La relegación como mecanismo de represión de la dictadura chilena (1973-1989) y su representación en el cine. El caso de la película “La Frontera” de Ricardo Larraín

Abstract

As of September 11, 1973, the Chilean dictatorship and its repressive services deployed a wide range of mechanisms to punish, persecute, and control political opponents. One of the characteristics of the regime is that even when all these methods were at odds with the rule of law, administrative support was often sought through decrees and legal provisions, which sought to give the repression a normative appearance. Among the various repressive mechanisms that the dictatorship used to persecute its opponents, it resorted to the relegation of people to extreme and remote places in the country as a measure of punishment and isolation. This practice was institutionalized in 1980, through a law that allowed these transfers to those accused of disturbing public order, without the need for a judicial process. In fact, it was a recurring measure against those social leaders who called the protest days against the dictatorship between 1983 and 1986. Despite having been applied with relative frequency in the 1980s, and especially affecting, in general, well-known social and political leaders, there is very little research that addresses the issue. In contrast to its scarce approach in the academic field, the relegation was made visible through the cinema in one of the most renowned films of the national filmography, at the beginning of the transition to democracy, as was the film "La Frontera" (1991) that tells the story of a teacher who, as a union leader, is relegated to a small and isolated town in southern Chile.