KDurant7 blog adventures

LaPaz, Bolivia 1982

In LaPaz, Bolivia I tutored many young students that went to the American Cooperative School, where I taught, and I heard many shocking stories about their lives. One day, the mother of Javier, whom I tutored, told me about her experience in Santiago, Chile, as she knew I had lived there just a few years earlier. There was an election in Chile in 1970 and for the first time, without an armed revolution, a socialist was elected into power, he was Salvador Allende. The custom of the socialist/communist governments is to nationalize all resources, regardless of debts owed to other countries’ investments, and in the north region of Chile was the largest copper mine in the world. It supplied most of the US companies their copper for telephone lines and more. The CIA got involved as they did not want to permit more South American countries to fall like dominoes to socialist regime changes that would jeopardized mega-billions of dollars in investments. So, on September 11, 1973, 3 American fighter jets bombed the building where President Allende was and soon afterward Augusto Pinochet established a military dictatorship that lasted until 1990. To clean up the country of socialist/communist sympathizers, he began a purge and truck loads of soldiers arrived at people’s home to arrest the suspected guilty ones who were vocal opponents of his regime. Tens of thousands of people “disappeared” while hundreds more were executed daily in the stadium downtown. Every citizen was a suspect, and everyone feared for their lives. The parents of, Javier, one day got a visit by a truckload of soldiers as they, being Bolivian and suspect of being socialist, were on the list to be killed. However, the mother of Javier, when they had first moved into their neighborhood had been friendly with all the neighbors and it turned out that the neighbor in front of her house was General Torres, of the new Pinochet regime. He came out and commanded the soldiers to leave their house as he said to them, “I know this lady, move on”! Imagine, her friendliness towards him and all her neighbors paid off in a way she never imagined, it saved all their lives! She moved back to Bolivia after that incident. The lesson, be a good neighbor to those nearby! Jesus even command to love your neighbor, you may never know how important that may be one day.