Anjalisa -- Augusto Pinochet 1915-2006: He took his crimes to the grave -- 12.13.06
Augusto Pinochet 1915-2006: He took his crimes to the grave
By David Usborne
Published: 11 December 2006
Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator who ruled Chile with an iron
fist from 1973 until 1990, died in a high-security military hospital
in the capital, Santiago, yesterday. His death from heart failure
leaves a disputed legacy of brutal political repression; salvation
from Marxism; and civil turmoil.
Doctors said they rushed the discredited dictator back into the
hospital's intensive care unit yesterday morning after a sudden
deterioration of his condition. He was only released from the unit
last Thursday where he had been under treatment for an acute heart
attack suffered one week ago after which he underwent an emergency
angioplasty to widen a clogged artery.
In a brief announcement, the hospital said the one-time military
strongman - who in recent years had been hounded by charges at home
and abroad of human rights violations, corruption and fraud - had died
at 2.15pm local time in Chile. He was 91.
His death sparked champagne-soaked celebrations, skirmishes with
police and displays of lasting devotion as Chileans took an anguished
look back at the dictator who brutally ruled for 17 years.
Celebrations broke out in several parts of the Chilean capital. At a
major plaza, hundreds of cheering, flag-waving people gathered to pop
champagne corks and toss confetti.
Outside the hospital where Pinochet died, Chileans who believed he
saved them from communism wept and hoisted posters with the general's
image. Some chanted that Pinochet and his feared secret police were
Chile's saviours. " He will live forever in my memory - I love him as
much as my own children," said Margarita Sanchez.
Meanwhile, police clashed with demonstrators who threw rocks and
erected fire barricades that sent up thick plumes of smoke and blocked
traffic on the city's main avenue. Tear gas and water cannons were
used to disperse the protesters, many of them masked, who quickly
regrouped.
Officials blamed the violence on a small contingent among the
thousands of demonstrators who poured into the streets to denounce
Pinochet's legacy. At least two bank offices were damaged.
The clashes spread past midnight to several working class districts
and police said 23 officers, including a major and a captain, were
injured.
Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said there had been a number of
arrests but did not give a figure.
"The government makes an appeal to peace," Harboe said. "We do not
want people to be affected today by facts of the past."
Chile's government said Pinochet will not receive the state funeral
normally granted to former presidents, but only military honours at
the Santiago military academy.
This morning, Pinochet's coffin was transferred to the Military Academy.
The coffin, covered with a Chilean flag and Pinochet's military hat
and sword on top if it, was placed in a large hall, but the media was
kept at a distance and could hardly see it through large windows.
As he requested, Pinochet will be cremated, according to son Marco
Antonio, to avoid desecration of his tomb by "people who always hated
him."
The government said it had authorised the Chilean flag to be flown at
half-staff at military barracks nationwide.
In a carefully measured statement, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett
said: " We note the passing of General Pinochet and want to pay
tribute to the remarkable progress that Chile has made over the last
15 years as an open, stable and prosperous democracy."
That contrasted with the office of former prime minister Margaret
Thatcher, a staunch ally of the former dictator, which said she was
"greatly saddened" by news of his death.
Human rights activists responded more bluntly to the passing of a man
who had become a pariah to most of the world. "Pinochet has died, and
I don't think he's going to heaven," commented the human rights lawyer
Geoffrey Robertson.
"His death does rob us of a proper trial and retribution for his
victims." Years of illness allowed the General's lawyers to fend off
court proceedings in his native Chile. For nearly two decades as Latin
America's most infamous dictator, he was accused of ordering the
deaths and disappearances of at least 3,000 Chileans, many killed at
the hands of his secret police.
But even his most loyal supporters distanced themselves from Pinochet
in 2004, however, when it emerged he had allegedly stashed as much as
$27m (£14m) in foreign bank accounts.
Among those who felt betrayed by Pinochet were supporters who had
helped fund his reconstruction efforts in the first years of his
dictatorship - and may also have donated cash for his legal defence
after he was arrested in London on human rights charges in 1998. He
was held in Britain for 16 months.
In recent weeks, the General, faced new charges connected to the death
of two bodyguards for Salvador Allende - the man from who Pinochet
seized power - and was under house arrest.
For many Chileans, consigning Pinochet to history is long overdue.
Even after he lost the presidency in 1990 in a national referendum, he
remained commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces for another
eight years..
As the Pinochet era gradually faded, Chile emerged as one of Latin
America's most stable democracies, marked earlier this year by the
election of Michelle Bachelet of the centre-left Concertacion
Coalition, which has ruled Chile since 1990.
The pencil-shaped Andean nation also remains in an economic boom, fed
largely by mineral wealth and, arguably, by the free-market policies
first introduced by Pinochet in place of the socialist doctrines of Mr
Allende.
Divisions over the legacy of Pinochet still remain in Chile. "He's the
biggest criminal in the history of our country," said Sola Sierra of
the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared. But a
rightist legislator, Iván Moreira called him "a liberator ... who
brought democracy back to Chile." He went on: "He saved us from
Marxism, from becoming a satellite colony of Soviet-Cuban imperialism."
Crediting Pinochet with the economic health of Chile today does not
come easily as evidence has accumulated over the years of his utter
disrespect of human rights. His regime systematically snatched
political opponents from the streets and sent assassins around the
globe to wipe out critics and resistors.
A Truth Commission in Chile established that 3,197 Chileans were
killed during Pinochet's years in power and another 250,000 were
locked up.
