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Former
Chilean Dictator Pinochet Dies |
Posted:
12.11.06
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The dictator who ruled the South American country of Chile for
17 years, General Augusto Pinochet, died Sunday, leaving many
disappointed he will not be held responsible for human rights
abuses during his reign.
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Pinochet died in a military hospital in the capital Santiago
after suffering a heart attack earlier in the month. He was 91
years old.
 Upon
hearing of his death, thousands of Chileans celebrated in the
streets, dancing, drinking champagne and tossing streamers and
confetti and burning tires.
"These people are not celebrating the death of anyone. It
is to celebrate the end of a cycle of so much pain, so much dictatorship,
so much torture," Jorge Salinas, who was among the jubilant
crowd, told the Washington Post.
A smaller group of Pinochet supporters stood vigil outside the
hospital where he died and eventually clashed with the anti-Pinochet
revelers.
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A coup |
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As head of the army, Pinochet helped lead a violent coup on Sept.
11, 1973 against the socialist government of Salvador Allende,
who had won a close election in 1970.
Allende had angered many in the military and upper classes by
taking away private ownership of certain industries and redistributing
land to the poor.
Allende died during the coup -- it is not clear whether he committed
suicide or was killed by government troops.
 Pinochet
became part of a four-man junta, or military council, that ruled
directly after the takeover. He became president and sole ruler
in 1974.
He retained that power until 1990, when he relinquished the presidency
but remained head of the army until 1997, at which time Pinochet
became a "Senator for life".
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U.S.
involvement and impact |
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The United States aided
Pinochet's assent to power but denied any direct involvement in
the coup.
During the 1970s, America was fighting a "Cold War"
against communism throughout the world, and socialist Allende
was seen as a threat.
"[The United States] undermined and destabilized the democratically
elected socialist government in Chile… and fully embraced
what was clearly a bloody dictatorship," Peter Kornbluh,
author of "The Pinochet File," a history of the U.S.
Involvement in bringing Pinochet to power, told National Public
Radio.
Eventually, as reports of human rights abuses leaked out of Chile,
U.S. lawmakers ended American support and established "the
first human rights laws that said human rights have to be a criteria
in foreign policy," according to Kornbluh.
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History of
oppression |
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Throughout his rule more
than 3,000 people were killed or disappeared and 28,000 were tortured
in secret detention centers, the Associated Press reported.
Hundreds of thousand of Chileans were forced into exile, never
to return to their country.
More than 1,000 victims have never been accounted for.
 Pinochet
is also accused of involvement in many high-profile murders of
his direct political opponents.
Pinochet often defended his rule, blaming any abuses on his subordinates
and explaining he was trying to save his country from a communist
revolution.
As recently as his 91st birthday last month he made a vague statement
taking "political responsibility for everything that was
done, which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding
its disintegration."
"I see myself as a good angel," he told a Miami Spanish-language
TV station in 2004, the AP reported.
His supporters see him as a hero who saved the country from communism
and economic ruin.
"He will live forever in my memory -- I love him as much
as my own children," supporter Margarita Sanchez told the
AP.
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Avoiding
legal justice |
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Although he was under house arrest at the time of his death,
Pinochet was never brought to trial.
"This criminal has departed without ever being sentenced
for all the acts he was responsible for during his dictatorship,"
Hugo Gutierrez, a human rights lawyer involved in several of the
lawsuits against Pinochet, told the AP.
 Many
in the country think the quest for justice must continue.
"The courts have to continue working, the cases have to
go on, families of many of the disappeared and imprisoned are
still looking for their remains," Isabel Allende, famous
writer and daughter of president Salvador Allende, told reporters.
The current government of Chile, led by President Michelle Bachelet,
who survived Pinochet's torture chambers along with her mother,
said Pinochet will not be given a full state funeral, only a military
one.
There will be no official mourning period and Bachelet will not
attend the funeral.
--
Compiled by Annie Schleicher for NewsHour Extra
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Joplin was able to rise from the ashes because of help from everyone. And I am eternally grateful to anyone who made that possible.
