Death of Pinochet shakes nation

[Strengthandhonour]

Death of Pinochet shakes nation

SANTIAGO, Chile - Some in Chile celebrated with champagne but for others, there was no joy in death of Gen. Augusto Pinochet only the sense of a final injustice committed by the dictator who brutally ruled the country for 17 years.
For victims, Pinochet's demise dashed hopes that he would ever face justice for the torture and killings that were the hallmarks of his 1973-90 regime.
When he died Sunday at the military hospital where he was being treated for a Dec. 3 heart attack, celebrations broke out around the 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 his image. Some chanted that Pinochet and his feared secret police were Chile's saviors.
"He will live forever in my memory — I love him as much as my own children," said Margarita Sanchez.
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 denounced 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 Monday morning that 43 police officers were injured in the clashes and 99 demonstrators were arrested.
"The government makes an appeal to peace," he said. "We do not want people to be affected today by facts of the past."
Pinochet overthrew socialist President Salvador Allende at a time when the U.S. was working to destabilize his Marxist government and keep Chile from exporting communism in Latin America. But the world reacted in horror as Santiago's main soccer stadium filled with political prisoners to be tortured, killed or forced into exile.
Although his dictatorship laid the groundwork for South America's most stable economy, Pinochet will be remembered as the archetype of the era's repressive rulers who proliferated throughout Latin America and, in many cases, were secretly supported by the United States.
Allende's daughter, Isabel, the cousin of the famous novelist of the same name and deputy of Chile's Socialist Party, said her thoughts were with Pinochet's victims, not the dead man.
"At these moments, I see things calmly, with serenity and tranquility, as is fitting," she said in a news conference in Spain. "My thoughts are with the victims, my thoughts are with the families of those who suffered so much."
Chile's government says at least 3,197 people were killed for political reasons during Pinochet's rule, but courts allowed the aging general to escape hundreds of criminal complaints as his health declined.
"This criminal has departed without ever being sentenced for all the acts he was responsible for during his dictatorship," lamented Hugo Gutierrez, a human rights lawyer involved in several lawsuits against Pinochet.
Lorena Pizarro, president of an association of relatives of the dictatorship's victims, called Pinochet genocidal and said it was ironic he had died "on Dec. 10, the international day of human rights."
But the office of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, an ally of Pinochet, said she was "greatly saddened" by his death.
While some former U.S. presidents quietly supported Pinochet, the Bush administration has good ties with Chile's free-market Socialist President Michelle Bachelet, whose father, a Pinochet opponent, died after being tortured in prison.
"Our thoughts today are with the victims of his reign and their families," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.
Chile's government said Sunday that Pinochet will not receive the state funeral normally granted to former presidents, but only military honors at the Santiago military academy.
Recently, Bachelet said it would be "a violation of my conscience" to attend a state funeral for him.
Early Monday, Pinochet's coffin was transferred to the military academy.
The coffin, covered with a Chilean flag and Pinochet's military hat and sword, was placed in a large hall, but reporters were kept at a distance and could hardly see it through large windows.
As he requested, Pinochet will be cremated, according to his son Marco Antonio, to avoid desecration of his tomb by "people who always hated him."
The government said it had authorized the Chilean flag to be flown at half-staff at military barracks nationwide.
Pinochet took power on Sept. 11, 1973, demanding an unconditional surrender from Allende as warplanes bombed the presidential palace. Instead, Allende committed suicide with a submachine gun he had received as a gift from Fidel Castro.
Pinochet disbanded Congress, banned political activity and crushed dissent. Chile's economy was already in ruins when he launched a radical free-market program that at first triggered financial collapse and dire unemployment. But it opened the way for South America's healthiest economy, which has grown by 5 percent to 7 percent a year since 1984.
Pinochet lost an October 1988 referendum to extend his rule, then lost an election to Patricio Alywin, whose center-left coalition has ruled Chile since 1990.
Pinochet avoided prosecution for years after his presidency. But in 1998, after traveling to London for back surgery, he was placed under house arrest when a Spanish judge issued a warrant seeking to try him for human rights violations. British authorities decided he was too ill to stand trial and sent him home in March 2000.
Back in Chile, more than 200 criminal complaints were filed against him. Although he was under house arrest at the time of his death, no case ever reached trial because of his poor health.
On his 91st birthday — less than a month before his death — his wife read a statement by him saying he took "political responsibility for everything that was done, which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration."
Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu offered condolences to the Pinochet family, adding that the ex-dictator "remains a child of God."
"I think that he is human and I hope that he may have been himself touched by the people who were saying 'We want to know what happened to our loved ones during the time when you were ruler of Chile,'" Tutu said.

source: Death of Pinochet shakes nation - Yahoo! News

[P.W.]

