Legitimación e institucionalización. El poder militar disciplinario en Chile: bandos y decretos ley (1973-74)

Through Decree Law number 5 of September 12, 1973, the Chilean military specified that the «State of Siege decreed by internal commotion» should be understood as «State or Time of War». In this way, and once the coup d'état of Tuesday September 11 was consolidated, the Military Junta and the Armed Forces undertook an institutional process aimed at legitimizing military action, fighting Marxism and eliminating the «internal enemy», using for this, all the instruments and mechanisms available to combat its presence in the country. A certain legality was adapted and adopted and, above all, a new institutional framework for this total and permanent struggle against Marxism and its supporters. It was in this context of political and institutional violence that the Military Bands and the Decree Law operated as devices, that is, a network of power relations that were structuring a legal and punitive framework aimed at justifying the repression and elimination of opponents of the regime.