The Pinochet Coup 40 Years Ago — Of Chile’s 9/11 and Photojournalist Juan Carlos Cáceres’ Only Weapon, His Camera

September 11, 2013 — Published by THEME

Real life, politics and foreign affairs should matter to every photographer, even if you’re into macro and landscape. Understanding and capturing the human mind is the basis of every good photography. That’s why THEME brings you a topic like this, of the day exactly 40 years ago, on September 11, 1973, when a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet toppled the democratic socialist government of Chile. President Salvador Allende was killed during the attack to seize La Moneda presidential palace. In the aftermath of the coup, a quarter of a million people were detained for their political beliefs, 3,000 were killed or disappeared and many thousands were tortured.

Some years later, in 1981, while Pinochet ruled Chile with iron fist, a young photographer calledJuan Carlos Cáceres started to freelance in the streets of Santiago and the poblaciones or poor outskirts, showing the growing resistance against the dictatorship.

Chile — Imagenes de la Resistencia | Juan Carlos Cáceres / Archivolatino

For the next 10 years, Cáceres photographed every single protest and social movement fighting for the restoration of democracy. He knew that his camera was his only weapon. He knew that his fate was to record the daily violence and leave his images for history.