Elderly former Chilean political prisoners on hunger strike

Last April 13, about 40 former political prisoners under the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile were forced to start a hunger strike to demand a raise for the meager pensions they receive as “human rights reparations” by the Chilean state. It is important to point that all of them, men and women on hunger strike, are elderly people, from 65 to 75 years of age. This is an act of desperation in response to the deaf ears of politicians, many former prisoners themselves like the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, who are now making very good money as administrators of the state that they inherited from the dictator.

As a former Chilean political prisoner myself, I urge you to support these brave, elder people who might be on their last act of protest. Please write to your State Representative and Senator to intercede before the Chilean government, so that they fulfill the promise made by their Minister of the Presidency, Ms. Ximena Rincon, to adjust these pensions and to form the trilateral Government-Parliament-Prisoners comision promised to legislate a solution to this injustice.

Your support is urgently needed.

To read their statement click here.