The life and death of White Man: In Memoriam Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1915-2006)

Yesterday was a very sad day indeed. It was raining, as if Nature was morning over the passing out one of its beloved sons. I looked at the news monitor, read on and remain in suspense for a while. One of the Great White Men and Great Republican Augusto Pinochet Ugarte has died overnight. It was inconceivable: I still remembered his healthy joyful voice from a week-long interview. Yet it did happen: the heart of the Great White Man has stopped forever, manifesting the passing over of the whole epoch.
Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was born in 1915 in a well-off Catholic family of French and Spanish extraction. His father was a customs official, his mother - a housewife. He was the first out of six children born; and the ablest one according to parents and friends. The young Augusto was a leader in children’ games, the local priest always praised his reading and mathematical abilities to his parents. He was offered to enter university: but he wanted to serve his country, so he joined the military in the age of 18. His abilities were immediately recognized: he was advanced first to officer, than was send consequently to officer’s courses and military academy, where he stayed as a professor after completion. Pinochet was a talented scientist, publishing many works on military theory and history and geopolitics. He was advanced to brigade general and chief-of-staff in 1965, and to army commander-in-chief in 1973 – the peak of the military career in Chile. However the Fate has in store for him a more difficult task.
Chile of 1973 was in disarray. The socialist president Aliende had invited into the country 1000s of Cuban “advisors”, who were preparing soviet-style revolution and genocide. Only for one month of 1973 24 Catholic priests were murdered by socialists, alongside hundreds of Catholic peasantry and government officials. The economy was nearly destroyed by nationalization and mismanagement; the workers and peasants were less and less content. The armed forces were left at a simple choice: either to tolerate a communist takeover, bloodshed and becoming a soviet satellite or to overthrow the criminal socialist regime. Augusto Pinochet, as a true son of his People has decided on the second option.
In September of 1973 he and his trusted officer and soldiers, attacked the Presidential palace, La Moneda, which has become a communist citadel as well as other known communist locations around Santiago. A short but violent struggle ensured: Aliende and his fellow communists lost, and Aliende, afraid of military justice, that awaited him, short himself. Other captured communists were transported to the local stadium, where they were interrogated, judged by military court and punished. Around 2000 communists were condemned to death, and their sentences were carried out the same day. The communist hordes, seeing the resolve which the army restored law and order in Santiago, leaved the country en masse, settling for easy life in communist countries of Eastern Europe and soviet union. Augusto Pinochet has won the day. Yet his work was just beginning.
The first task was to restore economic foundations of the country. Here Pinochet asked for advice of the anti-Keynesian and free-market economists of Chicago school, who were shunned by economic establishment of the United States. Their advice was simple: return of property to its just American owners, establishment of sound currency, freeing of trade and labor markets, as well as promoting exports and attracting foreign investors. The advice was carried out to its fullest, and though Chile did not escape a number of economic crises, the results were excellent and even outstanding, if compared to performance of other Latin American nations: gross national product was increased by more than four times, mass unemployment has gone away, pension and currency reforms have created a strong foundation for growing prosperity of the Chileans.
The second task was to establish order in the chaotic thinking of his countrymen. Political parties were banned; the clowns who led them were exiled. Most of newspapers, communist as they were, were closed too, yet those of the Catholic and conservative orientation were promoted. An important task was completed in schools were socialists were fired en masse, and in universities which were cleared of humanistic and socialist profs: the most politically active of them were tried as communist spies they were, most others left the country. They were replaced by classical teachers and professors, often of humble origin, who were prevented by socialist and humanistic profs from teaching and academic career. This was one of the greatest services Augusto Pinochet did to his People.
The people were elated. Their living standards have steadily improved; many honored El General as they called him as a savior and a saint: some local priests started talk of his canonization. Yet the communist guerillas were not fully subdued, and started to be active in the country, where they murdered scores of Chilean families in the most brutal ways. In response El General undertook Operation Condor, in which guerillas were smashed by regular army, and they inspirers, who often lived abroad, were for the most part neutralized.
It was 1978, and Augusto Pinochet, who was a republican by his political view, and a dictator only insofar it was required to save his Nation, as the noble Roman dictators of the Past were, decided to gradually return power to his People. First a new republican constitution was adopted in referendum, and El General Pinochet confirmed as President for 8 years term. He lost his second referendum for confirmation of his powers, and free elections were held for his successor. He remained a commander in chief up to 1996 and life senator. His last years were marred by a communist witch-hunt, started by a Spanish socialist judge garson and then by Chilean socialist judges, who froze his property and put him under a house arrest. Yet despite re-activated socialist propaganda Chilean people continue to love him and praise as their savior and hero.
I added a black ribbon to a portrait of El General, which hang on the wall above my work-desk, near the portraits of El Caudillio Francisco Franco and Marshall Joseph Pilsudski. Three Great White Catholic leaders, and three epochs, which were ended with their death, and which led to their countries being taken over by communist and socialists. I looked in El General’s eyes, thinking of his feelings in the moment, when his was leading his men against the much more numerous communist hordes. I was confident there was no fear in them, only the sense of duty; and I thought will I be able to be as strong and resolute when the day comes.

