APS : SUNDAY 07 FEBRUARY 2021
SANTIAGO – Algeria has played a key role in the return of democracy and freedom to Chile through the reception of several hundred Chilean exiles between 1973 and 1990, Algerian ambassador to Chile,
Mohamed Sofiane Berrah said.
“Between 1973 and 1990, Algeria received for a long period between 700 and 1,000 Chilean exiles and accepted them as members of the Algerian community,” Mohamed Sofiane Berrah said during an interview at the headquarters of the Algerian embassy in Chile.
“Algeria has in that time become a country which hosted the most meetings of the Chilean resistance against dictatorship” and thus had “big involvement and commitment for the return of democracy and freedom in Chile,” he added.
Berrah recalled that Algeria had “offered its help to Chile, which was a boycotted country under embargo and was suffering from a strangled economy. In this context, President Boumediene made his proposal aiming to release stranglehold on Chile and export the Algerian oil to it.
Algerian ambassador also spoke of the “involvement of the Chilean community of Arab origin in the national liberation struggle, by serving as a link and allowing Algerian fighters to make themselves known in Chile and in all Latin America countries.”
Referring to the privileged relations between Algeria and Chile, Berrah focused on the period from 1962 to 1973 and the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations between the two countries, marked by “a growing interest and a convergence of views”.
He paid tribute to “the visionary character and leadership” of the then Heads of State President Boumediene and Salvador Allende,
recalling that they have met many times and have “supported each other for one objective : to work together to create a third way in an ultra polarized world, through the Non-Alignment Movement and the creation of a new world economic order.”
The Algerian Ambassador to Chile also cited the “movement to nationalize copper companies in Chile and hydrocarbons in Algeria,” adding that the work of the two presidents has encouraged other countries to follow the same path and move towards autonomy.
Still on Algerian-Chilean relations, Berrah recalled President Allende’s historical visit to Algeria in 1972, where he then made his first visit not only to Africa but to an Arab country.
