Unlike Bush’s war on terror, in which U.S. troops are fighting abroad, Pinochet was confronted with an indigenous terrorist movement. Chilean terrorists engaged in assassinations and bombings of public infrastructure. Pinochet was able to put down real terrorist movements with less damage to Chile’s civil liberties than Bush’s trumped-up “war on terror” has caused to America’s.
According to the Rettig Commission, Chile’s struggle with terrorism resulted in 2,300 (both sides) dead and missing. Pinochet’s detainees number less than Bush’s, and the torture used against Chilean terrorist suspects was perhaps less draconian than that used by the United States against suspected Muslim terrorists. The Bush regime is responsible for many multiples of the deaths for which the Pinochet regime was responsible. Yet Pinochet is the demonized figure.
He then explains why Allende deserved to be tossed:
In truth, Allende overthrew himself. He disregarded the constitution, permitted private property to be seized by communist organizations, tolerated and assisted the formation of armed groups that operated independently of the government, and disorganized the economy to the extent that there were food shortages.
In left-wing mythology, “the popularly elected Allende” was overthrown by the tyrant Pinochet. This is far from the truth. Allende received only 36 percent of the vote and was appointed president by the Chilean congress after Allende swore an oath to respect the constitution.
Three years later, on Aug. 22, 1973, the Chilean congress censured Allende for violating law and the constitution in order to “establish a totalitarian system absolutely opposed to the representative system of government established by the Constitution.
Pinochet is demonized despite the fact that he established a broad-based commission to create a new constitution and scheduled elections to return the government to civil authority. To achieve reconciliation among Chileans, both terrorists and the military government were amnestied. Pinochet permitted himself to be voted out of power.
The military government kept the amnesty, but successor governments did not. In his old age, Pinochet was harassed by vengeful leftists determined to overturn the amnesty only with regard to Pinochet. That fact alone is testimony to which side of the conflict represented true character and a spirit of good will.
Today, government corruption is on the rise in Chile, as power-seeking politicians seek to remove constitutional restraints and to create economic dependencies that expand political power. It remains to be seen if the legacy of freedom that Pinochet gave to Chile will survive or whether it will succumb to the power of propaganda, just as America’s freedom is succumbing to neoconservative propaganda about the need for a police state to protect Americans from terrorism.
