Whatever Happened to Radicalism? Voices from the George Vickers Papers

Latin American Voices

On October 5, 1988, more than 97 percent of the Chilean electorate voted on a single issue: should military dictator Augusto Pinochet remain in power? Doubts that Pinochet would allow a fair referendum drew hundreds of international observers, George Vickers among them, to Chile. The “no” vote prevailed with 56 percent, but did not oust Pinochet overnight or undo the repressive policies and violence wielded by his regime since 1973, when a military coup deposed Chile’s elected socialist leader. But the symbolic weight of the result is clear in a series of photos taken by Vickers in Santiago, where joyous “no” voters celebrated despite the threat of tear gas and water cannons. 

A crowd of people marching along a sidewalk next to storefronts, with emphasis on a shirtless young man triumphantly holding up a newspaper.
A crowd of people wearing white shirts and bearing Chilean flags beneath a hazy blue sky.
Several men in plain clothes and riot gear stand in the foreground facing away from the camera, with rows of similar men standing in the distance; beyond them, a white cloud of gas rises between two buildings and in front of a third.
A crowd of people standing in front of a concrete building, with emphasis on a young man crossing his arms above his head and forming a fist with one hand and a "V" or peace sign with the other.
Crowd at O'Higgins in Santiago, Chile
A concrete wall covered in graffiti depicting a row of brightly colored houses beneath a row of slender trees; above, large block letters read "La primavera es nuestra" or "the spring is ours," with a rainbow and clouds off to one side.
A group of people bearing Chilean flags and a "no" flag atop a bus, with others marching beside the bus, against a backdrop of buildings, a sparse tree canopy, and sky.
A crowd of people marching on a sidewalk next to store fronts, with hands in various states of clapping and mouths rounded in a way that suggests chanting.

US support for Pinochet’s 1973 coup was a catalyst for the formation of the Washington Office on Latin America, conceived as a conduit bringing the voices of Latin Americans impacted by US foreign policy to Washington. As Vickers shifted his attention from Vietnam to Central America in the 1980s, he found common cause with WOLA and later served as Executive Director from 1993 to 2001. Meanwhile, from 1984 to 1992 he worked to understand the protracted armed conflicts reshaping Guatemala, Nicaragua, and above all El Salvador. 

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