Chilean Army (83ae8522)

The Chilean Army functions in the novel both as an institution of state coercion and as the force through which Augusto Pinochet imagines control. It expels a cadet for perceived effeminacy, stands ready to suppress political dissent, and occupies Santiago after the attack on Pinochet’s motorcade. The narrative’s juxtaposition of these actions with the dictator’s nightmares and domestic anxieties makes the Army’s power visible without presenting it as invulnerable.

Discipline and Exclusion

At the Military Academy, Pinochet notices a cadet socializing with a young bodyguard and treats the cadet’s perceived effeminacy as a threat to military order. He calls for the cadet’s immediate discharge, instructs his secretary to describe the case as immoral conduct, and watches as the young man is removed from the property. The episode shows institutional authority being used not merely to enforce military discipline but to police gender expression: the cadet’s conduct is condemned as a danger to the army, and his removal is accomplished through command rather than an open inquiry.

This act of exclusion sits beside Pinochet’s fixation on Communists, whom he also describes as a plague. In his formulation, both political dissent and queer difference threaten the institution’s purity. The scene’s bitter irony is that he imagines the army as orderly and protected only after dismissing the cadet, while the hummingbirds continue to disrupt the garden’s carefully maintained calm.

Readiness for Political Repression

As September 11 approaches, Pinochet anticipates demonstrations, student protests, bombs, and blackouts in Santiago. He considers an iron-fisted response, including imposing a curfew and placing the situation under army control, and entertains the prospect of executing Communists who challenge him. His confidence is reinforced by the armed bodyguards gathered near the presidential vehicles; when they laugh at a limping dog, he joins in and gives permission to shoot it. The episode links casual cruelty toward a vulnerable target with the larger logic of state violence.

The novel also sets this official confidence against the city’s political atmosphere. Radio Cooperativa reports dissent and arrests, while leaflets on the Paseo Ahumada call 1986 a year of liberation and declare that Pinochet will fall. When the Queen of the Corner bends to pick up a leaflet, a police officer threatens her with arrest. In this setting, the Army’s power belongs to a wider apparatus of intimidation in which public protest, information, and ordinary movement are subject to coercive control.

Occupation and the Aftermath of the Ambush

After the attack on Pinochet’s motorcade, the Army occupies Santiago and cuts off roads into and out of the city. House-to-house searches, arrests, beatings, and nighttime questioning turn poorer neighborhoods into sites of military control; some residents are made to stand through the night in football fields. The measures make the response to the ambush a citywide operation rather than a confined pursuit of those responsible. Radio announcements urging citizens to remain home and report anything suspicious carry the state’s demand for vigilance into domestic life.

At the Cajón del Maipo house, military and government officials arrive in a rush after the attack, while Pinochet drinks tea containing a prescribed tranquilizer. Lucy’s complaints about the bodyguards, their training, and their failure to stop the attackers sharpen the contrast between the resources invested in security and the motorcade’s vulnerability. Her account is openly scornful, but the scene confirms that the attack has exposed a failure in the security arrangements on which the regime depends.

Military Imagery and the Dictator’s Fears

The Army’s public power is accompanied by private images of vulnerability. Pinochet dreams of a funeral procession in which he is the sole protagonist, marching through emptied streets amid signs of death and devastation. Later, another nightmare transforms condors into predators circling above him; he wakes surrounded by bodyguards, who reassure him that he has dreamed. These episodes do not diminish the material force of the institution, but they puncture the certainty with which its commander speaks about controlling the country.

The novel also connects military identity to childhood memory. In a dream of his early years, Pinochet surveys toy armies, armored vehicles, and miniature soldiers arranged for battle. The scene places the imagery of command and warfare in his personal history, while the novel’s broader account of the Army shows those images carried into actual state power. The contrast is central: military force can occupy streets and expel individuals, yet it cannot prevent the dictator’s fear, nor guarantee his safety.