Marc Cooper has thoughts here and here that you should not miss. Tomas Dinges (just added to the blogroll) e-mailed about these two posts regarding events in Chile. Marc tips me to this post by a blogger in Chile who embedded himself with some pro-Pinochet marchers.
Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings takes down the moral obtuseness of Red State's response to Pinochet's death. Dave Noon takes a look at the wingnut praise for Pinochet, including this nonsensical bit by an obviously butt stupid Harvard physics professor. Scott Lemieux catches Mark Steyn breaking wind bloviating with his typical blissful ignorance and shows that he puts the ass in bombastic.
Now for some mythbusting.
Myth #1:
Pinochet left power gracefully after losing the 1988 plebiscite.
Fact:
In 2003 in an interview on Chilean television, General Matthei, the
commander of the air force at the time of the plebiscite, pointed out
that when confronted with the results of the plebiscite and that the
“no” (on eight more years of Pinochet) vote was winning, Pinochet told
the other commanders (navy, caribineros and the air force) that he
wanted to send the troops on the streets. They all told him that they
would not support him and he backed down.
Earlier that evening, when Matthei arrived at La Moneda, the
presidential palace, the press raced towards him because the official
government account of the election showed results that were not in
keeping with what independent observers and the “no” coalition was
showing. Matthei responded that it appears that the “no” vote had won
and said “We are calm.”
A few months after the plebiscite, Pinochet, in addressing a women's group commented that there had been another plebiscite once and the people chose Barabbas. Jesus, if I recall correctly, never had people murdered on his orders.
Myth #2:
Pinochet's amnesty was negotiated as part of his retirement.
Fact:
Pinochet's amnesty was written in April 1978 by his cousin, Justice Minister at the time, Monica Madariaga and approved by the other leaders of the armed forces. No one else had any input into it.
Myth #3:
Continued rule by Allende would have been worse.
Fact:
The above sentence was written in the subjunctive case. Anyone who says it is offering an opinion and we all know the old saying about opinions.
But, if in three years in power, Allende did not systematize torture, abolish Congress and political parties, ban opposition media, put the military in charge of universities, burn books, send his secret police around the world to kill his political enemies, all of which Pinochet's regime did, what empirical evidence is there to prove this? It's not a matter of whitewashing Allende as a commenter accused me of in the prior post, it's a matter of making an informed judgment based on the available facts.
I'm sure that there will be more myths to bust in the days to come.
Recent Comments