In a video game released ahead of the 50th anniversary of Chile’s 1973 coup, a virtual couple joins the resistance movement against a military dictatorship, with the sound of helicopters whirling and Chile’s La Moneda presidential palace ablaze. The game, titled ‘Dirty Wars: September 11’, was created by Chilean sociologist Jorge Olivares, who spent six years developing it. The game is set during Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship and references the date he led a coup against socialist President Salvador Allende.
The coup was part of a wave of military rule in South America in the 1970s, which resulted in the death, disappearance, torture, and exile of thousands. Democracy in Chile was only restored in 1990, and the memories of that period still loom large in the country. Olivares drew inspiration from his own family for the main protagonists of the game, who are part of the ‘stealth’ genre and choose to confront the military regime by joining a resistance group.
The anniversary of the coup on September 11 will mark half a century since the violent siege of the government palace in Santiago. Olivares clarified that his game, launched on the online gaming platform Steam, is not intended as “Marxist propaganda” or an “allegory” for the Allende government. Instead, his intention is to “fully show the context of the time” at this important anniversary in the country’s history.
Source: Reuters
Credit: The Star : News Feed
