Posted: 12/10/2006 5:25:08 PM EDT
 Great sadness over Pinochet death By Enrique Fernandez in Santiago December 11, 2006 FORMER Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose 17-year rule marked by the torture and deaths of thousands became a symbol of Latin American military repression, died today aged 91. The ex-strongman, who evaded years of efforts to bring him to justice in hundreds of cases arising from his 1973-1990 rule, died in Santiago's Military Hospital surrounded by his family one week after suffering a heart attack, his doctor, Juan Ignacio Vergara said. Thousands of jubilant Chileans danced in the streets of Santiago and the city's central Plaza Italia at the news, waving flags and honking car horns to celebrate what they called Chile's "liberation" from the last vestiges of the former dictator's control. While there was no immediate statement by the government of Chile's President Michelle Bachelet - who, together with her parents, suffered torture during the Pinochet regime - reactions from abroad were restrained. The Government of the United States, which supported the bloody 1973 coup against socialist Salvador Allende that brought Pinochet to power, said its thoughts were with the victims of Gen Pinochet's regime. "Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile represented one of the most difficult periods in that nation's history. Our thoughts today are with the victims of his reign and their families," said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman. "We commend the people of Chile for building a society based on freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights," he said. Britain's Government distanced itself from his rule, with Foreign Office spokesperson Margaret Beckett paying tribute only to advances in democracy made by the country over the past 15 years. Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, however, was "greatly saddened" by Gen Pinochet's death, her spokesman said today. The spokesman said Mrs Thatcher would send her "deepest condolences" to his widow and family. Human rights group Amnesty International said Mr Pinochet's death should alert the Chilean Government to seek quick justice in human rights cases, and not to close probes of the country's "darkest chapter". "General Pinochet's death should be a wake-up call for the authorities in Chile and governments everywhere, reminding them of the importance of speedy justice for human rights crimes, something Pinochet himself has now escaped," a spokeswoman for the London-based human rights group said. Gen Pinochet's death ends years of efforts to bring him to justice for the killings of dissidents during his military regime. He avoided prosecution, his lawyers arguing to the Supreme Court that dementia hindered his ability to defend himself. The former general was taken to hospital a week ago while still under house arrest after suffering a heart attack. He underwent an angioplasty and doctors had announced steady improvement through until today. His body was to be taken later to the Santiago Military School and remain there until his family, the military and the Government of Ms Bachelet decide the date and form of his funeral. His death raised questions of how the state would handle his body. As a former president, he could merit a state funeral, with flags flown at half-mast and three days of mourning. But in the campaign ahead of her election last January, Ms Bachelet made clear she would find it difficult to preside over such rites. "It would feel tremendously embarrassed doing something like that ... it would embarrass Chile's conscience to honour somebody who was involved not only in human rights issues but even in misappropriation of public funds," she said. Ms Bachelet's father Alberto Bachelet, an air force general and Allende ally, was tortured and died in prison in 1974. Ms Bachelet and her mother, Angela Jeria, were also held and tortured by regime officials at the notorious Villa Grimaldi detention centre in 1975. Gen Pinochet's family has said it preferred a private ceremony to a state funeral. "We're not interested, even less so if it's held under a leftist government like this one," Gen Pinochet's youngest son, Marco Antonio, said in August referring to the Bachelet administration. Some 3000 people, by official count, were killed or tortured under Gen Pinochet's regime. Chileans remain deeply divided over the dictatorship, which ended when Gen Pinochet lost a 1988 referendum on his continued rule and handed over power in 1990 to a transitional government. During Gen Pinochet's 91st birthday celebrations on November 25, his wife read a message saying that the former dictator held "no grudge against anyone", despite all the "persecutions and injustices" against him. www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20906656-1702,00.html |
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Pinochet was brutal, but was fighting communism. Tough call. Would another Cuba have been preferable? Were 3000 lives worth no communism for 25 years? The devil's calculus is never fun. What was amazing about Pinochet, and rare in this world, is that a "dictator", volutarily stepped down from power, after an election. When a guy with supreme power does that, some sins should be forgiven. He didn't have to. ETA: I forgot to mention... Several years ago, Pinochet was interviewed. He asked why he did everything he did. He pulled out The Black Book of Communism and showed it to the interviewer. This book details the 94 million people that communism killed in the 20th century. He said that he did not want this to happen to his country. He had noble purposes, if his execution was flawed. |
