Pinochet Created the Criminals he Purged.

Chileans very varied reactions to the death of Pinochet

In The Politics of Street Children, Guadalupe Salazar explains how the existence of street children in present day Chile is evidence of the greater disparity between classes, the structural and symbolic violence that has been passed down since Pinochet, and the overall failure of radical neoliberalism coupled with a harsh dictatorship.

Shortly after Pinochet took over power, restructured politics by use of state terror and "stabalized" the economy with radical neoliberalism. The infamous "Chicago Boys" were hired to "neoliberalize" Chiles economy with severe measures called "Shock Treatment". This experiment, which privatized just about every social service, did not work, as the GDP fell 12%, and class disparity greatened. The Chicago Boys had a monopoly on economic policy.. **It seems to me that if a neoliberal agenda is supposed to work, "monopolies" within the government cannot exist....cachai, you get it?**...Salazar writes that "citizens were responsible for meeting their basic needs without subsidies or aid from the government while simultaneously stripped of weapons or defenses , such as access to education, training, or health care that would enable them to better reach those needs"... **It's hard to pull up your bootstraps if you don't have any boots**...

In 1979, Pinochet created SENAME, a program supposedly created to help "problematic" children whose parents could not care for them. SENAME created insitutions called Centros de Orienatcion (Orienatation Centers). The aim of these COD's was to correct these delinquents.The environment of these COD's was no different from a prison.... The COD buildings used to be used as torture centers duirng the coup... The COD's treated these children as criminals, and because of this, children became criminals. They accepted the perceptions that others had of them, and only saw their futures full of crime. They even began to see it as a profession. Many street children saw it as an advantage to be a better criminal; by doing so would bring forth more food, better clothing, a better life. They tried to be the most choro or tough in order to gain respect from the rest. Street children understood their second class position in society as deviants, but did not understand that the path was not a "career choice" but rather a given, It was impossible for them to get out of the mold that Piochet put them in 25 years before.

Pinochet's radical neoliberalisim exxagerated already existing inequalities between classes. The government fabricated the label of "delinquent" on many children of the lower classes, and this started a cycle that still has not stopped. Pinochet called the children "delinquents". The children then accepted their place in society as delinquents and acted as such. Pinochet then could justify his measures against the delinquents because they truly were a threat. This does not end. The individual's acceptance of such categorizing has been an integral part in the repression and silency of society.