Urban Geographies of Transnational Activism: Solidarity with Chile in Cold War Mexico City

This paper looks at the political activism of students, exiles, and workers as transnational subjects in the pursuit of anti-militarism in Chile after the fall of Allende in 1973. It maps the organizational efforts and the fabric of struggle of over a dozen groups active in Mexico City, particularly within the space in and around the Casa de Chile and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Utilizing documents produced by activists and by the state, including newly released police investigation records, this paper looks at the framing of solidarity efforts and the cause to examine a critical moment of shift between internationalist, Guevarist and Third Worldist notions of solidarity to a neoliberal injustice, human rights based frame. Specifically, it addresses how demands and objectives of ongoing solidarity efforts within urban geographies of action shifted to bring new actors and transnational agency to the center.