Abstract
Driven by the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the left-wing coalition government Popular Unity (UP) in Chile, led by Salvador Allende, this paper seeks to contribute to the reflections on the history of militants of the Brazilian left who were exiled in Chile during the Allende government. It does so through considering the importance of biographical analysis to the understanding of militant engagement. Analyzing the path of Vera Sílvia Magalhães, militant of the armed left linked to the Revolutionary Movement 8 of October (DI-GB / MR-8), exiled since 1970, our goal is to reconstruct the atmosphere involving the circulation of exiles in Nuestra America, demonstrating how Chile became, after the victory of the Popular Unit, a pole of attraction to Latin American militants. We also aim to demonstrate how the Chilean civil-military coup, which culminated in the suicide of Salvador Allende, was not only the end of the "Chilean way to socialism". In conclusion, it was the final blow to the project of the Brazilian and Latin-American revolution through the armed struggle, reconfiguring perspectives on exile, until then understood within a logic of provisionality and short duration, and putting the issue of disengagement on the agenda.
Keywords:
Popular Unity; exile; biography