[Erasmus]

Pinochet, "great white man", he was a mestizo with mapuche ancestors (the most of chileans have indian blood), "catholic", freemason, "anticommunist", yes, and pro-yankee and an instrument of Zionism and British imperialism, he helped Maggie during the Malvinas war and many more...

@P.W.: you are not a nationalist, you are a childish nutzee

P.S.: Franco was a honest man and "Pinocho" a robber.

[Strengthandhonour]

Lets be careful with the personal attacks and insults here.
I don't know much about his personal life, but perhaps some information can be pulled up to prove things. I do know this though, a lot of people look at Pinochet as an example of the United States hypocritical support of "totalitarian" regimes in South America to fight communism.

[Erasmus]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

Lets be careful with the personal attacks and insults here.
I don't know much about his personal life, but perhaps some information can be pulled up to prove things. I do know this though, a lot of people look at Pinochet as an example of the United States hypocritical support of "totalitarian" regimes in South America to fight communism.

It's very simple: Pinochet was not a true Nationalist leader, he was a typical "banana" dictator. Insults?, insult is to compare this guy with true European patriots.

True Nationalist leaders in Latin America?, hmmm... perhaps Peron or Getulio Vargas.

[svin]

Miguel Krasnoff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Menydh]

I've never seen any evidence of Pinochet being part Mapuche Indian, but it has crossed my mind often. Nothing predominantly Amerindian, very diluted. But it still shows through in some of his pictures.

Nothing wrong with it. After all, that's Chile, most of Hispano-America and much of Anglo-America.

P.W., what's the source of that article? I bet that it's one of those yankee white nationalist sites. You know, that white nonesense is as much multiculturalist as anything. In fact as much multiculturalist as yankees themselves. Ridiculous.

I would have felt respect for Pinochet had he not served the interests of the US and the UK. Even if the reasons the Argentinean military started the war in the Malvinas were obscure, they were still on their right and many young Argentineans died with the help of Pinochet to the Brits. Funny that I feel more respect for Fidel Castro than I feel for Augusto Pinochet. It is a matter of integrity here.

[Youenn]

I don't know if he was mestizo but he was 50% breton.

Pinochet was born in Valparaíso on November 25, 1915, the son of Augusto Pinochet Vera (descendant of Breton immigrants who arrived in Chile during the 18th century) and Avelina Ugarte Martínez.

Augusto Pinochet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by Youenn

Augusto Pinochet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

His father's patronym shows that he was a quater Breton at best : Pinochet-Vera. His paternal grand mother wasn't Breton.

Vera : LA FRANCE DU NOM DE FAMILLE DES VERA en France entre 1891 et 1915

Pinochet : LA FRANCE DU NOM DE FAMILLE DES PINOCHET en France entre 1891 et 1915

[Menydh]

Vera can be a Spanish surname as well. Ugarte, his mother's maiden name, is Basque.

[Señor Malo]

Originally Posted by P.W.

