Politics and Performance: The Protest Movement for the Human Rights in Chile under the Military Rule (1978-1987)

Abstract

The article describes and examines the repertoires of collective action and the trajectory of human rights protests in Chile between 1978 and 1987, under the Augusto Pinochet military rule. It is observed the repertoires were characterized by their symbolic contents and a performative form. This specific way of carrying out the act of protest was successful in its aim to mobilize other groups to their cause. However, the salience that the Human Rights situation acquired at the time was progressively displaced as the urgency to start a democratization process gave higher priority to electoral issues. This would end up weakening the mobilization for Human Rights.