LA Quick Hits: Pinochet Dies and Not Much More

• Every domestic paper fills up its LA news with the passing of Pinochet. Of course the "ogre" is not remembered so fondly. WaPost bemoans his dark legacy, NYT recalls his rule by terror, LAT refers to him as "the embodiment of the brutal and intensely anti-Communist South American dictator," the HoustonChron laments the fact that he escaped justice and finally the best and most balanced piece in the Herald which castigates his human rights record but credits his ability to steer Chile towards modernity. Reading the Herald it was nice seeing Glen Garvin's byline in the LA pages and not reviewing the latest inane TV offering.
• The reaction in the street also made the news - NYT mentions the joy and violence that greeted the news, the Herald noted the somewhat obvious that Pinochet's passing reopened political divisions and the WaPost sticks mostly to the celebratory aspect of the story.
• The LAT notes in an op-ed what I was going to mention the coincidence that Kirkpatrick and Pinochet died so close apart. The op-ed says that the collapse of the Eastern Bloc disproved her theory that the transitions of authoritarian governments was easier than totalitarian. I would not go that far. Russia is still a mess as are a number of the former SSRs. Don't even get me started on Albania and the former Yugoslavia. On the authoritarian side you have South Africa, Philippines (ok not a great example), Argentina, El Salvador and to some extent South Korea and Mexico. At worst the ledger is even.
• In its LA Briefs the Herald mentions Hugo thanking Putin for arms sales and a human rights protest that was crushed in Cuba.
• PRD party leader marches in Oaxaca to support the removal of the PRI gov.
• NYT has a piece on Mexican justice. They report on a case of a murdered American.