The resignification of the Chilean dictatorship's international discourse: Decolonisation, religious tolerance and women's rights

Abstract

The Chilean dictatorship reacted to the international condemnation with a resignification of its international discourse in areas of Human Rights that it considered innocuous, such as decolonisation, apartheid, religious tolerance and -as we suggest- women's rights. The article seeks to determine the key representations elaborated by the dictatorship, through a discourse analysis, and a post-structuralist approach in International Relations. Its findings show that in the area of women's rights there existed a clear contradiction between the internal and international narrative on the part of the dictatorship, with a support for feminist ideas in the international sphere and a hostile opposition against them in the domestic one. For the evaluation of the consequences of this practice, the analysis uses the boomerang model, looking at the impact of the contradiction on the strength not only of the human's rights movement, but also the women's rights one. In turn, it evaluates the effect that the latter had on the dictatorship policies and discourse.