Sergio Bitar

تجارب التحول إلى الديمقراطية

Il Golpe militare dell’11 settembre 1973 ha segnato per sempre la storia del Cile e del suo popolo. Dawson Isla 10 costituisce un’appassionante cronaca sulle condizioni di vita e le esperienze quotidiane degli alti dirigenti politici e sociali del governo di Unidad Popular di Salvador Allende che sopravvissero alla dittatura. Deportati su un’inospitale isola della Patagonia, 17 anni dopo ricostruiranno la democrazia in Cile. L’intero libro di Bitar è un’eccezionale cronaca del periodo in cui egli fu detenuto per oltre un anno in Patagonia, nel più meridionale campo di concentramento della storia. L’opera è, insieme, il racconto della prigionia condivisa con alti funzionari del governo democratico di Allende e una toccante testimonianza in grado di preservarne la memoria per le nuove generazioni. Dal libro, già tradotto in molte lingue e ora anche in italiano, è stato tratto l’omonimo film del 2009.

Dawson Isla 10

Abraham F. Lowenthal

National leaders who played key roles in transitions to democratic governance reveal how these were accomplished in Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, and Spain. Commissioned by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), these interviews shed fascinating light on how repressive regimes were ended and democracy took hold. In probing conversations with Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Patricio Aylwin, Ricardo Lagos, John Kufuor, Jerry Rawlings, B. J. Habibie, Ernesto Zedillo, Fidel V. Ramos, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, F. W. de Klerk, Thabo Mbeki, and Felipe González, editors Sergio Bitar and Abraham F. Lowenthal focused on each leader’s principal challenges and goals as well as their strategies to end authoritarian rule and construct democratic governance. Context-setting introductions by country experts highlight each nation’s unique experience as well as recurrent challenges all transitions faced. A chapter by Georgina Waylen analyzes the role of women leaders, often underestimated. A foreword by Tunisia’s former president, Mohamed Moncef Marzouki, underlines the book’s relevance in North Africa, West Asia, and beyond. The editors’ conclusion distills lessons about how democratic transitions have been and can be carried out in a changing world, emphasizing the importance of political leadership. This unique book should be valuable for political leaders, civil society activists, journalists, scholars, and all who want to support democratic transitions.

Conversations with World Leaders

Democratic Transitions

September 11, 1973: Chilean military forces under General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the elected government of President Salvador Allende, bombing the presidential palace with the president inside. Minister of Mining Sergio Bitar was forcibly detained along with other members of the Allende cabinet and confined on bleak, frigid Dawson Island in the Magellan Straits. Prisoner of Pinochet is the gripping first-person chronicle of Bitar's year as a political prisoner before being expelled from Chile; a poignant narrative of men held captive together in a labor camp under harsh conditions, only able to guess at their eventual fate; and an insightful memoir of the momentous events of the early 1970s that led to seventeen years of bloody authoritarian rule in Chile. Available in English for the first time, this edition includes maps and photos from the 1970s and contextual notes by historian Peter Winn.

Sergio Bitar

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