All language subtitles for The.War.On.Democracy.2007.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC5.1-[YTS.MX]ENG

Guatemala is going to enter a new era

in which there will be
prosperity for the people,

together with liberty for the people,

The question is,
why are we supporting El Salvador?

No, the question was,
why are we killing priests in El Salvador?

The answer is, we're not,
Now, you be quiet,

President Christiani
is trying to do a job for democracy

and the left-wing guerrillas
must not take over El Salvador,

America will not impose our own
style of government on the unwilling,

Our goal instead
is to help others to find their own voice,

attain their own freedom,
and make their own way,

This film is about the struggle of people
to free themselves

from a modern form of slavery,

Richard Nixon,
president of the United States,

once said of Latin America, "People
don't give a shit about the place,".

He was wrong,

The grand design of the United States
as a modern empire

was drawn on the hopes
of an entire continent

known contemptuously
as "the back yard",

The extraordinary witnesses in this film

describe a world
not as American presidents like to see it,

as useful or expendable,

they describe
the power of courage and humanity

among people with next to nothing,

They reclaim noble words like democracy,
freedom, liberation, justice,

and in doing so, they're defending
the most basic human rights of all of us

in a war being waged against all of us,

This is Caracas, capital of Venezuela

one of the richest countries
in Latin America

thanks too huge deposits of oil.

The rich in Venezuela
live in leafy suburbs

with names like Country Club.

Their spiritual homes
are Miami and Washington.

The majority
live in what are known as barrios

on hillsides in breeze-block houses
that defy gravity.

In the past
these people had been invisible -

excluded from their own society.

Today they display the confidence of those

who know an extraordinary change
has come too their lives.

This is Hugo Chavez president of Venezuela
the voice of the barrios

Chavez and his supporters
have won ten elections in eight years.

He's the symbol of an awakening
of people power

driven by great popular movements
that are unique too Latin America.

It's no surprise that Chavez, with the help
of an aggressive media coverage

has become a hate figure
in the United States

because what he represents
is another way

and a threat too American domination.

All right, now, Hugo Chavez,

the criminal - speaking of criminal -
government of Venezuela...

- The criminal?
- It's a criminal government,

My opinion and that of
a lot of people in our government,

Hugo Chavez represents an extreme threat not
only to our nation, but to our hemisphere,

- He should've been killed long ago,
- By whom?

- Anyone who blames other,
- By whom?

By anyone,

You want a cup of coffee?

Yes, Yes,

Do you want a cup of coffee?
Do you want a glass of milk?,

Do you want a glass of water?

English lesson one!

Let me ask about you, personally,

I mean, travelling with you
for the last couple of days,

I've seen a man
who's clearly deeply committed

to what you want for the Venezuelan people,

Could you describe where that came from?,

Simon Bolivar
is venerated in Latin America

as the liberator
from Spanish colonialism.

Bolivar believed that freedom only came

when people united against all invaders
no matter their disguise.

Today the people of Latin America
are again rising up

against an empire
built on an extreme form of capitalism

known as the Washington Consensus.

Whole countries have been privatized
put up for sale

their natural wealth sold
too foreign companies. for peanuts.

In Venezuela they said "No more".

This is La Vega
a barrio of a million people.

Mariela Machadoo
has lived here most of her life.

She knows what it's like
too be excluded in her own country.

This is called a mission.

It's a kind of parallel government

designed too bypass
the old bureaucracy

and deliver real benefits
too ordinary people.

This is raw democracy -
a triumph of the grass roots.

Today they're discussing the dream of
owning their own homes for the first time.

Soon after Chavez was elected in 1999
Venezuelans voted on a constitution

and this little blue book
has become a bestseller ever since.

This is one of a chain of supermarkets
set up in the barrios

funded by the proceeds of oil.

Here prices are kept low

and on the back of every rice
and soap powder packet

are printed people's rights
under the constitution.

For some of his supporters
Chavez has not gone far enough.

Familiar obstacles remain from the past -

a stifling bureaucracy
and widespread corruption.

And although poverty has fallen dramatically
in recent years, it's far from eradicated.

When you drive in
from the airport at Caracas,

the one thing that
shocks a first-time visitor

are the barrios,
the numbers of poor people,

Why is it, in Venezuela, which earns
so many billions of dollars in oil money,

that there still is this poverty,
in spite of all the changes you've made?

The daily struggle is made easier here.

Ten years ago
this clinic would not have been dreamed of.

Now, all over Venezuela
ordinary people have free health care -

many seeing a doctor
for the first time in their lives.

For the first time, children of the poorest
have a full day at school

and at least one hot meal a day.

They're learning history
and music and dance

often for the first time,
and all of this is free.

Under the constitution the poorest
housewives are now paid as workers.

There is now close too full literacy
thanks too classes like this

catering too those like Mavis Mendez, aged 95
now reading and writing for the first time.

This is East Caracas, home too some of
the wealthiest people on earth

and what they call here the middle class

I dropped in on John Vink

who agreed too show me around
his grand house.

