Sergio Reyes

Sergio Reyes

On YouTube

25/01/2020 - To access my YouTube channel click here.

Chile: the social agenda of the government doesn't satisfy the demands of people on the streets

25/10/2019 - Chile is on its seventh day of protests and revolt. People’s participation is in crescendo. Hard to explain how in seven days these people turned against the neoliberal economic system that shaped a society that very few now defend. Many activists for social change find it strange why it was so difficult to mobilize people just a few weeks ago for the same causes that now the masses are embracing.

The Chilean ruling class that benefited from the bonanza of the capitalist neoliberal system, are also finding hard to blame the usual evils, like the communists, for this massive movement that is expressing its power right out on the streets. The right-wing coalition in power, is now trying to maneuver between understanding what is going on and applying control of the state and the military to regain a hold of the situation.
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Second Trip to Chalatenango, April 29 - May 2, 2016

21/05/2016 -

More than two weeks had gone by before I was able to write a report on this second trip to Chalatenango, El Salvador. The delay was not only determined by other obligations and preoccupations, but was more than anything a psychological pause, trying to absorb what happened during those 4 days in El Salvador. Last year, 2015, Vielka Bolaños, Horacio's widow, Leopoldo Luna, comrade at arms of Horacio, and I, friend of youth and struggle in Chile of Horacio, were in the same area from March 21 through the March 28.

To read the full report click here.

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Leaving testimony of the struggle of a Chilean internationalist who died in El Salvador in 1981

28/04/2016 - This April 30, 2016, we will inaugurate a historical marker in the small community of El Jicaro, in Chalatenango, El Salvador. For nearly two years a group of friends, comrades and relatives of the Chilean Sergio Mancilla Caro, have been working to recover his history. Mancilla took on the nom de guerre “Horacio”. This is the only name that his comrades knew him by. Mancilla was killed in combat on October 5, 1981 in La Quebrada del Zope, during an army ambush.
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Chile, being a member of the Socialist Party in the government is a shame

I spent three weeks in Chile starting May 22. These were three weeks charged with activities, actions, events, and emotions. Chile is a country where class struggle and social conflict is sharp at this moment. I had been working with my former companions, ex political prisoners in hunger strike since April 13. I arrived in Chile in the midst of that movement, which has been silenced by the media and the government.

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Elderly former Chilean political prisoners on hunger strike

18/04/2015 -

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.
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Report trip to El Salvador in search of the remains of Sergio Mancilla Caro

April 9, 2015.- More than a year ago a small group of us started work to write the history and our memories of our friend and comrade from Magallanes, Sergio Mancilla Caro. We never imagined then that some of us would end up traveling to the very place where our friend was killed in combat in 1981. The Zope's Ravine (Quebrada del Zope) was hard to imagine as a real place, when we read about it in the War Report written by the Medic Benito. It was just a far away, unreal place in our minds. Yet, after we wrote finished writing our memories of our friend Sergio, "Horacio", we decided that we would now take on a search for his remains. This is how we arrived at the place where this young man of easy smiles of yesteryear has been buried for 34 years. This is our trip report.

To read/download the pdf file, click here.
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In Search of Sergio Mancilla

An Attempt to Recover the Remains of a Chilean Internationalist
Killed in Action in El Salvador, 1981

Thanks to all who attended and/or gave us your support, love and financial contributions! We shall overcome.

Sat. February 28, 2015 - 7pm-9pm
At Encuentro5, 9A Hamilton Place, Boston, MA 02108-4701

“Internationalists” – José Alemán
“Homage to Chilean Internationalists in El Salvador” - Video
“Revolutionary music & the case of Sergio Mancilla” – Sergio Reyes

To download flyer click here.
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The Story of Sergio Mancilla Caro, A Southern Internationalist Guerrilla Fighter

This October 2014 a Spanish language e-book entitled "La Historia de Sergio Mancilla Caro, Un Guerrillero Internationalista Austral" (The Story of Sergio Mancilla Caro, A Southern Internationalist Guerrilla Fighter) has begun international circulation. This book reveals the transformation of a young man born where the land ends in the South, Magallanes, Chile, to conclude his life in the mountains of El Salvador. This paper has been a collective effort of his childhood friends, his family, and especially his beloved companion in struggle and wife, in an effort to rescue the details of his life, which over the lapse of more than 30 years seemed lost.

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Sergio Reyes' birthday and fund-raising event -- From Punta Arenas to Boston: 60 years of struggle

A benefit for the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society

Friday, February 14, 2014 – 6:30PM – 10:30PM
Community Church of Boston
565 Boylston Street, Boston, MA
More info: 617-290-5614 or sreyes1@yahoo.com

As Reyes was born on February 14, 1954 in the southernmost city of Punta Arenas, Chile, inflation had reached 71% under the presidency of former General Carlos Ibañez del Campo. The situation for the Chilean working class was harsh yet workers didn't take it sitting down
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Farewell Bunilda!

Farewell to Bunny, my dear pet companion. Today, regretfully, we had to force Bunny's departure from life. Her condition was untenable, couldn't see, couldn't walk and had decided simply not to eat or drink. Last May she was in even worse shape and we brought her to life and recovered, but during her last two months she deteriorated significantly. She was approaching 20, the equivalent of 94 human years. A long life for a little poodle rescued from death as a puppy by my Susana in Chile and brought to the U.S. She joined my life 13 years ago. Being an atheist I don't believe in heavens, even for sweet dogs like Bunny. All I know is that she has stopped suffering. All in all, in her simple animal life she contributed to mine without even having to know why. This picture taken this morning before we left for the vet hospital. (At my Facebook wall September 29, 2013)

Link to the song I composed for Bunilda

For the translation to the lyrics, please click on the [+] below.

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The Art of Resistance, Memory, and Testimony in Political Arpilleras (Textiles)

Lecture by Chilean Professor Roberta Bacic

Mon Feb 27 4:30-6:30pm
U-Mass Amherst (300 Mass. Av., Amherst, MA 01003)
Cape Cod Lounge

Music performed by Sergio Reyes

Roberta Bacic, a Chilean resident of Ireland and Professor of Philosophy and Human Rights will speak about the role of political arpilleras in resisting and responding to state repression.

Activist Sergio Reyes, political prisoner during the Pinochet regime, will perform

Directions to U-Mass Amherst

To download a flyer including all related activities click here.

On Facebook:

Professional Resume

I am currently retired. However, if my skills and/or advice is requested by organizations seeking to advance a good cause, for humanity, for social change, I would be willing to talk about volunteering.

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Boston Globe Article: Pinochet’s arrest, spurs flashbacks of torture

20/10/1998 - Boston, October 20, 1998.- As former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet vowed from - his hospital bed in London that he would fight Spain's attempts to extradite him for murder, genocide, and torture, a soft-spoken, bearded man sat in his office on Berkeley Street yesterday, remembering.

The soldiers had stormed Sergio Reyes' home in Punta Arenas in the middle of the night stolen his mother's jewelry, blindfolded him, pointed their rifles and said the words ready, aim, fire. His mother wailed. The guns clicked. Then there was laughter. It was a mock execution. Reyes was hauled, off to prison where he was stripped, prodded with electrodes-, dunked in tanks of human feces, and beaten for months on end.
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