Amnesty International said Pinochet's death "should be a wake-up call
for the authorities in Chile and governments everywhere, reminding
them of the importance of speedy justice for human rights crimes,
something Pinochet has now escaped."
Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator who ruled Chile with an iron
fist from 1973 until 1990, died in a high-security military hospital
in the capital, Santiago, yesterday. His death from heart failure
leaves a disputed legacy of brutal political repression; salvation
from Marxism; and civil turmoil.
Doctors said they rushed the discredited dictator back into the
hospital's intensive care unit yesterday morning after a sudden
deterioration of his condition. He was only released from the unit
last Thursday where he had been under treatment for an acute heart
attack suffered one week ago after which he underwent an emergency
angioplasty to widen a clogged artery.
In a brief announcement, the hospital said the one-time military
strongman - who in recent years had been hounded by charges at home
and abroad of human rights violations, corruption and fraud - had died
at 2.15pm local time in Chile. He was 91.
His death sparked champagne-soaked celebrations, skirmishes with
police and displays of lasting devotion as Chileans took an anguished
look back at the dictator who brutally ruled for 17 years.
Celebrations broke out in several parts of the Chilean capital. At a
major plaza, hundreds of cheering, flag-waving people gathered to pop
champagne corks and toss confetti.
Outside the hospital where Pinochet died, Chileans who believed he
saved them from communism wept and hoisted posters with the general's
image. Some chanted that Pinochet and his feared secret police were
Chile's saviours. " He will live forever in my memory - I love him as
much as my own children," said Margarita Sanchez.
Meanwhile, police clashed with demonstrators who threw rocks and
erected fire barricades that sent up thick plumes of smoke and blocked
traffic on the city's main avenue. Tear gas and water cannons were
used to disperse the protesters, many of them masked, who quickly
regrouped.
Officials blamed the violence on a small contingent among the
thousands of demonstrators who poured into the streets to denounce
Pinochet's legacy. At least two bank offices were damaged.
The clashes spread past midnight to several working class districts
and police said 23 officers, including a major and a captain, were
injured.
Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said there had been a number of
arrests but did not give a figure.
"The government makes an appeal to peace," Harboe said. "We do not
want people to be affected today by facts of the past."
Chile's government said Pinochet will not receive the state funeral
normally granted to former presidents, but only military honours at
the Santiago military academy.
This morning, Pinochet's coffin was transferred to the Military Academy.
The coffin, covered with a Chilean flag and Pinochet's military hat
and sword on top if it, was placed in a large hall, but the media was
kept at a distance and could hardly see it through large windows.
As he requested, Pinochet will be cremated, according to son Marco
Antonio, to avoid desecration of his tomb by "people who always hated
him."
The government said it had authorised the Chilean flag to be flown at
half-staff at military barracks nationwide.
In a carefully measured statement, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett
said: " We note the passing of General Pinochet and want to pay
tribute to the remarkable progress that Chile has made over the last
15 years as an open, stable and prosperous democracy."
That contrasted with the office of former prime minister Margaret
Thatcher, a staunch ally of the former dictator, which said she was
"greatly saddened" by news of his death.
Human rights activists responded more bluntly to the passing of a man
who had become a pariah to most of the world. "Pinochet has died, and
I don't think he's going to heaven," commented the human rights lawyer
Geoffrey Robertson.
"His death does rob us of a proper trial and retribution for his
victims." Years of illness allowed the General's lawyers to fend off
court proceedings in his native Chile. For nearly two decades as Latin
America's most infamous dictator, he was accused of ordering the
deaths and disappearances of at least 3,000 Chileans, many killed at
the hands of his secret police.
But even his most loyal supporters distanced themselves from Pinochet
in 2004, however, when it emerged he had allegedly stashed as much as
$27m (£14m) in foreign bank accounts.
Among those who felt betrayed by Pinochet were supporters who had
helped fund his reconstruction efforts in the first years of his
dictatorship - and may also have donated cash for his legal defence
after he was arrested in London on human rights charges in 1998. He
was held in Britain for 16 months.
In recent weeks, the General, faced new charges connected to the death
of two bodyguards for Salvador Allende - the man from who Pinochet
seized power - and was under house arrest.
For many Chileans, consigning Pinochet to history is long overdue.
Even after he lost the presidency in 1990 in a national referendum, he
remained commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces for another
eight years..
As the Pinochet era gradually faded, Chile emerged as one of Latin
America's most stable democracies, marked earlier this year by the
election of Michelle Bachelet of the centre-left Concertacion
Coalition, which has ruled Chile since 1990.
The pencil-shaped Andean nation also remains in an economic boom, fed
largely by mineral wealth and, arguably, by the free-market policies
first introduced by Pinochet in place of the socialist doctrines of Mr
Allende.
Divisions over the legacy of Pinochet still remain in Chile. "He's the
biggest criminal in the history of our country," said Sola Sierra of
the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared. But a
rightist legislator, Iván Moreira called him "a liberator ... who
brought democracy back to Chile." He went on: "He saved us from
Marxism, from becoming a satellite colony of Soviet-Cuban imperialism."
Crediting Pinochet with the economic health of Chile today does not
come easily as evidence has accumulated over the years of his utter
disrespect of human rights. His regime systematically snatched
political opponents from the streets and sent assassins around the
globe to wipe out critics and resistors.
A Truth Commission in Chile established that 3,197 Chileans were
killed during Pinochet's years in power and another 250,000 were
locked up.
Amnesty International said Pinochet's death "should be a wake-up call
for the authorities in Chile and governments everywhere, reminding
them of the importance of speedy justice for human rights crimes,
something Pinochet has now escaped."
