Sagittarius
I am Chilean. I was born in Santiago in 1973, the very same year that General Augusto Pinochet overthrew Chile's democratically-elected Marxist President Salvador Allende in a bloody coup. I grew up in a bubble. I didn't know what the word Parliament meant or why my father would make me shut up if I dared to ask in public why we had had the same President for more than a decade.
My family was not politically involved, yet the words "communist," "democracy" and "election" were banned at home. I grew up thinking they were bad words, and I was smart enough to guess that it wasn't wise to insist asking about it.
It wasn't until I was 15 when I started opening my eyes. In 1988 Pinochet called for a plebiscite to make Chileans decide whether we wanted him to continue ruling the country or not. Much to his surprise and dismay, he lost, paving the way for a return to civilian government.
That was the first time I heard about his crimes, prosecution of innocents, missing people and all that the rest of the world knew all along. I was disgusted. The guy we called "President" was nothing else than a mass murderer and the brain behind the so called "Caravan of Death" - an operation to remove opponents to military rule in all Latin America. During the 17 years of his government more than 3,200 people disappeared or were killed and tens of thousands were detained, tortured or exiled.
The year of the plebiscite the country seemed more divided than ever. Friends would fight and never speak again. Teachers would be fired for expressing their opinions in front of their students.
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Leslie Benisz Having lived a
By Leslie Benisz, December 11, 2006 at 23:47Leslie Benisz
Having lived a free life in safe and democratic countries such as Canada and Isreal as a child, I might never completely understand the fear or even the anger that many citizens of Chile might still hold onto today.
However, I feel very bad for the victims of Pinochet's brutality in that they were cheated out of seeing justice being served.
Much like Pol Pot, who was responsible for the murder of more than one million Cambodians, and Ugandian strongman Idi Amin who died in Saudi Arabia and who is overseeing the murder of over 300,000 of his people and expelling every ethnic Asian and Indian from Uganda, Pinochet will rest for all eternity without ever having to answer for his crimes.
As the saying goes; 'the best revenge is success', and so perhaps the only real way to completely wash the blood of the Pinochet's brutal past off nation of Chile forever is for everyone to cooperate for a free society in which every human being as a gifted and valued asset to the nation.
This utopia, however, is a not a dream but a choice and hopefully the people of Chile will now have the power to choose, some for the first time in their lives.
Chileans have a saying: "The
By Belinda, December 11, 2006 at 11:30Chileans have a saying: "The color of blood is never forgotten." Pinochet's brutality unleashed the sort of ghosts that never rest. Good luck with the healing process...
Not with little irony did
By Marc_Cooper, December 11, 2006 at 11:27Not with little irony did the gods choose to reclaim former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on Sunday, which was International Human Rights Day.
The heart attack he suffered a week ago had initially seemed quite convenient. By landing him in a military hospital, it short-circuited an imminent court hearing into two killings he was accused of ordering more than 30 years ago. Indeed, his house arrest, decreed just last month, was lifted so he could be hospitalized. Nor was this the first time his failing health had worked to his advantage: Twice before over the last five years, Pinochet was spared trial on charges of murder, kidnapping and torture because he claimed he was too ill to face the courts.
But if human justice failed on previous occasions to fully snare Pinochet, the greater forces of nature and biology this time imposed the maximum sentence - and on the most appropriate day of the calendar.