In the light of the Speculative archive
Author: redactie redactie
David Thorne and Julia Metzer are the founders of The Speculative Archive for Historical Clarification. ‘ SAHC’ is mainly focused on the political and historical consequences of the secrecy policy of state-archives. The presentation at the Melkweg MAX, showed some of the fruits of their harvest. The US government was the most influential force behind the hostile take-over of Salvador Allende’s presidency in Chili, 11-9-1973. We all knew that. What can SAHC add to that history?
Not that much, but that does not matter. It is not
their purpose to tell the ‘real’ story behind the
coup. In fact, there is no real (his)story, if one
searches the declassified documents of the American
information agencies. The question, ‘was the US
involved in Allende's fall?’, would never be confirmed
by official sources. That is strange. Both the
questioned and the questioner know the answer, but the
question on its own will not be answered.
SAHC’s power point presentation gives the same answer.
Yes, they were involved, and SAHC shows that it
happened most painfully. Moreover, they were fully
aware of the horrible tortures by the regime of
Pinochet. Furthermore, they described these tortures
as a necessary need of ‘the leadership to let off
steam.’ At the end of their presentation, David Thorne
read out translations of messages, stuck to telephone
poles in Santiago, photographed in the early 80's.
Their suffering could not be described more painfully.
Other showed material consists of so called ‘sit
reps’, oral ‘situation reports’ by an American
intelligence officer. A simple hand-written memo had a
large impact as well. Even before Allende was elected,
president Nixon tried to impose a different regime.
The note mentions a ‘game plan’, the need of ‘the best
man we have’ and a significant amount of dollars
available if necessary.
During their presentation, SAHC pointed out several
times that their sources were facts. In fact, this was
meant as an ironic wink to Colin Powell's presentation
at the UN security council of ‘facts’ that Iraq would
be in possesion of weapons of mass destruction. Does
this wink indicate that we, the audience, should
distrust SAHC’s ‘facts’ as well? That could be
possible. Can history be written at all if a
government decides what is and what is not classified
information? Still, the regime of Pinochet was very
real, and the American involvement at least seems very
real. What is so Speculative about a story that is
supposed to be true? Still, the ‘evidence’ of a
meeting between Americans and Pinochetians only showed
vague images of water, and the sound of a plane.
I am confused and it is late. Tomorrow the Speculative
Archive will participate in a debate about the
politics of the archive, so…. To be continued.
Jouke Turpijn