The life and death of White Man: In Memoriam Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1915-2006)

Hello P.W.
I don't think this is the good forum for this kind of appreciations; allthough the racial matter might have his weight and legitimity in European Nationalist, it is far from the American White Nationalist vision whose agenda seems to be the creation of a "Worldwide Aryan Lobby".
The racial Matter in European Nationalism is more related to the preservation of Old European values (and indeed preservation of Native European phaenotypes might be one of them), preservation that does not imply desdain and destruction of non European phaenotypes.
The legitimity of the racial matter in Eu Nationalism lies in the fact that, in this case European Phaenotypes are indeed in their motherland here.
It is very different from white natinalism in the Americas as in that case the white have displaced former inhabitants of the Americas. For that reason american white nationalism often implies closing the eyes on these fact and justifying the destruction of aboriginal inhabitants on the sake of white's superiority...Not that I'm approving racial mixing in the Americas (I actually disapprove it everywhere in this world)neither Multiculturalism. My opinion is that whites have the right to practise eugenics whereever they are, they have the right and the liberty of loving and preserving their european forefathers inheritage (as I do myself with much pride) but in the case of the Americas my opinion one cannot to put the aboriginals or/and the individuals of aboriginal ancestry completely aside (But neither encourage proliferation of multiculty and extreme indigenists movements)

[Señor Malo]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Even if the reasons the Argentinean military started the war in the Malvinas were obscure, they were still on their right and many young Argentineans died with the help of Pinochet to the Brits. Funny that I feel more respect for Fidel Castro than I feel for Augusto Pinochet. It is a matter of integrity here.

The reasons of the Malvinas war are evident for me; My opinion is that the military Junta was searching how to distract the Argentina People's attention from the economical crisis that was rising due to the disastrous Junta's administration and -specially- from the thousands of people that had been disappearing since 1977 as a result of arbitrary arrestations and executions.
Videla had a similar problem by 1976-1977 and he find as solution organizing the FIFA Worldcup in Argentina, Glatieri could not organiza a second worldcup at home so he got an "excellent" idea; Organizing a War...and unfortunately, I'm afraid he somehow reached his goal; Not that he managed to distract people from what he and his Junta were doing; after the blitz-capture of Malvinas all the people went out to the streets to celebrate the triomph of Argentine armed forces for this "spectacular, outstanding and masterly lead operation" and even today in Argentina we had a holiday day to commemorate the begining of the war and another to commemorate the end and people stills points blaming fingers to Britain but my opinon- And not that I'm taking the British party on this matter- is that we are doing things wrongly and pointing fingers to the bad persons -or at least, we should point the fingers to those whos eresponsibility is even higher in this war_
First of all what need to have a holiday to commemorate the begining and other for the end of the war? One day -I'd pick the end- would suffice and not to commemorate a war but the Argentine who died during this war.
Second: what use to go and take back a land that was supposedly ursurpated in 1833, this is 149 prior to the war, at a time when the Argentine frontier was no further than 100 kms south of Buenos Aires, the rest being territories occupied andcontrolled by the indians
-Third: Why did the Junta send to the front the young conscripts who were carrying their military service duties at the moment instead of profesional militaries?
-Where were the Professional Armed Force when the British Task Force arrived there? For Excepting the Air Force and the Navy aviation whose courage and comittment is still admired of Both Argentine and British Veterans, and who has sacrified most of their best pilots, the professional army has been invisible during amost all the conflict and the Navy has sent just a vessel (the Belgrano cruiser) with a crew composed of young conscripts almost and outrageously sunk by a British piper out of the conflict area!

In conclusion my point of view is that this war was nothing but a diversion from the military junta who intended to govern the People in the old Roman way by Panen et Circensis policy and divert this way people from their crimes and nation's welth robbery...In this case i think the enemy was inside rether than outside nad this war should not nomore influence the relations between Argentina and UK .

To finish I stick with Mynydd's opinion; I have no respect for that Man (Pinochet)

PS: I neither see in him evidence of amerindid admixture I'd even see alpinid tendencies and found a slight likeness to an ancient fench minister named Charles Pasqua

[Carnyx]

According to Chilean statistics, most Chilean Mapuche possess some non-aboriginal ancestry, and over 90% of Chile's non-aboriginal population possess Native American ancestry, in varying degrees, although until recently very few Chileans would admit their Native American admixture.

Mapuche: Definition and Much More from Answers.com


Who knows?