/ARTS WEEKLY/CHILE: Book Reveals Truth of General’s Apocryphal Memoirs

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Jul 4 2005 (IPS) - Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and that is certainly the case with one of the best-selling novels in Chile this June, ‘Cadáver tuerto’ (‘One-Eyed Corpse’), in which author Eduardo Labarca confesses to having written the 1976 "memoirs" of General Carlos Prats, assassinated two years earlier.

Prats was the commander in chief of the Chilean army under socialist president Salvador Allende from October 1970 until August 1973, when he was replaced by General Augusto Pinochet.

The following month, on Sep. 11, 1973, Pinochet headed up the coup that toppled Allende and ushered in 17 years of military dictatorship.

In his new novel, described as "the story of a tyrant, torture and exile" and inspired by Labarca’s own experiences, the author stresses that the apocryphal memoirs were written "for the cause."

Labarca wrote Prats’ "autobiography" in Moscow, where he lived in exile in the early years of the 1973-1990 Pinochet dictatorship. He was one of the best-known journalists on ‘Listen Chile’, a programme broadcast by Radio Moscow to report "from the other side of the world" on what was happening in the South American nation, which had been subjected to total media censorship following the Sep. 11 coup.

The short-wave radio programme was one of the main instruments used to denounce the dictatorship’s bloody repression of dissent, and to rally the forces of the outlawed Communist Party of Chile (PCC), closely allied at the time with its "big brother", the ruling Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Born in Santiago in 1938, Labarca graduated from law school at the University of Chile but was lured away from a legal career by a passion for revolutionary politics and journalism. He was able to combine both callings as the political editor at ‘El Siglo’, the official daily newspaper of the PCC.

In 1968 he published his first book, ‘Chile invadido’ (‘Chile Invaded’), an in-depth investigative report on the ties linking the administration of President Eduardo Frei Montalva (1964-1970) and the then ruling Christian Democratic Party with agencies in the United States and Europe suspected of political infiltration of trade unions, community organisations and universities.

This was followed in 1971 by ‘Chile al Rojo’ (a play on words: "Chile turns red", or "red-hot Chile", an account of the presidential campaign that brought Allende to office in 1970 – and the conspiracies aimed at preventing him and his leftist coalition from taking power.

In 1973 Labarca released ‘Corvalán 27 horas’ (‘Corvalán 27 Hours’), based on extensive interviews with Luis Corvalán, the general secretary of the Chilean Communist Party, who held that post for a total of 31 years, from 1958 to 1989.

Immediately after the coup, he briefly sought asylum in the Colombian embassy, and then went into exile in the Soviet Union and became part of the team that produced the ‘Listen Chile’ programme. In 1980 he moved to Paris and began a new career as a translator, which later took him to Vienna, where he worked for a number of United Nations agencies.

His debut as a fiction writer came in 1988 with ‘El turco Abdalá y otras historias’ (‘Abdalá the Turk and Other Stories’), a collection of short stories, followed by ‘Acullá, apuntes para una novela’ (‘Acullá, Notes for a Novel’) in 1990. In 1994 he released ‘Butamalón’, based on the true story of a Mapuche Indian rebellion in 1598, which was first published in Spain and later in Chile, in 1997.

‘Cadáver tuerto’, launched in Santiago at the end of May, would have been considered his fourth work of fiction, but in actual fact, it was the fifth.

"My first work of fiction was ‘Una vida por la legalidad’ (roughly, ‘A Life for the Rule of Law’), published in Mexico in 1976 as the memoirs of General Prats," Labarca confessed at a press conference in June.

Prats and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert, went into exile in neighbouring Argentina after the coup. On Sep. 30, 1974, they were both killed by a car bomb in Buenos Aires, in a terrorist attack carried out by the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) of Chile, Pinochet’s secret police.

Not until a full three decades later, on Sep. 30, 2004, did the Chilean Armed Forces, now headed by General Juan Emilio Cheyre, pay tribute to Prats and recognise his status as a former commander in chief.

But on Mar. 24, the Chilean Supreme Court acquitted Pinochet of the charges filed against him for this double homicide, on the grounds that he is unfit to stand trial because of his alleged senile dementia.

The 89-year-old former dictator has avoided facing trial for human rights abuses under the same argument on two other occasions since July 2002.

Labarca was already well into the writing of ‘Cadáver tuerto’ when Cheyre restored Prats to his rightful place in history, a step that convinced him it was time to "come clean" about the apocryphal memoirs released in 1976 by the Fondo de Cultura Económica publishing house in Mexico, with a print run of some 100,000 copies.

In 1985, Sofía, Cecilia and Angélica Prats Cuthbert had their father’s "genuine and only memoirs" published by Pehuén Books in Chile. The introduction included a discreet reference to "the apocryphal book that someone wrote in Mexico and which, regardless of its objective, stemmed from a commitment to particular interests and not to the truth".

The fake memoirs were not actually written in Mexico, but rather in Moscow, by Labarca, at the instructions of the Chilean Communist Party leadership. He had initially been given a draft manuscript by another anonymous author, but deemed it "worthless" and devoted long hours every day after work on the radio show to crafting a new version himself, in the shortest time possible.

Labarca knowingly took part in this deceit, "with total enthusiasm and total dedication," because "this was a fight to the death against a dictatorship that tortured and killed". In light of this fact, he looked upon the book as a fully justified "intelligence operation" aimed at weakening the Pinochet regime.

The operation was unsuccessful. Only a very limited number of photocopied versions circulated underground in Chile. Outside the country, however, the book was the subject of numerous essays and papers presented at conferences, while thousands of Chilean exiles kept treasured copies of it in their homes, convinced that its author was General Prats.

The Fondo de Cultura Económica removed the book from its catalogue in 1985.

Before publishing ‘Cadáver tuerto’, Labarca travelled to Greece, where Sofía Prats is the current Chilean ambassador, to personally reveal the secret behind the 1976 memoirs that is exposed in his new novel. He has also met with the general’s two other daughters in Santiago, as well as with Cheyre, on Jun. 14.

The journalist and author, who left the Communist Party ranks over a decade ago, has confessed to this subterfuge on his own behalf, but has not revealed the names of the party leaders involved.

"As far as I know, nobody ever collected royalties from the Fondo de Cultura Ecónomica," he said.

Labarca also told IPS that the spectacular nature of this revelation could easily distract the public’s attention from the literary merits of his latest book.

"I hope the proper balance is maintained," he remarked.