Chilean football side celebrates its first ever victory in Copa América over Argentina; Win takes place in Estadio Nacional, a symbol of the dark days of repression under Augusto Pinochet
Few football stadiums in the world are as steeped in history as the Estadio Nacional in Santiago. For years, the stadium has been the living reminder of the darkest months of repression in General Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship. When the country returned to democracy in 1990, the stadium took on a more positive symbolic value as it was here that newly elected President Aylwin gave his inaugural address to the nation. And now, on 4 July 2015, it was the setting for another joyous landmark event in Chile’s history: the country’s first major international football title: the 2015 Copa América.
Last Saturday, the Chilean side defeated odds-on favourite Argentina in a 4-1-penalty shoot-out. After 120 minutes of a hard-fought but goalless draw, the game went to penalties. Alexis Sánchez was the man of the moment as he kicked the ball past Sergio Romero, the Argentine goalkeeper, to seal Chile’s first ever victory in the tournament.
The Chilean side finally turned the page on 99 trophyless years. The first edition of the Copa América took place in 1916 but despite reaching the final on four occasions, Chile had always finished second. Finally, after almost a century of waiting, it did so on home soil in one of the most emblematic monuments in the county’s history, the Estadio Nacional.
The national stadium, inaugurated in 1938, gained notoriety for the role it played in consolidating Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Between 11 September and 9 November 1973, sympathisers of deposed president Salvador Allende were rounded up and detained in the Santiago’s largest sporting venue. Thousands of prisoners, estimates vary between 7,000 and 20,000, were imprisoned there and subjected to interrogation, brutal beatings and torture.
The conditions for the prisoners, who included journalists, students and political activists, were appalling with almost no access to food and water or sanitation provided. Guards sat round pointing their guns and threatening to shoot at any sign of misbehaviour.
According to official statistics, 41 prisoners were murdered in the Estadio Nacional. But the actual figure is likely to be much greater as victims recall the military’s firing squad carrying out daily round of assassinations.
One of those detained in the stadium was folk singer Victor Jara. After playing his ‘manifesto’ to fellow prisoners, he was singled out, tortured and then killed. His final poem, ‘Somos cinco mil’ (We are five thousand), eloquently reflects the generalised suffering and fear of those held in the Estadio Nacional.
‘How much humanity exposed to hunger, cold, panic, pain, moral pressure, terror and insanity?’ he scribbled. ‘Within these four walls only a number exists which does not progress, which slowly will wish more and more for death.’
The stadium’s use as a prison came to an end on 9 November 1973 as the Chilean side was scheduled to play the U.S.S.R in a World Cup qualifying match in late November. But the Soviets refused to play in surroundings so tarnished with blood and the match had to be aborted.
Carmen Luz Parot provides a chilling history of the stadium’s history in her 2001 documentary ‘Estado Nacional.’
The Estadio Nacional’s repressive function paralleled that of the Vélodrome d’Hiver in Paris. In 1942, the Nazis used the indoor cyclying track as a detention centre for thousands of French Jews who were later moved to Drancy concentration camp, and later to Auschwitz.
But whereas the Vélodrome D’Hiver was demolished after being partly burned down by a fire in 1959, the Estadio Nacional stands as a potent reminder of a dark period in Chile’s history.
Reminders of the past are an integral part of the stadium’s landscape today. On the north side of Estadio Nacional, ‘Gate 8’, an empty row of seats, serves to commemorate the victims of the dictatorship. On the back wall, a sign reads ‘Un pueblo sin memoria es un pueblo sin futuro’: a nation without memory is a nation without future. Also discernible are the engravings which many prisoners scratched unto the walls during their weeks of detention.
A site of remembrance for the victims of repression in the Estadio Nacional.
Source: Pablo Trincado, via Flickr, available https://www.flickr.com/photos/pablotrincado/9766623593
The stadium was further consolidated into national memory when it was declared a national monument under President Richard Lagos in 2003. It continues to be used today not only for major sporting events, but also for political functions. Since 1990, it has been used as polling station in national elections.
Amidst the euphoria of Saturday’s victory, Jean Beausejour, one of the victorious Chilean players, had time to comment about the significance of the stadium in the country’s memory. ‘In a place where there was once so much sadness and death, today we gave happiness to population’.