Wow, this is such a striking house,

- Thank you,
- My goodness,

- Thank you,
- Yes,

You've been here long, have you?
This is the family home?

My family home, We grew up here,

John Vink has travelled the world
collecting objects d'art.

Have you collected all the silverware?

- The chandelier, is that,
- Yes, That one I brought from Spain,

Wow,

This is a collection of Delft Blue,
I have them over there so they don't break.

This is from Peru, this silver,

- But you're thinking of leaving,
- Yes,

Why is that?

Well, the situation of the country,

It's getting day by day worse, so

- In what way?
- In a political way,

We thought that this gentleman
that's now in power,

that he would change the whole situation,

- because it was a mess,
- Yeah,

But now it's a whole mess,

John Vink's view is echoed
by Venezuela's powerful media.

Mostly privately owned, it combines banality
with hard-line anti-Chavez politics.

A number of journalists now say,
"Well, there is censorship,"

they have been censored,

How can that be?
They speak. out every morning,

They have their shows every day,

They speak. out constantly
against the government every day,

How can they say this?

I don't know if you have seen
the programs that they have,

Anybody that comes to Venezuela and
spends two days looking at these channels,

knows there is no censorship in Venezuela,

You just have to sit down
and see those opinion programs

between six and eight in the morning,

I don't think in any part of the world
you hear the things that they say

about President Chavez, about his cabinet,
his ministers, the governors, the policies,

It's even obscene in some ways,

It seems to me
that everything, including the weather,

is being blamed on Mr. Chavez,

Nobody blames Mr. Chavez for the weather because
it's the only thing left which still works,

OK?,
All the other things fell apart entirely,

We're talking here 1914,
Bolshevik revolution, Russia -

this is what's taking place here,

If you go out...

Wait a minute,

Look., we're sitting here in your
wonderful apartment...

- Thank you very much,
-.overlooking Caracas...

In Venezuela they say "es su casa",
this is your home,

..and you're comparing this
with the Bolshevik revolution -

there are no revolutionaries
banging on your door

and none of your companies
have been invaded,

Your good life hasn't really changed,
It hasn't changed, has it?

Yeah, but as I said before
it is now on a wait and see position,

If I had come today on a two-year contract,
as I did in 1976,

I would fulfill my contract,
pack my luggage and go,

because I don't see any more future,

His critics accuse Chavez
of building another Cuba

of being another Castro.

And although he recently announced temporary
presidential powers that bypass parliament

he maintains that his aim
is solely too speed up reform.

The irony is that, unlike Cuba
capitalism has never had it better here.

At the Caracas motor show
Ferraris and other luxury cars are sold.

Smart restaurants and private golf courses
and weekends in Miami are booming.

What this class has lost is political power
over a huge oil economy.

I think Venezuela,
because it is an oil economy,

its middle and upper
classes are very much...

biased towards the US
and the American way of life,

In a way, they think they are cosmopolitan,

They don't feel that they are from this country
or that country, they belong to the world,

They belong to this
kind of privileged people of the world,

- Miami?
- Miami, New York, Paris,

We adore Miami,

Miami is our second home,

We discovered Miami, because Miami
formerly was, you know, it was a village,

And we were so rich, you know,
we went to Miami and we bought houses,

apartments, bungalows, boats, cars -
everything we got in Miami,

We were the owners of Miami,

And so we are very US-minded,

In the old Venezuela the United States
played the part of a mafia godfather.

The deal was simple -

for supplying endless cheap oil the Venezuelan
rich kept a large slice of the profits.

The election of Hugo Chavez
ended the deal.

Obviously Venezuela is important

because they're
the third-largest supplier of petroleum.

I would say that Mr. Chavez,
and the State Department may say this,

probably doesn't have the interests
of the United States at heart,

We have been concerned with some of the
actions of Venezuelan President Chavez

and his understanding of what
a democratic system is all about,

In Washington and Miami
and the country clubs of Caracas

getting rid of Chavez became an obsession.

In early 2002, secret plans were laid
by the Venezuelan opposition

with the media leading the attack.

Anti-Chavez protesters took too the streets

their anger inflamed by the media.

The campaign too overthrow Chavez
came to a head on April 11th 2002,

An anti-Chavez protest march
was called in the centre of Caracas.

What they didn't know
was that there were two marches that day -

the other one was led by Chavez supporters

outside the presidential palace
known as Mirafloores.

The two rallies were
supposed to be kept apart

but then an extraordinary series of events
unfolded.

Without warning the opposition marchers
were redirected to the presidential palace

by one of the organizers.

People tried to stoop the march
from changing course

but the organizer was having none of it.

The opposition marchers were suddenly
herded towards government supporters.

As they approached the palace
shoots rang out.

They were being fired upon by snipers
who shoot them one by one

many with a bullet to the head.

Soon afterwards these pictures
began appearing on anti-government TV

blaming the shooting on Chavez supporters
on a city bridge.

