The Case of Pinochet

The Opposition Movement:
 

The first national protest, held May 11, 1983, was the result of a long process of growing resistance against the regime. Beginning in 1978, former members of Congress - organized since 1974 in the "Circulo de Ex Parlamentarios" and the broad-based political coalition National Development Project (Proden) began to meet, in a series of late-night meetings held with extreme caution, to map out a plan to defeat the regime.

The regime responded to the protest by ordering the most massive raids experienced since the time of the coup. Three days after the first protest, hundreds of police, military and civilian personnel descended upon the poblaciones, the low-income neighborhoods that ring Santiago. In La Victoria, La Castrina, Yungay, and Joao Goulart more than 5,000 households were raided. Men over 14 years of age were awakened in the middle of the night and forced out of their homes at gun point. The protests continued, with mounting repression, on a nearly monthly basis during the next two years. The fourth protest, on August 11 and 12, 1983, was met with particular violence, resulting in 100 deaths.