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CHILE:
Nationwide
Mourning for Communist Leader
Gladys Marín
Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO, (IPS) -
-Political and social sectors of
every stripe are mourning the
death of Gladys Marín, the
veteran leader of Chile's
Communist Party and a major
force in the struggle against
the 1973-1990 dictatorship of
General Augusto Pinochet.
The 63-year-old former lawmaker
had asked for her remains to lay
in state in the former National
Congress building in Santiago.
(The legislature is now in the
port city of Valparaiso, to the
west of the capital).
Among the thousands who filed
past her coffin were President
Ricardo Lagos -- who declared
two days of national mourning
Monday and Tuesday -- and
representatives of all of the
country's political parties.
Obituaries stressed the lifelong
political conviction shown by
Marín, who was forced to go into
hiding and flee into exile in
the Soviet Union in 1974,
shortly after democratically
elected Socialist President
Salvador Allende was overthrown
in the military coup led by
Pinochet.
After almost five years in
Moscow, Marín returned to Chile
illegally in 1978 and lived
under various aliases to escape
detection and repression by the
dictatorship's intelligence
forces until 1990, when
democracy returned to Chile and
Marín resumed her public life.
Gladys Marín Millie, a
schoolteacher and avowed ”Allendista”,
died surrounded by family,
friends and party comrades early
Sunday morning after struggling
with a brain tumour first
diagnosed in September 2003.
Her wake was also attended by
Allende's 90-year-old widow,
Hortensia Bussi, the highest
representative of the Catholic
Church in Chile, Cardinal
Francisco Javier Errázuriz,
human rights attorneys, and
presidential contenders from
every political party.
A massive banner with Marín's
face and the words ”With Gladys
we shall overcome - a thousand
times over” was hung near her
casket, which was covered with a
Communist Party flag and red
roses. The mourners listened to
music by Cuban singer-songwriter
Silvio Rodríguez, a personal
friend of the late party leader.
Marín was a member of the
Communist Party of Chile for
over 50 years. In 1965, she was
elected to her first of three
terms in Congress, where she
served as a deputy until the
1973 coup. In 1994, she became
the first female leader of any
communist party worldwide, and
held that position until her
death, first as
secretary-general and later as
president.
Marín ran for the Senate in 1997
and received the eighth largest
number of votes nationwide.
However, because Chile continues
to use the so-called ”binomial”
electoral system established
during the Pinochet
dictatorship, which favours
large coalitions, she was not
elected.
She also ran as a presidential
candidate in 1999, but captured
less than four percent of the
votes.
>From the ranks of the Communist
Party (which formed an armed
branch, the Manuel Rodríguez
Patriotic Front, responsible for
an assassination attempt against
Pinochet in 1987), Marín played
a leading role in the
underground resistance to the
military regime, accused of the
deaths of more than 3000 people
during its 17 years in power.
After the return to democratic
rule in 1990, Marín continued to
oppose the centre-left
Concertación por la Democracia
coalition that has held power
since that time, criticising it
for implementing neoliberal
doctrines and failing to do away
with such legacies of the
dictatorship as the binomial
electoral system, which has
prevented smaller political
groupings like the Communist
Party from gaining elected
office.
Interior Minister José Miguel
Insulza said that Marín ”is a
symbol of Chilean women”, adding
that ”the flag will fly at
half-mast and all public acts
that are not essential will be
cancelled.”
Marín's funeral and burial will
take place on Tuesday, Mar. 8,
International Women's Day.
”She has earned our utmost
respect and admiration, because
she was a tireless fighter
throughout her life, totally
dedicated to the causes she
believed in,” Senate speaker
Hernán Larraín of the right-wing
Independent Democratic Union
Party told IPS.
”Aside from any agreements or
disagreements there may have
been between us, in the end you
have to respect people for their
capacity to devote themselves
entirely to what they believe
in,” added the opposition
lawmaker.
Christian Democrat Deputy Waldo
Mora told IPS that Marín ”earned
the respect of all Chileans, in
spite of any differences,
because of the steadfastness of
her political convictions.”
Mora stressed that Marín had
been a symbol in the struggle
against the military
dictatorship, and that her death
is a great loss for Chilean
politics. ”I think that
diversity is one of the things
that strengthens our political
system, and opinions like hers
often made us think and reflect.
She was a voice that made itself
heard,” he said.
On Jan. 12, 1998, Marín filed
the first lawsuit against
Pinochet for human rights
violations.
One of Marín's greatest sorrows
was the 1976 forced
disappearance of her husband,
Jorge Muñoz, a member of the
Communist Party leadership. The
couple had two sons, with whom
Marín was only able to stay in
touch through letters during ten
years of exile and living
underground.
Mireya García, vice president of
the Association of Relatives of
the Detained-Disappeared (AFDD),
said ”our pledge and our tribute
to her is to tell her that we
are going to keep searching for
her husband.”
After her brain tumour was
detected, Marín underwent
surgery in Stockholm, and then
travelled to Havana for
rehabilitation, invited by Cuban
President Fidel Castro, a
personal friend.
In its message of condolence,
the Cuban government stated that
”with her death, Chile has lost
one of its most illustrious
daughters, and the Latin
American revolutionary movement
has lost one of its most
admirable and beloved figures.”
”Her legacy will accompany us
throughout the long days of
struggle and victory that lie
ahead for the popular and
anti-imperialist revolutionary
movement,” the statement added.
While Marín was in Cuba last
March, the Cuban Council of
State awarded her the José Martí
Order, the highest distinction
granted by the socialist
Caribbean nation.
Marín returned to Chile in
December. Her health
deteriorated considerably over
the last few months, with a
partial loss of mobility and
speech.
Communist Party
secretary-general Guillermo
Teillier, who was at Marín's
bedside when she passed away,
told IPS that her dream had been
for the Chilean people to join
together and create ”an
alternative to the neoliberal
system” in Chile.
”Until the very end, Gladys'
main concerns were the young
people and women of Chile and
peace and integration in Latin
America,” he added.
Her hopes remain alive in the
”Together We Can” coalition
formed by the Communist Party,
the Humanist Party, the Movement
of the Revolutionary Left (MIR)
and sectors of the Christian
left, which achieved significant
results in last year's local
elections and is estimated to
have the support of 10 percent
of the national electorate.
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