Will the son of a Nazi drag us back to the dark days of Pinochet?

For more than 70 years, 10 December has been celebrated around the world as Human Rights Day, a way of commemorating the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed in 1948 by the UN. In Chile, my country, the date took on a special meaning after the 1973 coup by General Augusto Pinochet that overthrew the democratically elected government of socialist president Salvador Allende. During the 17 years of dictatorship that followed, it was an occasion to publicly rally for those rights that were being egregiously violated, as the regime arrested, tortured, executed or exiled opponents, and abrogated free speech and the right to assemble peacefully.

- Ariel Dorfman

In such an atmosphere of terror, the very congregating of citizens to protest was considered by our rulers to be an act of defiance. I can remember one such insubordinate meeting in the central plaza of Santiago – it must have been in the late 1980s – when I barely escaped being dragged into a van and beaten by riot police. After democracy was restored in 1990, those gatherings became less dangerous to attend but more necessary than ever to hold, as a reminder that never again should such an oppressive regime be allowed to return.

It was thus particularly significant that of all possible days when Pinochet could have died, it turned out to be on 10 December 2006. How appropriate that death should have come for one of the most reviled tyrants of our time precisely when the world was celebrating the birthright he had done so much to infringe. It seemed to signal to me, as it did to thousands of my compatriots who poured into the streets to welcome his departure, that never again would he breathe our air, contaminate our dreams.