Leftwing former student pledges to unite country and tackle poverty and inequality. The triumph of Boric, who belongs to a generation deeply opposed to the extreme economic model bequeathed to Chile by the Pinochet dictatorship
The German-born father of Chilean presidential frontrunner José Antonio Kast was a member of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party, according to a recently unearthed document obtained by The Associated Press.
Chileans face a stark choice in the second round of their presidential election – a far-right candidate who admires the legacy of Pinochet or a left-wing reformer pledging to tackle social inequality.
Ten days ago, the people of Chile voted for sweeping structural reform and an end to neoliberalism. It's one of the Left's biggest victories since the end of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.
Salvador Allende died 46 years ago in a US-backed coup. Here's his final address, broadcast over the radio while he was barricaded in the presidential palace. The generals that overthrew Allende coordinated with the CIA and the U.S. State Department.
Saudi Arabia's apparent assassination of Jamal Khashoggi might have taken inspiration from Russia and North Korea - or Israel and the United States. State-sponsored assassination is a ruthless gamble. But other countries have gotten away with it.
On Sunday, a statue of the democratic hero, Orlando Letelier, was unveiled on Washington’s stately Massachusetts Avenue, near the spot where Letelier was killed in a 1976 car bombing — an assassination ordered by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Ronni Karpen Moffitt, a 25-year-old American co-worker whom Letelier had been giving a ride, also was killed in the attack, which became a rallying point for human rights advocates.
"To see on a piece of paper, for example, the president of the United States ordering the C.I.A. to preemptively overthrow a democratically elected president in Chile is stunning..." Documented the U.S. role to overthrow the democratic government of Chile, and to support the fascist junta.
Letelier described reading the declassified documents and discovering a memo from George Shultz, who served as secretary of state in the 1980s, to President Ronald Reagan.
“[Shultz] informs [the president] that there is a conclusive document from the CIA that shows Pinochet ordered the murder of my father. This is concrete information about how Pinochet covered up his responsibility,” he said.
I am not an expert on Egypt, or Chile – most of my knowledge about General Pinochet comes from a book by a Guardian writer, Andy Beckett. But I know enough that when Margaret Thatcher died, reminders of her enduring support and praise for Pinochet left a nasty taste in the mouth. While people are dying in the streets of Cairo, to read an expression of the same sentiment from a respected, globally-read newspaper is repellent.
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