Destroying Chilean democracy: Australia’s covert role five decades on

In September 2021, the National Security Archive, that estimable source hosted by George Washington University, published a selection of Fernandes's findings. They chart the evolution of the Santiago "station" that was requested by the CIA in the fall of 1970. Then Liberal Party external affairs minister William McMahon granted approval to ASIS in December 1970 to open the station at the heart of Chilean power.

In June 1971, a highly placed Australian official, whose name is redacted, began having second thoughts about, "The need to go ahead with the Santiago project at all, at this stage." The "situation in Chile has not deteriorated to the extent that was feared, when we made our submission". ASIS officials, despite begrudgingly admitting that "Allende had so far been more moderate than expected," still wished the opening of the station to "go forward now, and not be deferred." The pull of the CIA was proving all too mesmeric.

Once it got off the ground, the station endured various difficulties. A report from its staff in December 1972 notes concerns about the timeliness of reporting, the problems of using telegraphed reports, and how best to get communications to the "main office" securely. There is even a reference, with no elaboration, to "two most recent incidents" regarding "biographic details concerning" individuals (redacted from the document), something that did "little for our Service reputation."

With the coming to power of Labor's Gough Whitlam, a change of heart was felt in Canberra. In April 1973, the new prime minister rejected a proposal by ASIS to continue its clandestine outfit, feeling, as he told ASIS chief William T. Robertson, "uneasy about the M09 operation in Chile". But in closing down the Santiago station, he did not, according to a telegram from Robertson to station officers sent that month, wish to give the CIA the impression that this was "an unfriendly gesture towards the US in general or towards the CIA in particular."

Five decades on, some Australian politicians, having woken up from their slumber of ignorance, are calling for acknowledgement of Canberra's role in the destruction of a democracy that led to the death and torture of tens of thousands by the Pinochet regime. The Greens spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Peace, Senator Jordon Steele-John, stated his party's position: "50 years on we know Australia was involved, as it worked to support the US national interest. To this day, Australia's secretive and unaccountable national security apparatus has blocked the release of information and has denied closure for thousands of Chilean-Australians."

In calling for an apology to the Chilean people, the Greens are also demanding the declassification of any relevant ASIS and ASIO documents that would show support for Pinochet, including implementing "oversight and reform to our intelligence agencies to ensure that this can never happen again." With the monster of AUKUS enveloping Australia's national security, the good Senator should not hold his breath.