Estadio Nacional de Chile (Wikimedia)
Sometimes there are articles that transcend language and writers that transcend nationality. When reading the great Ezequiel Fernández Moores, I felt compelled to have to translate one of his articles in order to be able to understand what he’s all about. There are very few writers in the world that can capture his essence and transmit an idea the way he has done throughout his illustrious career. His writing generates an envy that I cannot describe because I cannot just string words together with ideas the way he does.
More importantly, he is capable of generating admiration because he is a writer that really makes this profession worth being a part of.
In his latest article, he talks about the impact of Auschwitz to players but also about another symbol that was ingrained in Chilean football culture. The original article can be found here.
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The national teams that arrived in Poland this month to participate in Euro2012 were impacted after visitingAuschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp. There are journalists that arrive every so often in Buenos Aires to investigate the 1978 World Cup and they are shocked to find out how close the ESMA (the Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics) was to the Estadio Monumental. If they went toSantiagothey would not have to look around. The Estadio Nacional, place where Boca will play for a spot in the final of the Copa Libertadores, was 39 years ago the largest concentration camp of Chilean miltary dictator Augusto Pinochet.
From September 11th, 1973- the day the coup d’etat begain that overthrew – to November 9th of that year, there were around 12.000 personas that were encamped there. After that the horror stopped in order to be able to celebrate.Chile was scheduled to play a match on Noveber 21st against theSoviet Union for a spot in the 1974 World Cup. Amid protests from the Soviets, then FIFA president Sir Stanley Rous sent a delegation toSantiagoled by al vicepresident Abilio D’Almeida and Secretaty General Helmut Kaser. They “inspected” the stadium while being acompanied by admiral Patricio Carvajal, Pinochet’s minister of defense. “The report that we is a reflection of our observations- complete tranquility”, said D’Almeida. Around 3,000 prisioners, in forced silence, were below the stands.
Many were tortured, others were executed. Estadio Nacional , the 2002 documentary that Canal Encuentro aired last year showed some inscriptions on some of the walls at the stadium.
“RJJ 12 IX 73″, “JCTS 16 IX 73″, “SSE 16 IX 73″, there were initials and dates that were drawn onto the wall with coins, rocks or by many of the prisoners moments before dying. The early morning of Spetember 16th some prisoners arrived from the Estadio Chile, a small venue near the Palacio de la Moneda. Upon leaving they see the body of Victor Jara, the author of “Te Recuerdo Amanda”. He was beaten severely. He was shot alongside dozens of others. Hours later they also execute American journalist Charles Horman, he is remembered from the Costa Gravas’ film Missing. In the film Gavras used the stadium where Mexican side Atlante play. Horman’s assassination does not create any complaints from either Richard Nixon or Henry Kissinger, the two catalysts for the coup d’etat. Swedish ambassador Gustaf Edelstam was one of the few diplomats that went to the stadium to save lives.Chile would consider him persona non grata.
The Swedish government would then send him toAlgeria. The captain of the Chilean national team, Francisco Valdés, also went to the stadium. He saves the live of Colo Colo defender and the first president of the Chilean Football Players Union, Hugo Lepe. “It was a very special meeting between two individuals of high character. There was a handshake, an embrace and told him that tomorrow or the next, he was leaving (this place),” said Valdés in a documentary by Carmen Luz Parot, a journalist that graudated from the Universidad Católica inChile. Valdés found out about Lepe’s arrest when he arrived inMoscow. “El partido de los valientes” (The Match Of The Brave), as described by journalist Alex Pickett; the scoreless draw at Lenin Stadium. The match was played in temperature reachign -5 degree celsius. There was also some heroic defending and favorable refereeing by Brazilian Armando Marques. It was was also called “el partido fantasma” (The Phantom Match) because there are no television archives of this encounter.
The match was played two weeks after the death of Pablo Neruda. Some players that were identified with the Allende administration were fearful of what would occur with their families. They traveled, having been warned to remain silent. Carlos Caszely, whose mother was kidnapped and tortured during the dictatorship, denied to shake the dictator’s hand when the team visited the Casa de la Moneda before heading toMoscow. On the opposite side of the spectrum was the legendary defender Elías Figueroa, a staunch Pinochet defender even constitutional reform campaigns and plebiscites that were made by the dictatorship. Upon returning toSantiago, “Chamaco” Valdés makes a personal plea to Pinochet to help release his teammate Lepe. “We were improvising matches (while he was in prison) and we were happy when we passed the ball to Lepe because he was a national team player ,” said Juan Sepúlveda in the documentary.
