Prisoner of Pinochet: My Year in a Chilean Concentration Camp

by Sergio Bitar, Peter Winn (Foreword), Erin Goodman (Translator)

September 11, 1973: Chilean military forces under General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the elected government of President Salvador Allende, bombing the presidential palace with the president inside. Minister of Mining Sergio Bitar was forcibly detained along with other members of the Allende cabinet and confined on bleak, frigid Dawson Island in the Magellan Straits.

Prisoner of Pinochet is the gripping first-person chronicle of Bitar's year as a political prisoner before being expelled from Chile; a poignant narrative of men held captive together in a labor camp under harsh conditions, only able to guess at their eventual fate; and an insightful memoir of the momentous events of the early 1970s that led to seventeen years of bloody authoritarian rule in Chile. Available in English for the first time, this edition includes maps and photos from the 1970s and contextual notes by historian Peter Winn.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1987

About the author

Sergio Bitar is a member and non-resident senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue and president of Fundación por la Democracia in Chile. At the Dialogue, Bitar directs the Global Trends & Future Scenarios Project.

Bitar served as the Minister of Mining under President Salvador Allende in 1973 and was detained under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, imprisoned in Dawson Island, and then forced into exile until 1984, living in Venezuela and the United States. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Institute for International Development from 1974 to 1976, a Visiting Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s Latin American Program from 1982 to 1983. After his return to Chile, he was elected president of the Party for Democracy in three occasions (1992-1994, 1997-2000, and 2006-2008) and served as a Senator from 1994 to 2002. In addition, he served as the Minister of Education under President Ricardo Lagos and Minister of Public Works under President Michelle Bachelet. He also founded the Latin American Center for International Economics and Politics (CLEPI), serving as its president from 1987 to 1993.

Bitar has published dozens of books and articles, including Chile Mas Allá del Bicentenario (Editorial Planeta, Santiago, 2009), Educación Nuestra Riqueza, Chile Educa para el siglo XXI (Editorial El Mercurio- Aguilar, Santiago, 2005), and Chile 1970-1973 (Editorial Pehuén, Chile, 1996 and 2001). His recent books include: El Gobierno de Allende, 3rd edition, 2013; Chile, Bolivia, Peru. Un Futuro Común, 2011; Dawson Isla 10, 13 ed, 2010; y Chile Mas Allá del Bicentenario, 2009. In 2016, Bitar received the national honor of “Engineer of the Year” by the Chilean College of Engineers Guild Association.

Reviews

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

debería ser lectura obligatoria, no por la calidad narrativa (que cumple), sino porque la brutalidad de lo descrito debería ser de conocimiento transversal. secuestrar a un puñado de políticos, altos cargos de la UP, en sus ropas primaverales santiaguinas y aprisionarlos en un campo de concentración en isla dawson, sin más abrigo, obligados a trabajos forzados brutales, incomunicados del exterior y de sus seres queridos, pasando hambre, alrededor de un año, es criminal.

me estremece no haber sabido mas que superficialmente de esto, considerándome informada de la dictadura chilena.

[el autor tiene publicado el pdf gratis]

[Diego Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este no es un relato que permite ilustrar, con claridad, toda la crudeza y maldad que hubo contra miles de persona durante la dictadura en Chile. Pero sí es un libro que ilustra con nitidez la discrecionalidad y arbitrariedad que se ejerció contra tantos otros al detenerlos, aislarlos, renegarlos y dejándolos al margen de sus vidas personales y sociales durante tanto tiempo, como fue el caso de quienes, junto a Sergio Bitar, estuvieron en la Isla Dawson.

Creo que este relato es excelente por muchas razones, entre ellas por el tono humano, franco y cercano que usa su autor, además de cierta justicia y amplitud de mirada de que se sirve para abordar las complejas relaciones personales que tocó vivir en esa época, nunca fáciles y siempre con distintas capas por develar.

[Cris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Escrito de manera sencilla y quizá ecuánime, el ex ministro describe sus vivencias en un campo de concentración en la dictadura chilena de Pinochet.

[Valentina Stephan · Rating 5 out of 5]

No puedo creer q esto sea 100% real, q mal