Augusto Pinochet, and the dirty hands of the CIA

I'm just making this thread in response to another thread denouncing a popular Communist leader. I'll be using this thread to show in more detail the bloody past of our very own CIA.

When the good people of Chile elected a Communist, Salvador Allende, to be their next leader, the CIA realized that they needed to do something, and fast.

The immediate answer came in the form of a Chilean general named Augusto Pinochet. Many compare our friend Augusto to Muammar Quaddafi (sp?). With the help of some CIA agents, minority political dissenters, and a whole lot of bullets, Pinochet overthrew the Chilean government.

Pinochet handed a list of names to one of his generals and gave orders to have them killed. The general assembled a death squad, jumped into a helicopter, and visited a few towns. He checked off the victims as they were eliminated, 71 people in all. This mission would later become known as the "Caravan of Death."

Thousands of leftists, unionists, and various other troublemakers were rounded up and held in concentration camps for up to three years. Many were interrogated, tortured, and killed. Whereas the Allende government had for all practical purposes given up applying electrical voltage to genitalia, Pinochet brought the country back to its core ideals.


The worst part of all of this? It was aided, and abetted, then later ignored by the United states. Henry Kissinger, at the time the secretary of state, completely pardoned Pinochet in the eyes of US foreign policy. When they met in Santiago on June 8, 1976, Kissinger told Pinochet: "My evaluation is that you are a victim of all left-wing groups around the world and that your greatest sin was that you overthrew a government that was going Communist."


Wow, is all I can say.

Augusto Pinochet was undoubtedly an example of pure political genius. Another failure of past administrations was their complete lack of immunity against prosecution for any crimes committed while in power. This defect was finally redressed with the passage of the 1978 State Immunity Act. It was a stunning legislative triumph. It sounds like something that some Republicans here in the states would like to have.

But no, it wasn't to be. They could only watch, and smile, as Pinochet wreaked Havoc on the South American nation.

But some people are never content to abide by the rule of law. Which is why, in 1998, Pinochet was "arrested" in London under orders from Spain. It took 16 months for a court to determine that the elderly ex-president was too sick to stand trial. They sent him home to Chile to live out his final weeks.

Upon landing in Santiago, a miracle happened. In England, Pinochet had been too sick to stand unaided. But immediately upon his return, the 84-year-old servant of the people sprang from his wheelchair and walked around, fully healed. The man who had been too senile to remember his own family's names and faces could suddenly remember all of his former subordinates who had come to greet him at the airport.


What a shining example of political ethics.

And all this from a leader that the CIA helped to install, because they feared Communism.

Wow, Communism must be really bad, huh?

Especially if the CIA was willing to have this madman on their collective consciences. Or not. Who knows if these guys even have one.

[edit on 10-8-2004 by Loki]