? |
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| Prisoner: Well, I suppose that I am being investigated because I took a sports medicine course in Cuba. This fact makes me appear highly suspicious, as if I had gone there for another reason. |
17.52 | Adolfo Aranda Ponce | Adolfo Aranda Ponce |
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| Interviewer: Since when have you been in Pisagua? |
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| Prisoner: Since 11 December |
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| Interviewer: How do you spend your days? |
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| Prisoner: The best way is to work, so that you can forget all the things that could happen to you. |
18.07 | Prisoners marching |
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18.31 |
| V/O: The authorities in Pisagua are like those of a Chilean military barracks. President Gonzalez Tudela, that traitor, was content with putting prisoners behind bars; the current head of the Junta demands blind obedience. And there is one more difference between those days and today: then they only arrested Communist Party activists. |
18.52 |
| V/O: Here they are, pictured on their last day in prison. |
18.55 |
| V/O: Today, as well as the Communists, socialists, democrats, radicals and left wing citizens are also imprisoned, along with their sympathisers - as an indirect expression of the weakness of the military fascist dictatorship. |
19.09 |
| V/O: Although they are now imprisoning people from the old social class, the military can't put all the people behind bars. |
19.19 | Leonora Alvarez Reyes (female) | Prisoner: Leonora Alvarez Reyes
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| Interviewer: Were you politically active? |
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| Prisoner: No, not at all. |
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| Interviewer: How long have you been here? |
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| Prisoner: Since 23 November |
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| Interviewer: And how long will you be here? |
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| Prisoner: As long as the Commander pleases. |
19.33 | Ines Cifuentes Castro (female) | Prisoner: Ines Cifuentes Castro |
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| Interviewer: How long have you been here? |
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| Prisoner: Almost 2 months |
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| Interviewer: Are you politically active? |
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| Prisoner: A sympathiser |
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| Interviewer: When do you think you will get out of Pisagua? |
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| Prisoner: I haven't got a clue |
19.48 | Sonia Piza (female) | Prisoner: Sonia Piza |
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| Interviewer: Are you politically active? |
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| Prisoner: I'm a member of the Communist Party |
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| Interviewer: When were you detained? |
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| Prisoner: 20 December |
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| Interviewer: How long will you be here? |
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| Prisoner: The authorities will have to decide that. |
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| Interviewer: Is the food good? |
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| Prisoner: No, not too good. |
20.14 | Nadia Garcia (female) | Interviewer: Can you tell me your name? |
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| Prisoner: Nadia Garcia |
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| Interviewer: When did you arrive? |
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| Prisoner: 6 December |
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| Interviewer: Were you politically active? |
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| Prisoner: I was in the Communist Party |
20.24 | Prisoner (female) | Interviewer: How long have you been here? |
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| Prisoner: Since 22nd December. |
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| Interviewer: Are you politically active? |
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| Prisoner: No |
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| Interviewer: How long do you think you will be here? |
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| Prisoner: I haven't got a clue. |
20.40 | Prisoners marching, music |
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21.27 |
| V/O: The young comrades are taken to the prison, which was emptied of common prisoners. The group is totally isolated. During the time we were at Pisagua we only captured one single image of physical ill-treatment. |
21.57 |
| V/O: No contact, no conversation and with the certainty that these young prisoners are submitted to special treatment. |
22.23 | Sign | V/O: "Prisoners of War" . |
22.28 |
| V/O: But they are not prisoners of war, but political prisoners. The military have the audacity to affirm that Chile is in a state of war. This is a transparent attempt at justifying the suspension of the Chilean constitution and the permanent violation of human rights. |
22.47 |
| V/O: In this respect, CIA agent Federico Willoughby, the official Junta spokesperson says: |
22.55 | Federico Willoughby | Federico Willoughby: The state of internal war that Chile is living in, allows the authorities to move persons from one place to another. They are being detained and are not prisoners. What happens is that those people are confined to certain places. |
23.13 |
| V/O: Why doesn't the Junta allow members of the medical profession to visit the camps? |
23.18 | Federico Willoughby | F Willoughby: You are asking why there is no access to visit the prisoners. I think one reason is humanitarian. I think it is wrong to show a man when he is suffering, uncomfortable, a prisoner, it goes against his dignity. |
23.46 |
| V/O: The big men that maintain the concentration camps are concerned with human dignity! |
23.53 | Concentration camp | V/O: And they say that the idea that there are prison camps is just a Marxist invention. |
24.00 | Federico Willoughby | F Willoughby: And now in relation to the term prison camp, or the words 'prison camp'. That was invented by the Marxists. |
24.10 |
| V/O: The camps exist and the junta knows that it is surrounded by enemies. |
24.17 | Federico Willoughby | F Willoughby: I believe that the enemy is working in two ways. I would say that on the one hand, the enemy is politically situated behind non-Marxist groups, it is looking for the solidarity of the non-conformist political elements. And on the other hand it is trying to prepare insurrection; raising funds, getting arms and training people to develop guerilla warfare. |
24.54 | General Pinochet | Pinochet: When the situation became sensitive, the Marxists disappeared. They went underground, as they say, in order to go forward. But they continue, and I'm sure they will bring problems. Problems that we are prepared to confront. |
25.22 | Federico Willoughby | F Willoughby: This is a war of intelligence in which our position is like when one wants to have a good shave. We have to let the beard grow and then shave it closely, leaving nothing behind. |
25.42 |
| V/O: The self-crowned monarch and his achievements in construction; new buildings in a traditional detention camp, Pisagua. He has a paternal preoccupation with the future waves of detainees. |
| camp, music |
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26.24 | Camp/coast | V/O: To the inmates of the concentration camp. You are almost unreachable, buried, deprived of any kind word, ill-treated, beaten, yet not denied; missing but not forgotten; we know little of you but we know that you are incorrigible, that you can't be educated, that you follow |
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| the proletariat cause, that you continue convinced that there are still two types of person, the exploiter and the exploited, and that only the class struggle will liberate the human masses of the cities and the countryside from their misery. We have learned that despite being battered, despite execution you cannot be obliged to say that two times two are now five. You are missing but not forgotten, beaten but not deterred, without listening to reason you continue insisting on the truth and you continue being the true leaders of Chile. |
27.47 | Men singing on mountain | Song: Pure is your blue sky Chile Pure too is the breeze that crosses you And your fields of embroidered flowers Are the happy image of Eden Majestic the white mountain that God gave you as bastion... |
28.14 |
| V/O: Chilean patriots are ordered to sing the national anthem, as re-education. The traitors of the mother land have become teachers of national duty. But the song has become a hymn of resistance. |
28.27 | song |
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Ends |
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