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‘The enemy worked from the darkness’
Two Chilean refugees, JUANI COLQUE and SYLVIA VELASQUEZ, tell Roger McKenzie how they experienced the US-backed coup on September 11 1973 that installed the brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet
Chilean refugees Silvia Velasquez (left) and Juani Colque

JUANI COLQUE was an activist with the Popular Unitary Action Movement and worked as a chemical analyst in the animal food factory Ralston Purina.

“That fateful morning on September 11, I arrived as best I could to my workplace, Ralston Purina in Limache, the first company to be nationalised, by [Salvador] Allende’s regime.

“Before 7am the marines were already occupying the train station. Fortunately, a relative took us through roads, almost unsuitable for vehicles, to the factory.

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