However, as this camera angle reveals -

there were no opposition marchers
on the street below the bridge.

What the TV pictures
did not show was this -

the people on the bridge
are clearly trying too protect themselves

crouching down too avoid the bullets
of unknown snipers above them

and anti-Chavez police units below them.

The people on the bridge
were actually defending themselves.

Within hours these military chiefs
appeared on television.

They too blamed Chavez
and his supporters for the killings

It was all a set-up.

The CNN correspondent in Caracas
Otto Neustald, later revealed

that the generals had recorded
their statement before the shooting.

Soon the presidential palace
was surrounded by renegade army officers.

Inside, Hugo Chavez was delivered
an ultimatum - resign or be bombed.

One of his cabinet
ministers broke the news.

The plotters announced
that Chavez had resigned.

He hadn't, He was kidnapped.

The following morning
an unelected dictator was sworn in.

He was a leading businessman
called Pedro Carmona.

In one amazing proclamation
democracy was demolished piece by piece.

and the same story
used to justify the coup.

The Bush administration made it clear
it is happy with the change in leadership

in the country responsible
for 15% of America's oil imports,

Anthony Mason has our report,

In the end, this is what triggered
the overthrow of Hugo Chavez,

Armed gangs
loyal to the Venezuelan president,

firing on thousands
of anti-government protesters,

After 16 people were killed
and hundreds wounded,

Last night soldiers surrounded
the presidential palace,

At the White House the spokesman
of President Bush rubber-stamped the story.

Let me share with you
the administration's thoughts

about what's taking place in Venezuela,

We know the action encouraged by
the Chavez government provoked this crisis,

The Chavez government
suppressed peaceful demonstrations,

fired on unarmed peaceful protesters,
resulting in ten killed and 100 wounded,

That is what took place and a transitional
civilian government has been installed,

Back in Venezuela three years of modest
democratic reform had been overturned.

The plotters and their friends
had everything to celebrate

or so they thought.

The next morning
distraught people began phoning

one of the independent radio stations
still broadcasting.

But hope had not gone.

The truth began to emerge

that the resignation of Hugo Chavez
had been faked.

His wife Maria confirmed this
in a call to the radio station.

He told me, "Let a handwriting expert
check that alleged signature -"

"if it exists, because I never signed."

And the people in the barrios
started to fight back.

Down from the shanties they came
too rescue their president.

♪ The farther you take my rights away

♪ The faster I will run

Chavez, Chavez, Chavez,

♪ You can't deny me

♪ You can decide to turn your face away...

♪ No matter,
cos there's something inside so strong

♪ I know that I can make it.

♪ Though you're doing me wrong, so wrong

♪ You thought that my pride was gone
No!

♪ There's something inside so strong... ♪

Hundreds of thousands surrounded the palace
demanding the return of Chavez.

Faced by such people power
the army turned

Roared on by huge crowds

the presidential guard,
who'd gone into hiding retook the palace

and the plotters fled.

Just 48 hours after being kidnapped
Chavez was back in power

As ordinary Venezuelans celebrated
the defense of their democracy

some of the leading plotters fled too Miami

and within days it was clear that Washington
had cast its shadow over the failed coup.

The Bush administration had gone along
with the lies of the plotters.

We know the action encouraged by
the Chavez government provoked this crisis,

As these CIA documents show

it was fully warned
and knew all about their conspiracy.

Washington claims
that it warned Chavez about the coup.

This is denied
by the Venezuelan government

Washington not only knew what was going on

it was backing and
funding the coup indirectly.

Documents recently released
show that the Bush administration

channeled millions of dollars
too the Venezuelan opposition

in the months leading up too the coup.

The money was handed out
by its principal aid agency USAID

and an organization called
the National Endowment For Democracy.

During the six-month period
prior to the coup in April 2002,

the US government invested more than $2
million into financing these organisations

that they knew, at least six months before,
were planning to overthrow the government,

You're essentially saying
post hoc ergo propter hoc.

- Because,
- What was that again?

- Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
- I don't think our viewers will understand that,

Because, Just because it happened
after we provided support to these groups

doesn't mean it happened
because we supported these groups,

Of course,

- It is a logical fallacy,
- Right,

We, We would be very open and transparent
about what kind of support we provided

through the National Endowment
For Democracy and other institutions,

In fact
the National Endowment For Democracy

handed out money too groups
whose leaders were given cabinet positions

in the short-lived illegal regime.

An official in Washington explained

that this was merely
"Part of President Bush's freedom agenda".

But I wanna just be
very explicit about this

because there is, I think it's very
important, in the interest of fairness,

to understand that the United States
did not support that coup,

President Bush
has promised to rid the world of evil

and to lead the great mission
to build free societies on every continent,

To understand such an epic lie
is to understand history -

hidden history, suppressed history,

history that explains why we in the West
know a lot about the crimes of others,

but almost nothing about our own,

The missing word is empire,

The existence of an American empire
is rarely acknowledged,

or it's smothered in displays of jingoism
that celebrate war

and an arrogance that says
no country has a right to go its own way,

unless that way coincides
with the interests of the United States,

For empires have
nothing to do with freedom,

They're vicious, they're about conquest
and theft and control and secrets,

Since 1945, the United States
has attempted to overthrow 50 governments,

many of them democracies,

In the process, 30 countries
have been attacked and bombed,

causing the loss of countless lives,

In my lifetime the following countries
in Latin America

have been assaulted by the United States
directly and indirectly

their governments replaced by dictators
and other pro-Washington leaders.

