Economic Genocide in Chile:

Second Open Letter to Arnold Harberger and Milton Friedman

Abstract

In this letter, Gunder Frank analyzes in detail, in the heat of events, the immediate consequences of the policies implemented by the Chilean Military Junta, which came to power after the coup against the government of Salvador Allende, on September 11, 1973. Under the auspices and direct and decisive participation of the Chicago School, through the actions of figures such as Arnold Harberger and Milton Friedman, recipients of the letter, and their disciples, the “Chicago Boys”, Gunder Frank describes this founding historical experience of neoliberalism as a process of genocide economic. Under the defense of the “free market”, such a process would have articulated vast privatizations, economic reprimarization, strong concentration and centralization of capital, especially in foreign hands, destruction of protective social structures and policies, accelerated income distribution in favor of capital, superexploitation of work, all of this accompanied by great violence against the working population and dissident political forces, including large-scale murders, arrests and torture, among many other types of state terrorism.