Chilean History and Politics

Daniel Sparler Lecture: Sparler's lecture was jammed packed with information from Chile's geography to its history. Chile is loaded with so many interesting facts! One being that it is home to the Atacama desert, which in some parts, there has never been rainfall recorded. That is so crazy for me to think about because where we live, rain is so common and we do not think much of it. I cannot imagine a place that has never encountered rain. It almost makes me feel bad and like we in a way take rain for granted. Another interesting, but also scary that Chile is located on the ring of fire. I have experienced one earthquake in my life and it was a tiny one. I cannot imagine living in a place where earthquakes are so common and part of your weekly life. I hope we do not experience any while we are there!! One more fact that I thought was interesting from this lecture was that out of all of the countries in South America, Chile has the longest life expectancy rate. This was important to me because the theme this year at the summer camp is health and nutrition, so I think it is cool that Chile clearly has some healthy and long living citizens.
The Colony: This video was quite shocking to me. Colonia Dignidad, or the dignity colony is something I cannot imagine. The fact that the narrator starts the video off by saying "unspeakable things have happened here", puts the audience on edge from the very beginning. While I have learned about many of the governmental issues of the United States and other countries in Europe, I have never learned about Chile and it was shocking to hear about the harsh environments and punishments that these citizens went through.
Forgotten Terror in D.C: This video described the even of the assassination of Chilean minister Orlando Letelier and his assistant Ronnie Moffitt. This took place over 34 years ago in Washington D.C and was the only other act of terrorism to take place in the United States capital city besides the acts of terrorism on September 11th, 2001. When first shown on the news and seen by bystanders, it was said to be a car accident but was quickly ruled that there was a bomb attached to the car. This bombing has been said to have been on purpose by members of right-wing government groups in Chile, as Letelier was the target of this act due to his involvement in leftist Chilean government groups. Many say that this was without a doubt, a purposeful act to assassinate minister Orlando Letelier. What I find horrifying about this event is that I have never heard about it in my life until this video. I feel as though since it was one of the only acts of terrorism other than the September 11th attacks, it should be taught about in schools. I am also surprised that I have never heard anything about it because I live so close to D.C. and both my parents would have lived through this and I have never heard either of them speak about it. I am not surprised that the CIA has been reluctant to release much information or documentation, as the government typically does not inform the public of information from large cases such as this one.