THE “CULTURAL BLACKOUT”IN CHILE: cultural policies and censorship during the Pinochet dictatorship 1973-1983

Abstract

The civil-military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet Ugarte left deep traces in the Chilean state and society. Characterized as being strongly authoritarian and repressive, but with a neoliberal project, it implemented a series of cultural policies that aligned withits objectives: on the one hand, to maintain tight control of artistic and cultural production, to eliminate any aspect of Marxism and areas of influence; and on the other, to socialize and naturalize the new political-economic-social system based on the norms of the free-market, which determined the minimization of the state and with it, the abandonment of all type of state intervention and incentive for cultural development.