Augusto Pinochet: The Butcher of Chile is Dead
by Takver Monday December 11, 2006 at 06:20 PM

Augusto Pinochet, the butcher military dictator of Chile is dead. Pinochet died on December 10 of heart complications in Santiago military hospital. On the 11th September 1973 Augusto Pinochet led a CIA backed military coup against the democratically elected government of Chile headed by marxist President Salvador Allende. Allende died during the coup at the Moneda Palace.

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Allende made the mistake of appointing Pinochet as army commander-in-chief in June 1973 because he was seen as a man to be trusted who would uphold the constitution.

Many thousands of people were rounded up to be interrogated, tortured, and murdered by the military regime. Many people just disappeared never to be heard from again by wives, children, colleagues or friends. The dictatorial regime implemented neo-liberalist economic reforms as championed by Milton Friedman (also recently deceased), which made the Chilean economy a basket case.

Pinochet and the military junta ruled for 16 long years of military repression. When he failed in his attempt to become President for life in 1989, free elections were at last held in 1990. The British Government initially welcomed the coup, according to British archive documents released in 2004.

The Chilean secret police were even responsible for international terrorism, carrying out the Washington car-bomb killing of Orlando Letelier, a former Allende minister, on September 21, 1976.

Australian intelligence played a part in the 1973 coup according to Clyde Cameron, a Whitlam Governement Minister at the time:

Clyde Cameron: Well, ASIO has always been a compliant service for the American CIA. They have always done that. They have been quite sympathetic towards the CIA and let's not forget that the Australian intelligence organisations were the ones who were responsible for acting as a conduit for the CIA and Pinochet in 1973 when the CIA-backed Pinochet Junta moved in and overthrew the elected government of Chile. I know that members of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) were active in Santiago at that time and were acting in cooperation with the CIA because the CIA weren't able to function in Chile under President Allende. They had to do their dirty work through somebody else and they chose the Australian intelligence organisations. When I became Minister for Immigration I was appalled to discover that we had an immigration officer in Santiago who was in fact an ASIO spy. He wasn't a genuine immigration officer at all but was an ASIO spy who had been put on by my immigration establishment as a bona fide immigration officer and I sought to have him removed but the Prime Minister intervened and prevented the removal from taking place. I remember that when the Prime Minister discovered that ASIS had been active in Santiago he ordered that the ASIS operative in that area be withdrawn that they just ignored it, refused to do anything about it, and it wasn't until Whitlam took firm action and threatened to put the knife through a lot of these people who were responsible for ignoring his direction that they were withdrawn. But by that time, of course, the coup had occurred, Allende had been assassinated and Pinochet had been installed.

Ian Wood: That was former Whitlam Cabinet Minister Clyde Cameron.

US National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, has long been implicated in the coup against the Allende regime. In 2005 a complaint, based on declassified government documents, alleged that Henry Kissinger secretly conspired with right-wing military officials in Chile to kill General Schneider in 1970. Dr. Kissinger worked closely with the co-conspirators and sent them money and arms. A lower court had previously dismissed the case, granting Dr. Kissinger immunity for his actions.

"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." said Henry Kissinger.

References:

• See Harper's Magazine, Feb, 2001, THE CASE AGAINST HENRY KISSINGER (PDF).(former Secretary of State) by Christopher Hitchens.

• Kissinger Declassified by Lucy Komisar at the Memory Hole
• Remember Chile
• Wikipedia: Henry Kissinger
• Wikipedia: Augusto Pinochet
• Wikipedia: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

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