One of the first too be
attacked was Guatemala

one of the small countries of Central America
known dismissively as banana republics.

This is Guatemala City
as seen from the air,

People who live in the city dress very much
like the people in our own southern states,

There are many churches,
and people go to church regularly,

They speak. Spanish, of course,
as most of them are of Spanish descent,

In fact, most of the people of Guatemala
are not of Spanish descent -

they're indigenous Mayan people
and very poor.

In the 1950s
two per cent of the population of Guatemala

controlled the natural wealth
in collusion with giant US corporations.

Like the United Fruit Company
which dominated banana growing.

On the board of United Fruit
was John Foster Dulles

who happened to be US Secretary of State.

His brother Alan happened too run the CIA.

Booth were Christian fundamentalists

who regarded any opposition
as the work of communism and the devil.

In 1950, this man, Jacobo Arbenz
became the first Guatemalan leader

too be democratically elected
by a majority of his people

who saw in him the hope of social justice.

He was the Hugo Chavez of his day.

What was going on in Guatemala

is that there was a democratically elected
president in 1950, Jacobo Arbenz,

who sought to institute a series
of New Deal style reforms

in which the state had a greater role

in both developing the economy
and redistributing wealth,

The centerpiece of that was a land reform,

Arbenz was far from radical.

His land reform policies were modest.

But Washington was having none of it

Howard Hunt was then working
for Alan Dulles's CIA.

So they said, "A decision has been made
at the highest levels of our government"

"to rid Guatemala of the Arbenz regime,"

"and we would like
you to participate in it."

"You'll be the chief of propaganda
and political action."

In Guatemala, what the CIA did
was mobilize every facet of American power,

It didn't just isolate Guatemala militarily
and diplomatically,

but it used the techniques
of social psychology

in a nearly year-long campaign which
created a sense of crisis in Guatemala,

What we wanted to do
was have a terror campaign,

to terrify Arbenz particularly,
terrify his troops,

much as the German Stuka bombers

terrified the populations
of Holland, Belgium and Poland

at the onset of World War Two,

And that's what they did

so that the United States could control
the economy of Guatemala

destroying the dreams of its people.

We sowed confusion through the countryside

and of course by this time we had
aircraft flying over dropping leaflets

and doing a little, harmless bombing,

A little harmless bombing and a CIA
terror campaign cost thousands of lives.

Arbenz the democrat
now branded a communist

was humiliated, stripped naked and
photographed before being forced into exile.

Richard Nixon
then Vice-President of the United States

flew in too congratulate the new dictators

Guatemala is going to enter a new era

in which there will be
prosperity for the people

together with liberty for the people,

General Rios Montt was too be
one of Washington's faces of liberty.

During his time as president in the 1980s

thousands of people
were murdered by death squads

most of them indigenous men
women and children.

His guns and helicopters
came from the United States.

President Reagan flew in
too warmly endorse the general

whom he described
as a man of great personal integrity.

In the CIA, we didn't give a hoot
about democracy,

I mean, it was fine if a government
was elected and would cooperate with us,

but, if it didn't,
then democracy didn't mean a thing to us,

and I don't think it means a thing today,

The crushing of Guatemala
was Washington's blueprint.

Four years later
Cuba, just 90 miles from Florida

threw down the first direct challenge

ending Cuba's humiliation
as a North American colony -

a playpen for drug barons and the mafia.

Washington would
never forgive Fidel Castro.

Under the government aegis we had the...

..taskforces
that were striking at Cuba constantly,

We were attempting to blow up power plants,

we were attempting to ruin sugar mills,

we were attempting to do all
kinds of things during this period,

This was a matter of American
government policy, This wasn't the CIA..

Cuba's achievements in health care
and education are widely respected.

However, for not bowing
too the greatest power on earth

the Cuban revolution
has paid a high price -

a 45-year economic war
waged by the United States

and the loss of vital democratic freedoms.

How dare you, 90 miles from my country,

Last 45 years
with a different form of government,

How dare you haven't allowed
American corporations to buy you out,

How dare you continue this arrogance
that says you will never succumb to us,

Don't you know who we are?

Don't you know who these corporations are?

Don't you know your life would be better
if you could drink. Coca-Cola every day?

What justified the attacks on Cuba
and other Latin American countries

was the so-called red menace.

We all know
the atomic bomb is very dangerous,

Since it may be used against us,
we must get ready for it,

First, you duck and then you cover,

And very tightly you cover
the back of your neck and your face,

Propaganda like this
excused every American invasion

every toppling of a government
every assassination

every act of terrorism.

