Chileans both mourn, celebrate Pinochet's death

[Destino]

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) -- Thousands of Chileans, some praying and many in tears, flocked to a chapel in Santiago on Monday to pay their respects to Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator who polarized the country.

Pinochet, who ruled Chile for 17 years, died Sunday in a hospital after suffering a heart attack a week ago. He had appeared to be recovering from the attack before his health suddenly deteriorated, doctors said.

News of his death prompted an outpouring of conflicting emotions in Chile where, a third of a century after he swept to power in a swift and violent coup, Pinochet's legacy is still hotly disputed. (Watch rising smoke and raging fires as police clash with demonstrators )

Some Chileans say the general saved their country from communism while others regard him as a murderer who escaped justice and should have been tried for human rights abuses.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americ...eut/index.html


He won't get a state funeral but the military will bury him. Hopefully in a tribute to him, they load up his coffin with cement and dump him in the ocean... then erase every mention that he ever existed from all official records. They already missed their chance to shoot him in the back and claim it a suicide.

[Sarge]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americ...eut/index.html


He won't get a state funeral but the military will bury him. Hopefully in a tribute to him, they load up his coffin with cement and dump him in the ocean... then erase every mention that he ever existed from all official records. They already missed their chance to shoot him in the back and claim it a suicide.

ONe less ******* dictator in the world

[Midnight Judges]

I wasn't alive back then but why on earth did we support this jerk?

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

I wasn't alive back then but why on earth did we support this jerk?

Because he wasn't a communist.

[mboyd784]

ONe less ******* dictator in the world

26 months from now, another one will quietly slip away....to Texas.

[Destino]

I wasn't alive back then but why on earth did we support this jerk?

The typical scam. He claimed that he would put the commies on ice and then step down from power.

He eventually did, but there is a funny story about that most don't know about. The guy was a monster and people were scared of him in Chile, but the rest of the world just hated him. He wanted to be accepted and asked his people if he could win an election... you don't tell this guy that the area he's assigned you to rule hates him, so they were all like "yeah boss of course they love you!"

He lost.

Of course he didn't take this democracy thing lightly. He gave himself and enough of his friends lifetime appointments to assure he could go on with his life out of the reach of justice. There is a lot more to his story then is even currently known. Word is, from his own people, that he was involved in the drug trade as well and still has that money hidden somewhere.

[Sarge]

26 months from now, another one will quietly slip away....to Texas.

Kennedy is moving to Texas?

[luckydevil]

Thug, plan and simple. He will rot in hell

He is a huge reason (along with Thatcher and Reagan) why many in that region of the world associate the free market with corruption and social Darwinism.

[mboyd784]

Kennedy is moving to Texas?

Nice.

[SkinsHokieFan]

What a disaster he was, and it was very preventable from a US perspective

About a year and half before the elections that brought the socilaist into power, analysts at the CIA were pounding at policymakers saying "PAY ATTENTION" to what is going on in Chile

Nobody did until it was too late. So Nixon orders the CIA to somehow secure a victory for the non communist in the election of 70 or 71. Well without having enough time to get the right groups together, the 2 candidates who would be "acceptable" for Washington split the vote giving the socialist victory. (Read 10,000 Days in the CIA by Gilligan to get the full detailed story on it, I read it in the summer of 2004 so the details are a bit sketchy for me)

Basically Washington compounded the f up by putting Pinochent in power

[Om]

Big part of my family's life is tied up with this man.

No time to tell the fully story right now, but when I was 12, I arrived in Chile with my family three weeks prior to the coup on 9/11/73, when Pinochet's junta took over. My diplomat father spent three days hunkered down in the US Embassy around the corner from Pres. Allende's Moneda (presidential palace) downtown with bullets literally flying in the windows and tanks in the streets below.

My mom, brother, sister and I spent it hunkered down in an apartment uptown from there, gathered around the shortwave radio listening to Armed Forces Radio and waiting to hear something about Dad. No phones for a long time. Full curfew outside and soldiers in the streets. My brother and I stood on the rooftop on 9/11 and watched two Hawker Hunters circling overhead and firing missles down into the city, knowing full well what they were aiming for and how close by Dad was.

Later ... my brother became best friends with Orlando Letelier's oldest son. Some of you may remember Letelier. He was a former gov't minister under Allende killed by car bomb here in DC on Dupont Circle in the 70's. My Dad spent a good part of his post-Chile State Dept. career going after DINA (Chilean military police) and their direct connections to Pinochet for sponsoring that assassination. Took a lotta years, but they eventually got 'em. Including, almost, Pinochet himself.

Anyway ... been a long 33 years coming and Chile's made a remarkable recovery from those days--both economincally and, I believe, socially. But this is one time I can honestly say I'm glad another human being has died. The old bastard affected a lot of people's lives, in ways most of the world will never know. I suspect a lot of people, as I did, paused a moment last night and raised a silent toast to justice--delayed and deferred as it may be.

[nelms]

He is a huge reason (along with Thatcher and Reagan) why many in that region of the world associate the free market with corruption and social Darwinism.

Please do not lump Reagan and Thatcher in with this thug.

[Midnight Judges]

Because he wasn't a communist.

I wonder how many more times "enemy of my enemy = friend" will be disproven before people stop believing.

[luckydevil]

Please do not lump Reagan and Thatcher in with this thug.

They don't belong in the same group. However, they were hardly innocent. They supported him and championed him. Thatcher still defends him.

[Blighty Skins]

Amazing story Om...people have written books with a lot less first hand knowledge than that.

And I agree. Please don't lump Thatcher and Reagan with that "thing". Though Thatcher did send her condolences to her "friend". But she only saw the good side of the monster Pinochio...and she's a bit old fashioned.