On a number of official Chilean government websites, such as the Chile Government [es] or Presidential Photos sites, no document older than March 12, 2010 can be found. Information belonging the previous government is not longer available. For example, the entire photo archive from the governments of Michele Bachelet and Ricardo Lagos are no longer available. The date coincides with the day after that President Sebastián Piñera was inaugurated as Chile's new president. Government of Chile website A debate ensued on the blogosphere about the meaning and significance of the deletions. Did the officials from the new government update the information or did they deliberately take down any reference to previous governments? Piñera's government is a marked change in Chilean politics, which brings the first right-wing government to take power in 20 years, since the country returned to democracy. With this, some bloggers say that the information should have been kept online since it was financed and belongs to the Chilean people. Pablo Bello (@pablobello) tweeted: Nueva administración elimina archivos de fotos de Bachelet y Lagos – así se instala la derecha Blogger Javier Sajuria believed that there was a chance for bi-partisan cooperation and unity, when Bachelet invited President-elect Piñera to attend the Summit of the Americas. However, this optimism turned to disappointment with the news of the removal of the files. He writes that it was a missed chance to begin the new government in unity and good faith and writes that “history does not begin on March 11 [es]” : Al sacar esos registros de los sitios, no sólo están haciendo un proceso de limpieza de información, sino que nos están notificando que no están a la altura de las circunstancias. El Gobierno nos está diciendo en la cara que no le importa el legado de las administraciones anteriores y que, en lo que a ellos respecta, Chile comienza el 11 de marzo de 2010. […] Existe la esperanza que esto siga tratándose de un error, pero cada vez son menos. Para el resto de nosotros, sólo nos sirve continuar exigiendo una solución de este tema que, por menor que parezca en estos días atormentados, no será menor el día de mañana, cuando queramos reconstruir nuestra historia. Son estos pequeños actos los que nos hablan de las actitudes del nuevo Gobierno, de la prepotencia con que realizan ciertas acciones y de sus inesperadas consecuencias. By removing those records from the sites, not only are they going through a process of information cleansing, but they are telling us that they are not up to the circumstances (continuing the policies of previous administrations). The Government is telling us to our faces that it does not care about the legacy of previous administrations and that in their opinion, Chile begins on March 11, 2010. […] There is hope that this is only an error, but more and more there is less hope. For the rest of us, all that is left is to continue to demand a solution to this issue, however unlikely it may seem during these difficult days, it will be more difficult when we want to reconstruct our history. These are small actions that reveal the attitudes of the new Government, of the arrogance with which they carry out certain actions and their unexpected consequences. Sajuria offers alternatives, such as handing over the files to the Libraries, Archives and Museums Directorate (Dibam), so that they can archive the information. This would allow the public to access the information as needed. Blogger Luis Ramirez concurs that the cleansing does not appear to be caused by coincidence or over-zealousness, but rather as a political statement [es]: Me consta que esta desaparición forzada de la historia no fue un “error técnico”. Hablé con dos personas (una del nuevo gobierno y otra del antiguo) que me confirmaron que efectivamente esta situación se produjo. […] No es un tema de racionalidad, es un tema de ser respetuosos y empáticos con esa parte de la nación que no votó por ellos y que son, ni más ni menos, que casi el 50% de la población. […] Para decirlo con toda claridad: una política de eliminación sistemática de la memoria histórica de los anteriores gobiernos, no es compatible con la unidad nacional. No pueden pretender borrarnos. I know that this forced disappearance of history was not a “technical error.” I spoke with two persons (one from the new government and another from the previous government) that confirmed to me that this situation actually occurred. […] It is not a matter of rationality, but a matter of being respectful and sympathetic to that part of the nation that did not vote for them and they are, neither more nor less than about 50% of the population.