‘India pulled me out of my depression’
Your uncle, President Salvador Allende of Chile was assassinated in a CIA-managed coup in 1973. You stayed back for a year in Chile working against the military dictatorship. At what point did you feel you had to leave?
From the very beginning of the military dictatorship I realised that I did not want to live in a state of terror, but I hoped the situation would change.Nobody expected the military to stay in power for 16 long years! I thought that if I kept a low profile, I would be able to remain in my country until democracy returned.
I have lived in the United States for 17 years. I love this country but I do not approve of the present government. I do not like what Bush has done to this country and to the world.
You have been quoted as saying that the 9/11 attacks made you relate to America’s vulnerability and feel closer to it than before. But you have also compared Guantanamo Bay prison to Nazi concentration camps. Do you think there is a concept of a ‘just war’?
I think that Iraq had nothing to do with the terrorist attack on the United States in 2001. Bush wanted to invade Iraq and found excuses to do so. I suppose that sometimes war is unavoidable. For example, Hitler had to be stopped by war, there was no other way. But I do not think that war is the solution in most cases and certainly not in the case of Iraq.
You came to America because you fell in ‘love or lust’ with an American — now your husband. You expected to get him out of your system in a week. At what point did you realise that it was meant to be?
I knew that I was deeply connected to Willie a couple of weeks after I met him. At the beginning I thought we would have a passing affair but very soon I felt in my heart that he was the man for me. He didn’t feel the same way. He was scared. Fortunately, after I forced him to marry me, he surrendered and I don’t think he has ever regretted his decision.