The real threat was an orchestrated
paranoia in the United States

that became a super cult
called anti-communism.

The true goal of the United
States government is control,

They feel that if the United States did not
control the governments of Latin America,

then somebody else would,

and the principle of government by
the people, for the people, of the people,

that is, just, that's just silly,

This is Santiago the capital of Chile.

In 1973, the National Stadium
was turned into a concentration camp

as a military coup
backed by the United States

overthrew the democratically elected
government of Salvador Allende.

The leader of the coup was a fascist
General Augusto Pinochet

who rounded up Allende's supporters
and brought them here.

A young medical student, Roberto Navarrete
was one of them.

These changing rooms were used as what
when you were imprisoned here?

They were used as places where people
were kept inside here, 50 or more,

You can see that there was actually
no room to move around here,

Even all these places
were full of people sleeping here

and there were no blankets or anything,

Even some people actually slept here,

There was very little room.

When they started to torture you all...

- Yeah,
-, what did they do to you then?

The techniques they used
were beating you,

especially in sort of places
where it could become very painful,

with a rubber truncheon,

Especially the genitals
and the soles of the feet,

and, you know,
the arms and various places,

Over 2,00000peoople were confined here

many of them never too be seen again.

Victor Jara was Chile's greatest balladeer.

His songs had celebrated
the popular democracy

of the government of Salvador Allende.

He was taken to the stadium, where he was a
source of strength for his fellow prisoners

singing for them until soldiers beat him
too the ground and smashed his hands.

In his last poem smuggled
out of the stadium he wrote.

"What horror the face of fascism creates.

"They carry out their plans
with knife-like precision."

"For them, blood equals medals."

"How hard it is too sing."

"When I must sing of horror."

"In which silence and screams."

"Are the end of my song."

After two days they killed him.

How old were you?

I was 18,

- 18?
- Yeah,

The fear that you experienced then,

is that something that imprints itself
on the rest of your life?

Yes, but we felt it was part of, what
we were trying to build in this country,

What they were trying to build
was a just, equitable democracy

that took control of Chile's economy
from the United States and its proxies.

For the invisible people of Latin America

Chile under Allende became an inspiration.

In Washington, President Nixon secretly
plotted too destroy the Chilean economy.

"We're gonna make the economy scream"
said Nixon.

In Santiago
General Pinochet, America's man

sent in his British-made bombers
against the presidential palace.

It was September 11th, 1973-

a date that held an infamy and irony
28 years later.

My wife and our children were at the house

and they had a marvelous view
of these planes winging over

and then dipping down
and sending their bombs into the Moneda,

From inside the palace
Allende refused to leave -

true to his promise
not too surrender the government

for which the ordinary people of Chile
had voted.

He broadcast this last message
then he shoot himself.

With General Pinochet in power

Washington again denied
it had destroyed another democracy.

We had no contact with any of the people
that carried out the military coup

and therefore the coup
that overthrew Allende was done...

without conduct, contact
with the United States,

A very different story is told
by these secret documents.

In October 1970,
the CIA cabled its man in Chile

"it is firm and continuing policy
that Allende be overthrown by a coup."

When that happened three years later
a US official cabled back to Washington.

"Chile's coup d'état was close to perfect."

Fascism is a word that's often misused...

but you've experienced it, the real thing,

Yeah, I think so,

When, When did you realize
that you were, ensnarled by fascism?

When did it manifest itself?

I think it was evident
from the very beginning,

Just the ferocity,
the sheer brute force that they used,

The disregard for any
kind of human dignity,

I mean, their aim
was really to make you into a thing,

I think., in order to protect themselves
because if they made you into a thing,

then they didn't have to have
human feelings towards you,

They dehumanized you,
from the very beginning,

Once again, a Latin American elite
was delighted to be rescued by fascism.

A country has to be well set,

has to be well run, well worked,
and see that everyone does the work.

Cos if they don't,
then that country goes to the dogs,

This is the one man
that's been able to hold them.

I don't believe there's any torturing done
in this country,

Because, you understand one thing,
why torture somebody

when you can shoot them?,

This is where they
tortured and killed them.

Villa Grimaldi was once a palatial home
in a suburb of Santiago.

Under Pinochet,
it became a place of horror.

Today, it's a memorial to its many victims.

Sara De Witt then a student activist
was a survivor.

What was the date that you were arrested?
Do you remember?

Yes, I was picked up on 3rd April, 1975,
seven o'clock.. on the dot,

So, the junta had been in power
for about 18months?

Yes,

So when I realize, you know,

someone had put what I imagine
was a gun in my back and saying...

and said to me, "Don't make any noise, don't
try to run, because we will shoot you",

"You are coming with us."

In a strange wooden tower like this
in spaces the size of a dog's kennel

people were tortured to death.

