Augusto José Ramón Pinochet

[darkened day 92]

I find it very alarming that many people actually celebrate that man. I'm no historian but from my knowledge that a fascist named Augusto José Ramón Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected government in Chile and replaced it by himself. I am not posting this thread to grieve he ever existed but my question is how can the United States put a fascist that turned a stadium (of all things) into a sort of concentration camp tortured men and women in the most atrocious ways yet still be celebrated?
The answer i hear from many is that he re-built the economy an that thanks to him Chileans now have one of highest GDP in Latin America they ignore mentioning the homeless and the poor Chileans.
I just want to understand how his image can be transformed in that way.

I'm sorry if my talk resembles rant but i mean when you hear the survivors speak it just makes you sad.
If anyone here lives or is from Latin America can you explain the sort of propaganda that justified all this? Or what normal people think of Pinochet? Or anything about that bloody era in Chile?
Thank you,

[Gitfiddle Jim]

The US helped overturn left-wing governments in the Americas for half a century, replacing them with fascist dictators. You might want to check this documentary out.

http://warondemocracy.net/

It's an interesting insight into how the US backed those like Pinochet in Chile and Martinez in El Salvador, leaders who systematically slaughtered thousands.

[TheDevil'sApprentice]

Basically, the Pinochet regime was the model for the neoliberal reforms imposed on most of the world by the west. Pinochet was advised by people from the chicago school of economics - milton friedmans acolytes. This was the first implementation of their ideals, so Friedman and his gang praised pinochet to high heaven. This praise was used to sell/justify repeating what happened in chille all over the world (neoliberalism) - so the media and western governments picked up on it.

Of course it was a disaster for the economy as well as human rights/political freedoms. This is a good overview and critique of the Pro-Pinochet stuff:
www geocities.com/CapitolHill/1931/secC11.html

(won't let me post links, so its with spaces)

[Psy]

Basically the US ruling class are more comfortable with fascists, after World War II the USA recruited German generals (these were the people that were ordering the Hitler Youth into battle for the final stand against the allies) into the Pentagon.

[Peacekeeper]

Let's not forget the ex-Trots in the Pentagon as well.


http://warondemocracy.net/ (http://www.anonym.to/?http://warondemocracy.net/)

This link goes to fuck-all for me, i don't know if it is working for anyone else.

[erupt]

Since the days of Theodore Roosevelt, the United States wants control over Latin America. If putting in a nut-job free market lunatic like Pinochet to run Chile, so be it (for them.) Just another atrocity committed by the U.S. in an attempt to curb the threat of socialism.

Oh, and not to jump around topic, but whoever has that avatar of Robert Johnson...AWESOME.

[gla22]

link isn't working for me either but yeah, the U.S supports dictators as long as they are with us financially.
Batista
Somoza
Pinochet
Norriega
Urribe
the shah of iran
Olmert
the list goes on................................................ .......................................

[RHIZOMES]

Let's not forget the ex-Trots in the Pentagon as well.

Who?

[abrupt]

First, TheDevil'sApprentice basically summed it up well.

The US has given rise to many dictators, and Latin America has been one of their favorites to implement them. As mentioned Chile became a model for oppression as directed by Milton Friedman. A portion of the list can be seen with gla22's post with possibly the next most famous dicator being Rios Monte in Guatemala who carried out the genocide against the Natives there.


Anyways, after the assasination of Salvador Allende they gave power to General Augusto Pinnochet, blood thirsty and has not hesitent to privitize all the mines to US/Canadian companies right after Allende tried to nationalize all of them. This put Chile into a terrible downward spiral obviously. Pinochet also enjoyed killing many leftists and doing raids in slums looking for them.

He is glorified by the right wing media, where you will find extreme bias and lies. Many Chileans know the truth as they had many family members killed or possibly tortured. Regardless most people would probly know him as another dictator in the Americas.

[abrupt]

http://freedocumentaries.org/index.php is a great site for free documentaries (duh), and contains War on Democracy

[gla22]

I just watched this documentary and it is very good. Watching videos like this reafirms what we are fighting against.