Apparently he's to be buried with full military honors. Seems unnecessary to me since he's done nothing honorable in his country's name.
At least he has been denied a State Funeral.
TheSeif - Apologies for re-arranging your post a little but I wanted to group some of your points together.
During the next 3 years the country was trasformed from a nation into a total wreck. The inflation was skyrocketing (achieving 1500%++ during the final days of his goverment). "Holy lord" Allende had his own private extraconstitutional army (GAP, Grupo de Amigos del Presidente), and thanx to some stupid agricultural revolution, in which he took the land from big land owners and gave it to its workers, the country was running short of supplies, bc those workers had no idea and/or no interest, in harvesting the land. You had to be hours in waiting lines just for a loaf of bread, id you where lucky to get one.
........
the ONLY good thing Allende did was nationalising the main national resourses, but other than that, he almost managed to cause a Civil War.
Granted, Allende had no golden touch, neither was he a saint (a 1933 dissertation had some disturbing connotations). The first year of his administration did well in economic terms. However I think his establishing diplomatic ties with Cuba in 1972 sewed the seeds of his downfall, combined with drop in world Copper prices, an escalating series of strikes and opposition with congress and growing concern in Washington and within Chile about Cuba he was doomed.
Then in 11 sept 1973 was the coup. As in all coups, the first years where a mess. Human rights violations, civilian oppression, etc etc etc. But after those harsh first years the country entered a golden age of progress, FAR surpasing that of any other latin american country, and even one of the greatest worldwide.
Well that's fine, as it was coup; years of mass murder, oppression etc is therefore perfectly acceptable, is that what you're saying? My problem with your views on this are, as I will refer to later, that you were not even an embryo when these events unfolded.
The Junta was not skilled in economics. From 1973 it was mostly a disaster and by 1982 the Chilean economy was almost bankrupt, the banking sector had all but collapsed, unemployment around 30-35%, 60% were undernourished, beggars on the streets, some Golden Age.
The credit for Chile's recovery in the 80's should go largely to Herman Buchi. Approval of someone like Thatcher is a barbed compliment indeed given what she was doing to the UK at the time. The Boom of the late 80's was what led to Pinochet's misguided confidence in the 1988 plebiscite.
It was in those years that Chile earned the name of "Los jaguares de latinoamerica"(Latin American Jaguars), in reference to its almost absurd growth rate. World wise, Pinochet was the first to really strike comunism, which in those times was gaining lots of terrain, and after him, the rest of the world realised that comunism was not the path. You could say that thanx to Pinochet´s doing, Berlin´s wall was destroyed in 1989 and comunism was pretty much beaten.
Communism was effectively doomed the day Stalin died. As for your comment I have bolded, you're having a laugh right? I was in Berlin that weekend in 1989, I even have a chunk of wall I hacked out personally as a souvenir. There was a lot of shouting and name calling going on but one I
don't recall hearing was
Pinochet.
Pinochet´s regime ended after he lost a really tight election in 1988, and giving away the presidential band in 1990 to Patricio Aylwin. Tell me, Which "dictator" willingly calls for elections and gives away power withought any complain after he lost?
It wasn't an election it was a plebiscite, and Pinochet was the only candidate.
This was mandated by the 1980 constitution (the 75% approval of which in itself is questionable) along with a return to civilian rule in 1990. Pinochet was, in effect seeking a mandate to remain in power another eight years. Nor was it close, unless you call losing 56:43 close. To his 'credit' Pinochet did step down, but not without ensuring he remained as military chief.
For years the Junta had been wary of the Church which did have the respect of the people and had been manipulating them as a prop. The Pope's visit in 1987 was an example of their skill in that regard. However they often fell victim to rhetoric such as in 1988 when the then Interior Minister Sergio Fernandez suggested the church
"represented one of the three greatest obstacles to peace in the country." Own goal there
.
Since that time to present things have gone from good, to bad and worse. After 16 years, the "concertacion" (union of leftwing political partys) has been reelected in 3 ocations (1993 Eduardo Frei, 1999 Ricardo Lagos, and now resently 2005 Michelle Bachelet). Crime is skyrocketing and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Driving through Santiago is almost like racing a Rally bc the size of the "events" (as goverment names those craters) is absolutelly insane. Everytime there are found more and more robberies from the goverments, and curiously everytime a big case surfaces, they miraculously found money Pinochet stole (Which by the way, have in MOST, if not all cases, been false). The last one was almost a joke. They found a huge robbery through the department of "chiledeportes" (Chilesports), and magically the next day they found about 1 ton of gold Pinochet "stored" in a bank in Shang-hai. The funny part is that it was inmediatelly found false, and even they found that the "oficial" documents han spelling mistakes! The amount of money this fukin leftwings parties have stolen in this 16 years FAR surpases by 50 times what suposedly Pinochet stole in 17 years of being a DICTATOR (Consider that he had the whole country for himself).
Nowdays here in Chile pro-goverment people still talk of us a Los Jaguares de Latinoamerica, which nowdays is no even a shadow of what was in Pinochets days. Miss Bachellet´s goverment has proven to be just short of a complete dissaster, in grand part thanx to the huge mess Lagos left undercovered so she could have been elected. But still people votes for them, i really dont understand how stupid the average Chilean can be....
I don't disagree that the Chilean economy has often been a train wreck, however are you suggesting that a fair price for economic strength is brutal repression and murder? This thread is not about the merits of a particular political ideology it's about the character and legacy of a man who unquestionably perpetrated (and you admit this) heinous acts in persuing his. Despite this, Chile has perfomed well by South American standards though Bachelet has a rocky road ahead.
I hope this help to change a bit your idea of Augusto Pinochet.
.......
Tomorrow i´ll visit his dead body for a final farewell. The positive thing about his death is that now that frikin concertacion wont be able to use him as a shield.
Not in the least. Like any dictator he will have had some redeeming features, one 'honourable' thing he did was step down in 1990. The only positive thing about his death is that he may finally receive divine justice.
I am Chilean and i know what im talking about.
how sad, all of you have been influenced by socialist propaganda. Let me explain a bit how things where before, during and after Liberator Pinochet´s regime.
I'm not Chilean through I have visited several times since 1992. I would argue not being Chilean gives me greater objectivity, merely being a citizen doesn't qualify you to know what you're talking about. Especially because you were a young child when most of what you speak of occured; you are unqualified
and can thus only (as you have) relate the views of third parties.
In that aspect; here's the rub, nostalgia is a risky thing. I hear stories from Russians who lived under Stalin and while they don't deny the repression they wax lyrical that the streets were safe, there was food in the shops and there was order but downplay the things that thousands of their fellow citizens died fighting against and attempting to escape from.
I'm not placing Stalin in the same league as Pinochet, by comparison Pinochet was little league. But do you think Stalin was a man to be admired, not for his ideology but (in parallel with your own clearly right wing views on the Chilean economy) for what he 'achieved' for the Soviet union despite the cost? I'm serious here.
Farewell my General, see you in heaven.
Best of luck. You'll need to take those rose tinted glasses with you to have
any hope of seeing him there.
