Abusing
children, beating up women, burning down houses; horrific, awful and
shocking are words that come to mind when we here about such acts.
Who would remain indifferent towards such atrocities? But imagine a
village was steamrolled without anyone noticing. Imagine a government
sent an army to abuse a population and no newspaper, radio or TV
station covered it because Demi Moore's and Ashton Kutcher's break-up
was considered more relevant for the evening news than something
happening in a faraway region like the Chilean antarctic. Imagine—
this is exactly what happened! So now what?
“Now
we speak up and tell the world!”
“We”
are the journalists of the Chilean radio station Radio
Santa María in
the Patagonian town of Aysén, and the loudest voice of all belongs
to Claudia Torres. She is more than the voice; she is the soul of
Radio Santa María.
If she takes a day off from work, phone wires at the station run hot
with listeners asking about her: “What happened, where is our
Claudia?”
The
people of Aysén adore and admire Claudia Torres; they call her their
hero. When you meet her in person though, Claudia Torres is not your
typical hero at all. Wife, and mother of two children, she is only
5'3'', and until the recent protests, she was just known as a
dedicated journalist and active citizen. About a month ago however,
people in all of Chile started referring to Claudia Torres as The
Heroine of Aysén.
When the first protests started in Aysén in February, demands of
the locals were as clear as they were basic; banners read “Aysén
is also a part of Chile”, “Game over for bad schools and
hospitals in Patagonia”, “Less cops and more solutions”.
Claudia Torres covered it all: she talked to locals about their
demands for improving living conditions in Aysén and she interviewed
government representatives from the capital Santiago who were
hesitant to give in.
When the Chilean government then sent the first tank-load of special
police forces to Aysén and most journalists fled the region, Claudia
Torres was out on the street with her microphone and recording
machine. When police were storming local people's houses, firing guns
and burning down buildings, everybody could hear it live on her “open
mic” show.
Claudia's mic is always open for call-ins, and the phone never stops
ringing. For 14 hours a day, Claudia Torres is on air, informing
listeners about current events in Aysén. But more than anything, she
listens. Claudia listens to callers talk about their babies being
shot by policemen; she listens to women crying because they don't
know the whereabouts of husbands after demonstrations. But she also
listens to people yelling at her and insulting her. She has even
received various death threats.
“I
am really scared that something could happen to my children or my
husband. However, I am not scared about what might happen to me. I
just have
to inform and tell the stories that otherwise would remain unheard.
The world has to know what is happening in Aysén. This is my moral
duty and nobody can stop me!”
The
government on the other hand has taken a yo-yo approach to dealing
with the events in Patagonia. When locals first started their
protests, representatives came to the region to negotiate with
leaders of the social movement. They went back to Santiago, without
results, without an agreement treaty in their hands, saying the
demands were unrealistic. “Stop the protests, then we can see about
further negotiations” was the official statement for weeks. But the
Patagonians did not stop. The government of president Sebastián
Piñera
then declared Patagonia to be in a “State
of Emergency”,
allowing National Emergency Laws to be applied. This meant that
several special police forces were sent to the south. Like the
politicians, they came back without results but with blood on their
hands.
A
week ago, Chile's Interior Minister, Rodrigo Hinzpeter, finally gave
in and agreed to re-start negotiations. The first treaty was signed
by both sides. At last, a success story for the
region? Claudia Torres frowns skeptically. “I don't trust the
politicians in Chile,“ she says. “Here,
citizens cannot expect politicians to take action; we have to take
matters into our own hands!”
And
with that, off she goes, the Heroine
of Aysén,
with microphone and recording machine— to report live at the next
protest.
No comments:
Post a Comment