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I lived the Chile most of 1982 and 83. He ruled that country with an iron fist and while things were, for the most part, peaceful, you could tell the people were poised on the brink of revolt. In mid-1983 things did get ugly. Riots and rebellion were common - ultimately resulting in military-enforced curfews, etc. I have vivid memory of sitting on my 12th story apartment balcony watching tanks and APCs rolling down the street. I met many people that told tales of abuse at the hands of Pinochet's soldiers (Carbineros) and even knew one old cowboy that recounted tales of watching trucks dumping bodies into mass graves in the dark of night. I also heard first-hand, modern-day accounts of people being locked up and having electrodes attached to their testicles (threats against the government, drugs and other crimes). Driving around downtown Santiago it was not uncommon to see unpatched bullet holes in government buildings - a not-so-gentle reminder of the Pinochet-led revolution. Carbineros were ever-present as was their weapon of choice - the Uzi (with wood stock). Got hassled by the Carbineros myself a couple of times (accssed of being with the CIA). All-in-all, my view of Pinochet is that of a brutal dictator that did not hesitate to murder anyone he thought capable of sedition. The world is a better place for his departure. |
Tell that to the wives and daughters whose fathers and brothers were taken away in the dead of night never to be seen again. True enough, he did step down. I, for one, do not think his purposes quite so noble... |
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Chile is rumored to have granted basing rights to the UK for the Falklands war. |
He didn't just hate them, he dealt with them and kept their slimy asses out of power. That's why he's despised by the Left all over the world. People condemn him for killing a few thousand communists, but those same people don't blink an eye at what communists who took power did and would have done in Chile. Crocodile tears for Chile, they're really lamenting Leftist defeat. |
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Pinochet knew how to deal with collectivists, liberals, and communists. Was there collateral damage? Sure there was... it was war. I am sorry, did I say "was"... It's a war I feel Americal as a nation does not, did not, have the stomach to fight... and we pay the price every day with the continued erosion of our rights. I am not talking about fighting nation-states, like the USSR or Iran... People seem to forget that the totallity of human history is that of salvery to tyrants and the collective. The one brief exception was the founding of the United States of America. Our freedom is an exception to a much more predominant wave of history. |
It was an emergency. When the emergency was over, Pinochet stepped down and transitioned the country over to a democracy. Only ONE country can I think of where that happened after the communists took charge: Nicaragua. By then in most cases their misrule has turned their countries into hellholes. And look at Chile today; a leftist was elected their president, and they're the richest country in Latin America. The price was killing off a lot of communists, oh what a tragedy. |
When were you there? My experience was mostly the opposite, but I left the country in late 1983. There's no doubt Pinochet brought stability and order to Chile, but all the same, he ruled with an iron fist and most people I knew feared him and his soldiers. |
Better to be feared than loved. |
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Ahhh 1973...Pinochet rose to the top of the group of militaries that were selected by the Chilean middle class to save their country from the Hugo Chevez like commie Salvador Allende who was robbing the middle classe's (like you and me) life savings by grabbing good companies and making them part of the fed govt. Pinochet and some other military guys that were asked by the middle class to save Chile, attacked the Chilean equiv of the white house with jet bombing strikes. Tanks attacked the equiv of the supreme court, and commie Slavador Allende ended up offing himself in the Chilean White house with an AK-47 (that Fidel gave to him and his personal guard) in the mouth. I don't like Wikipedia, but I can't find the real link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_coup_of_1973 Commie Allende waiting for the bombs (of the fed up middle class) to drop:  Pinochet during the clean out:    I wish we could clean out the socialists and freeloaders out of our country in a like manner. After years of mystery some scientist squealed that pinochet's boys had gotten rid of the supposed tens of thousands of commie/freeloader bodies by dumping them far out at sea via military transport aircraft injected with some scientifically concocted rapid decay/fish food juice. Pinochet saved the Chilean economy making it an envy of the entire world. |
+ a BIG 1! RIP Gen Pinochet. |
I spent two weeks there in 1998. |
| Hard to have sympathy with commies....everytime I try, I hear my now American grandmother tell me the story of how Castros men put a pistol on her dining room table,in front of her family, and dared my grandfather to do something about them taking his general store and home. Comparing Pinochet to Hitler.... 3000 to Millions. How many British loyalists were killed after our revolution....that damned Washington!!!!!! |