When I volunteered to take on this week, CT assured me that it was an open thread and I could write about whatever topic I was interested in. There has been plenty of Colorado-based political news this last week, what with TFG speaking at one of the most expensive hotels in the Denver area, never leaving that area, yet knowing everything about Colorado. There is much to write about that could be Colorado focused.
But for some reason I've been thinking about dictators lately. I know there have been many mentions of Hitler, Mussolini, etc. But there's another group of dictators closer to home I felt the urge to focus on tonight, and these are the South American dictators - and one in particular, Augusto Pinochet.
It's partly because I was a young, naive 17-year-old foreign exchange student in Bolivia on September 11th, 1973. I had been in country less than a month, so my Spanish was virtually nonexistent. But something was obviously up. Tanks filled the streets, snipers appeared on rooftops. Something was going down but it wasn't until much later that I realized exactly what had happened that day. As you're probably aware, that was the day the military junta, led by Pinochet, took over the Chilean government and toppled the duly elected government of Salvador Allende.
This takeover happened with the full support and knowledge of the United States government, particularly the CIA. What followed was one of the worst cases of human rights abuses of the 20th century. 1200 to 3200 people were executed; as many as 80,000 were jailed; tens of thousands were tortured. The primary focus of these abuses were leftists, socialists, and political critics. Operation Condor, a US-supported terror organization that focused on South America, was founded at the behest of Pinochet in late November 1975.
These actions were justified under the guise of free-market reforms. Tariff protections for local industries were removed, trade unions were banned, Social Security was privatized, as were hundreds of state owned enterprises (many of which were sold at below market price to Pinochet’s family and politically connected buyers). These policies did result in high economic growth, but also drastically increased economic inequality. Pinochet and his family in particular saw dramatic increases in their wealth during his years in power.
Within a very short period of time the military junta suspended the constitution and the Congress, enacted strict censorship and curfew rules, banned all political parties and all perceived subversive activities.
He shut down parliament, suffocated political life, banned trade unions and made Chile his sultanate. His government disappeared 3000 opponents, arrested 30,000 (torturing thousands of them). Pinochet's name will forever be linked to the Desaparecidos, the Caravan of death, and the institutionalized torture that took place in the Villa Grimaldi complex.
Thor Halverson, president of the Human Rights Foundation, National Review
One report concluded that 2279 people who disappeared during the military government takeover were killed for political reasons or as a result of political violence. Another report found that approximately 32,000 prisoners were tortured and 1300 exiled in Latin America. Much of this was carried out under Operation Condor. It is estimated that 2/3 of these cases of torture occurred in 1973. Many of the documented cases of torture were particularly brutal.
One technique that was particularly horrific were the death flights – Vuelos de Muerte. Bodies both deceased and alive were thrown from helicopters over the Andes and open sea. Pinochet's former personal helicopter pilot has admitted that on numerous occasions he threw prisoners into the ocean or into the high peaks of the Andes on these death flights. They became particularly common under the Argentinian junta rule.
1998 he was finally arrested in Britain under human rights charges and was placed under house arrest, though he was released on medical grounds. In 2000 he was granted immunity from prosecution. In January 2005, the Chilean army accepted responsibility for past human rights abuses. Pinochet was indicted that year for kidnappings and torture at the Villa Grimaldi detention center.
As he turned 91 Pinochet released the following statement:
Today, near the end of my days I want to say that I harbor no rancor against anybody, that I love my fatherland above all and that I take political responsibility for everything that was done which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration….I assume full political responsibility for what happened.
He died within the month, never having faced justice.
(h/t to Wikipedia for many of the facts cited above, any errors of which are strictly mine.)
The floor is yours (and thank you for reading).
