Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Calls on US to Declassify Documents on Chile’s 1973 Coup

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stated Thursday in Chile that it was crucial for america to declassify paperwork that would make clear Washington’s involvement within the South American nation’s 1973 coup.

“The transparency of america might current a chance for a brand new part in our relationship between america and Chile,” Ocasio-Cortez stated in Spanish in a video posted on Instagram alongside Camila Vallejo, the spokesperson for the left-leaning authorities of President Gabriel Boric.

The Democratic congresswoman from New York is a part of a delegation of lawmakers who traveled to the capital of Santiago forward of the fiftieth anniversary of the coup in opposition to President Salvador Allende on Sept. 11, 1973.

The delegation had first traveled to Brazil and can now go to Colombia, each of that are additionally dominated by left-leaning governments.

The purpose of the journey was to “begin to change … the relationships between america and Chile and the area, Latin America as an entire,” Ocasio-Cortez instructed exterior the Museum of Reminiscence and Human Rights that remembers the victims of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who dominated from 1973 to 1990.

“It’s crucial to border the historical past of what occurred right here in Chile with Pinochet’s dictatorship. And in addition to acknowledge and mirror on the function of america in these occasions,” Ocasio-Cortez stated.

Ocasio-Cortez stated she has launched laws to declassify paperwork associated to Chile’s coup and Vallejo stated the same request had been made by the Chilean authorities.

“In Chile as nicely, the same request was made … that goals to declassify paperwork from the Nixon administration, notably sure testimonies from the CIA director. That is to realize a clearer understanding of what transpired and the way america was concerned within the planning of the civil and navy coup, and the following years that adopted,” Vallejo stated. “This is essential for our historical past.”

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas, stated after the delegation’s roughly hourlong go to to the museum in Santiago that it was necessary to acknowledge the “reality” that “america was concerned with the dictatorship and the coup.”

“In order that’s why we’re right here,” Casar stated in Spanish to journalists, “to acknowledge the reality, to start a brand new future.”

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro from Texas stated the go to to the museum was a reminder that it was necessary “to be sure that a tragedy and a horror like this by no means, ever occurs once more in Chile or in Latin America or wherever else world wide.”

Earlier within the day, the delegation additionally met with Santiago Mayor Irací Hassler.

Reps. Nydia Velázquez of New York and Maxwell Frost of Florida additionally traveled to South America as a part of the delegation sponsored by the Middle for Financial and Coverage Analysis, a Washington-based suppose tank.

Politi reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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