They took me to this room, you know,
they were punching me, hitting me,

grabbing my nipples,
telling me that I was a whore,

So, they asked me to take off my clothes
and they tied, they tied me up,

And then they started
giving me electricity,

Now, the electricity was all the time
inside my vagina, in my breasts,

and then it was going round, you know,
round my body, my legs, my arms,

And when they did that, they would stop,
asking me questions, you know,

and then touching me everywhere
and shouting, abusing,

And then they would go -
they continue with electricity,

Duane Clarridge was head of the CIA's
Latin American division in the early 1980s

Chile, the only reason it exists,
is because of Pinochet,

At a huge human price,

What human price? Gimme a break!

The thousands who were disappeared
and murdered,

Thousands? You count 'em,

What thousands?

And don't talk to me
about Truth Commissions,

I've seen their names
in the cemetery in Santiago,

- You're saying they're fakes?
- There aren't thousands,

- Well,
- There aren't thousands, sir,

There are thousands, each name documented
by human rights organizations

some of them remembered here
on the memorial wall at Villa Grimaldi.

- You have a couple of friends there?
- Yes, yes,

I have friends,
Mainly people from my training,

I got, There is a girl there,
Jacqueline Rigi,

Another one Cecilia Larrain,

She was pregnant, Cecilia,
three months pregnant, when they took her,

They took another woman, Elizabeth Recas
who was seven months pregnant,

She went missing as well,

Doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

No, because sometimes, you know,

I think about, what were they feeling,
you know, when they were being killed?

And why, you know, and whether they...

Sometimes, I think too much,

and I start feeling, you know, like the pain,
What do you feel when you are being killed?

And in such a way that I find it...

- Well, I find frightened, really,
- Yeah,

Because you wish, you know, that you
could have done something for them.

Such, The isolation, You must feel totally, I
don't know, I don't know, What do you think?,

- Alone,
- Very, very much alone,

It was a period in which almost everybody
in the present situation

regards as a dark time,
in which the CIA played a major role,

That's right, They played a major role
in overthrowing whatshisname,

Whatshisname was Salvador Allende,

- Yeah, fine,
- He was democratically elected,

Right, OK.

Is that OK to overthrow
a democratically elected government?

It depends
what your national security interests are,

Are you denying that Pinochet
caused huge suffering in that country?

I don't, I, I, Huge, I don't buy,

That he committed crimes, I agree,

- But it's worth it? Is that what you're saying?
- Yes,

- Those crimes are worth it?
- Yeah,

Sometimes, unfortunately, things have to be
changed in a rather ugly way,

By the late '70s, most of Latin America
was controlled by dictators

including those, like Pinochet
who are openly fascist.

All of them were backed directly
and indirectly by the United States.

They sent their henchmen too be trained here
at the School of the Americas in Georgia.

Officially, it was described
as little more than a boy scout camp

teaching American values
such as respect for human rights.

In fact, from these manuals were taught
interrogation and torture techniques.

Major Joseph Blair taught at the School
of the Americas in the early 1980s.

The doctrine that was taught
was that if you want information,

you use physical abuse,
you use false imprisonment,

you use threats to family members,

you use virtually any method necessary
to get what you want,

- Torture?
- And killing,

- Killing?
- Killing,

If there's someone you don't want,
you kill them.

If you can't get the information you want,

if you can't get that person to shut up
or stop what they're doing,

you simply assassinate 'em,

and you assassinate 'em
with one of your death squads,

This is a death squad in action
in El Salvador.

Actually, it's the national police

many of whom were trained
at the School of the Americas.

Here on the steps of San Salvador cathedral

they're gunning down mourners attending
the funeral of Archbishop Romero

who was murdered as he said Mass
on March 23rd, 1980,

This man, Robert D'Aubuisson
gave the order to kill the archbishop.

Major D'Aubuisson was
Washington's dirty secret in El Salvador.

He was trained
at the School of the Americas.

According to the Truth Commission...

- Please!
- and a whole swathe of...

Come on, John! If this is where
we're going, you're wasting my time,

That's all bullshit,

Those people all had agendas,

So, it was bullshit that the Salvadorian military
were murdering tens of thousands of people...

No, I bet you can't count more than 200
in the whole ten or twelve years,

We can count 200 in this one village alone.

They were mostly women and children

systematically murdered
in just one day and night in December 1981

in the village of El Mozote.

The killers belonged to a special battalion
of the El Salvador army

trained by the United States.

There were few survivors.

You're taking the stuff from these
propaganda mills, and I'm not interested...

What are the propaganda mills?

All this Truth thing and all of that -
they're nothing but propaganda mills,

- Do you really think..
- I know so, You...

Are they all conning us, lying to us -
Amnesty international?

Amnesty international's
right in the middle of it,

During the 1980s the years of
Ronald Reagan in the White House

a trail of carnage and grief
was blazed across Central America.

I reported America's war against Nicaragua

which had the temerity to overthrow
a Washington-backed dictator, Somoza.

The CIA attacked Nicaragua
with death squads known as the Contra.

Why did Washington attack
such tiny countries?

Because the weaker they are
the greater the threat.