Those matches were a way to forget all of the nocturnalt pain that many suffered after returning from their respective tortures with fractured skulls and ribs, missing teeth or with their fingers burned severely with lighters “The only thing that he wanted, was to see those people stop suffering,” said Sepúlveda Authorized to sit in the stands, the prisoners yelled “gooool” each time the mower would enter the goal. Deputy Sota would set up the choirs. The military would film them in order to show that the prisoners were doing fine. “They took him to the Nacional”, one of the many songs said. “Free, like the sun, like the sun when it first rises. Am I free? I walk without ever stopping, searching for the truth and I will know in the end what is liberty “, they all sing like legendary Spanish singer Nino Bravo, but they are surrounded with machine guns. El Mercurio and La Tercera, “dailies that misinformed” – the indignant director said in an interview. They would publish as a “society blurb” the marriage at the Estadio Nacional of an Italian prisoner decimated by the torture he underwent. In Parot’s gripping documentary, a survivor tells her story of an affair between a 20-year-old female prisoner and a 21-year guard.
Captain Jorge Silva admitted to have seen dozens of dead bodies. Journalist Alberto Gamboa was moved after recalling the tortures. They were usually supervised by a Brazilian military soldier of rank at the Velódromo that was just adjacent to the stadium. Felipe Agüero, a political science professor, would recognize one of his torturers- a professor from the Universidad Católica. A priest said another survivior. He would ask them all to repent from believing in Marxism. “He thought that 8,000 of us assholes were going to convert.” From the stands, they would ask to do a victory lap until one soldier warned them of their mockery. Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, instead brigns hope. “Enrique? You’re here? How can that be?”, said the cardinal in tears as he recognized Father Enrique Moreno Laval. “A prisoner,” said Moreno Laval.” I rejected an order due to ethical as well as physical reasons because he could not even move.” He torturers wanted him to rape a female prisoner. What occurred behind those walls was so horrid, as filmmaker Juan Sabatini mentioned to me.
His grandmother was a nurse with the Red Cross and Pinochet backer, that after seeing that, she left the Estadio Nacional determined to overthrow the dictatorship. TheSoviet Unionrefuses to play the match in a stadium “spattered with the blood of Chilean patriots”.Chile, dressed in red, still step onto the pitch. There were 15,000 fans in attendance. The Carabineros (The Chilean national police) would play the anthem. Chilean referee Rafael Hormazábal, who would step onto the pitch to replace Austrain Eric Linemayr, whose was assigned by FIFA originally. He blew the whistle and immediate the “match” began. They started to pass the ball amongst themselves with no rivals in front of them. They would approach the empty net and there have been lots of stories behind this incident. Many versions indicate that that the players began to fight amongst themselves as to who would score the “symbolic goal”. It was a grotesque act approved by FIFA. Captain “Chamaco” Valdés would end up scoring that goal. The festivities were completed with a friendly. Santos, without Pelé would defeat the national team 5-0.
A year later, they would be eliminated in the first round of the World Cup as they went winless in the tournament. “Chamaco” Valdés was shocked to see Lepe among the attendees of this farce. The Estadio Nacional, that today finds itself in a battle between being completely remodeled and being looked at as a museum that must be preserved for national memory. The stadium will once again host the national team when they face Colombia. The FIFA date, the subject of debate in Chile, says the match must be played on September 11th. In 2008, journalist Andrés Ampuero interviewed “Chamaco” Valdés for a special program on Colo Colo.
The Chilean captain defended the journalist’s father, “Chamuyo” Ampuero, who was also an “allendista”, in order to be able to keep him on the national team’s medical staff. In addition to Lepe, who died in 1991, a silent and humble “Chamaco” Valdés, also helped out doctor Alvaro Reyes and asked for teammate Mario Moreno and two neighbors from his native Juan Antonio Ríos. All of them were detained, victims of the dictatorship that lasted 17 years, left over 3,200 dead and 30,000 torture victims Ampuero, Jr. agreed that he would give “Chamaco” Valdés a DVD with all his goals. He made it but never delievered it.
On August 10, 2009 the captain, a midfielder with a tremendous shot an great playmaking capability was found dead in his bed. He was 66 and had suffered a heart attack. Formet president Michelle Bachelet paid tribute to him the following day. The DVD, that he never received, did not include that goal in 1973 at the Estadio Nacional.