Fantasy and Political Violence

Since torture is back in the international headlines now, the study by Margarita Pa- cios ¿Fantasy and Political Violence¿ should be required reading. Her book, centered in the analysis of Chilean anticommunism of the early 1970s, analyzes a pheno- non which is difficult to understand: the non-rational side of political violence. We do not yet have studies dealing with the problem as it pertains to the recent history of the United States, aside from massive journalistic revelations and legal investi- tions concerning what has happened. Among other things, we lack a theoretical analysis such as the one undertaken here by Dr. Palacios. Her focus on Chile is quite salutary because the political institutions, laws, and traditions of Chile before the military coup of 1973 were at least as opposed to what happened during the dictat- ship, as U. S. institutions, laws, and traditions were to the admittedly much less v- lent emergency regime from 2001 to 2008. Thus the question how in a constitutional democracy extreme violence can be possible, can be raised with great advantage in this particular case study. In my view, the work focuses above all on the imaginary significations that link the underlying agreement of three constituencies in such a way that the massive use of torture as well as disappearances of people in the Chilean case became possible.