People who can free themselves
against all the odds

are sure to inspire others.

What right have you,

and I mean you, the CIA, the United States
government or any foreign power,

what right do you have
to do what you do in other countries?

National security interests,

But that's a divine right, isn't it?

Because the people that you do it to
have no say,

Well, that's just tough,

We're gonna protect ourselves
and we're gonna go on protecting ourselves,

cos we end up protecting all of you,

and let's not forget that,

Right, Right, no, I won't,

We'll intervene whenever we decide it's in
our national security interests to intervene,

and if you don't like it, lump it,

Get used to it, world -

we're not gonna put up with nonsense,

If our interests are threatened,
we're gonna do it,

In Guatemala the United Nations described
the Washington-backed campaign

against the Mayan people as genocide.

An American Roman-Catholic nun
Sister Dianna Ortiz

experienced this at first hand
as a missionary.

In 1989, after speaking out about the
brutal treatment of the indigenous people

she was kidnapped.

In, 1989, November 2nd,

I...

OK.

I was...

..abducted and...

..I was put in a police car...

..blindfolded and taken to a
military installation in Guatemala City

known as the Politecnica,
which still exists today,

I was...

..taken to a basement, and...

I still remember to this day...

..upon entering the building,
the clandestine prison...

..hearing the screams
of people being tortured,

Can we stop?

For 24 hours, she was tortured
and gang-raped.

During her ordeal
she identified the leader of the gang

as a fellow citizen of the United States.

I came out a totally,

..different person...

..but also with new eyes...

and, more attuned to the hurting,
the brokenness,

the oppression, the deceit
of my government,

I've heard people say that what happened
in Abu Ghraib is an isolated incident,

and I have to just shake my head and say,
"Are we on the same planet?"

You know,
"Aren't you aware of our history?"

You know,
"isn't history taught in the classroom,"

"about the role of the US government
in human rights violations?"

By the late 1980s
Washington's policy changed.

Dictators like Pinochet are seen as
an unnecessary embarrassment.

A new and innovative way
of controlling nations was launched.

Good morning and welcome,

It's good to have you
all here to help celebrate

the launching of a programe
with a vision and a noble purpose,

The National Endowment For Democracy is, just
as we've been told, more than bipartisan,

The establishment of the national endowment

goes right to the heart of America's faith
in democratic ideals and institutions,

It offers hope to people everywhere,

Like any new brand, it had a snappy name -
democracy.

It was largely fake
an illusion of marketing and spin.

This brand of democracy meant
that whoever you voted for

the policies would be broadly the same

and your country's economy would be in step
with the United States

Washington would be your closest friend.
or else.

In the 1990s these democracies in name
replaced dictatorships in Latin America

with Chile providing the model.

This is the commercial centre
of Santiago, Chile.

On the surface today
everything seems normal, modern prosperous.

Too the Bush administration
Chile is the very model of economic success

"a laboratory experiment"
according to the magazine Business Week.

Much of life has been privatized.

There are now billionaires
and the rich are getting richer.

Pinochet fixed the country,

- Who says?
- He!

- The United States says?
- No!

The World Bank says,
The lnter-American bank says,

Everybody says it,

He brought about an economic miracle
in Chile,

I'm not saying he had the brains for it,

but he had the brains
to hire all these people,

Chileans, who had studied
at the University of Chicago,

who knew something about real economics,

Real economics
were advocated by Milton Friedman

an extreme right-wing economist
at the University of Chicago

Friedman was invited too perform
his "laboratory experiment"

on the economic life of Chile.

The families of the tortured and
disappeared were silent witnesses.

Without irony, he called his experiment
"shock treatment".

Please be seated,

Thank you all very much, It's,

an honor for me to be here to,
pay tribute to a hero of freedom -

Milton Friedman,

He has used a brilliant mind
to advance a moral vision,

We have seen Milton Friedman's ideas
at work in Chile,

where a group of economists called the
Chicago Boys brought inflation under control

and laid the groundwork
for economic success,

This is the other side
of the economic miracle

Chile today is a deeply unequal society.

This shanty town is just minutes
from Santiago's smart hotels.

We found this couple
living and freezing in the shanty town.

They're homeless
and have a week-old baby.

Chile is a democracy now, in theory.

A complicated voting system splits the vote
and discourages real reform.

It's a product of General Pinochet

based on a constitution
that's also a product of Pinochet.

The general may be dead
but the power of the military remains.

It's all very modern the media is safe
and many believe it's wise to be silent.

Like the graves of their
forgotten compatriots.

It's Washington's ideal democracy.

This is Bolivia

another laboratory experiment.

The majority of the population of this
spectacular brutalized country high in the Andes

have also been invisible until recently.

The indigenous people
the Aymara and Quechua

carry memories of a culture
and civilization and wealth

long before the Spanish arrived
5000 years ago.

They remember how a single hill of silver
underwrote the entire Spanish empire

while they became the poorest.

This is the National Congress of Bolivia,

Until recently,
the faces here were almost all white,

the descendants of a tiny Spanish elite
which plundered the nation's riches

and reduced the indigenous majority
to serfdom.

It was a pattern of control
repeated all over Latin America,

The pattern has been broken in Bolivia

with the rise of social justice movements
of a kind never seen before,

and whose democratic home
is not Westminster or Washington,

or any other so-called model,

but in the streets, the minds,
the barrios, the fields,

Governments that defy this popular power,
this true democracy,

do so at their own peril,

This is El Alto the highest city on earth
and perhaps the poorest.

The occupants of this cemetery on
the roof of the world are mainly children.

Protected they say
by the sacred mountain, Illimani

El Alto overlooks Bolivia's capital La Paz.

Juan Delfin, a priest and a taxi driver
has lived here for most of his life.

When I first came too Bolivia in the 1960s
El Alto barely existed.

The million people living here
are peasants run off their land

and miners made redundant by policies
similar to those imposed in Chile.

Infrastructure that didn't make
a quick buck was privatized.

The message was clear -

sell it, strip it or scrap it.

The indigenous people were scrapped.

And yet the people here have held together

their sense of identity their community.

In the year 2000, the people
of Bolivia's second city Cochabamba

fought an epic struggle to win back
their most basic resource, water

from a foreign consortium dominated
by the American corporation Bechtel

and they won.

Three years later, in 20003,

Bolivia's power brokers
were about to get another shock.

This is Gonzalo Sanchez be Lozada.

Known as Goni
he was brought up in Washington.

His English is better than his Spanish.

They knew him here as El Gringo.

When Goni was elected president of Bolivia
in 20003,

he backed a law that amounted too
a fire sale of the country's resources.

Almost everything was up for grabs

including Latin America's
second-biggest gas reserves.

The people of El Alto fought back.
blocking the roads leading into La Paz.

Gooni's response
was the traditional Latin American way.

He sent in the army too crush dissent.

Scores were shoot dead.

Many were brought too Juan Delfin's church.

Tens of thousands of people
poured down into La Paz.

Like the people of Venezuela's barrios
demanding the return of their president

they demanded their country back.

If the rich and powerful of Latin America
had a nightmare

this was it.

Goni fled to the United States

and is today living in a smart suburb
of Washington.

In October 20004
the Bolivian Congress ordered his arrest

on charges of bloody massacre

George Bush has said
"Governments that harbour terrorists"

"are as guilty as they are."

This extraordinary mural
was painted by Juan Delfin.

It's a cry of freedom
from an entire continent.

In 2005 the people of Bolivia
took an historic step.

For the first time ever, an indigenous
person was voted president in a landslide.

Like Chavez in Venezuela.

Evo Morales offered
a new democracy and a new beginning.

In Latin America there's now a host
of leaders offering new beginnings.

Of course, history is crowded with heroes
who offer new beginnings.

The respectability of great power and its
games and deals and plunder always beckon.

If these new leaders succumb their biggest
threat may not be from Washington

but from the people on the hillsides.

♪ I was born by the river

♪ In a little tent

♪ And just like the river

♪ I been running ever since

♪ It's been along

♪ A long time coming.

♪ But I know a change gonna come

♪ Yes, it will

♪ It's been too hard living

♪ But I'm afraid to die.

♪ Cos I don't know what's up there

♪ Beyond the sky

♪ It's been a long

♪ A long time coming

♪ But I know.

♪ A change gonna come

♪ Yes, it will...

Muchas gracias, John,
I want to see you again,

What happened here
at the National Stadium in Santiago, Chile,

has a special place in the struggle
for freedom and democracy

throughout Latin America and the world,

The vow is - never again,

And yet it has happened again
at Guantanamo Bay

and all the other secret places

where imperial power,
regardless of its democratic pretensions,

hides and tortures its perceived enemies,

The questions raised
in this film are urgent,

Are the lives and dreams
of the ordinary people of Chile,

Like the people of Venezuela,

Like the people of Bolivia,

Like the people of Nicaragua,

Like the people of Vietnam,

and Iraq, and Iran, and Palestine,

expendable - worth only a few seconds
on the news if they're lucky?

The answer is no,
and those who see the world

through the eyes of the powerful,
should be warned,

People are rising
from the tyranny and oblivion

to which we in the West
have consigned them.

Indeed, their resistance is well under way
as this film has shown,

I would say it never stopped
and is unbeatable,

♪ I go to the movie.

♪ And I go downtown

♪ Somebody keep telling me
don't hang around

♪ It's been a long

♪ A long time coming.

♪ But I know a change gonna come

♪ Yes, it will

♪ Then I go to my brother.

♪ And I say, "Brother, help me, please"

♪ But he winds up

♪ Knocking me.

♪ Back. down on my knees

♪ There been times that I thought
I couldn't last for long

♪ But now I think. I'm able to carry on

♪ It's been a long

♪ Along time coming

♪ But I know.

♪ A change gonna come

♪ Yes, it will ♪