MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lagos calls on all Chileans to apologise for the 1973 events

Chilean President Ricardo Lagos insisted on Tuesday that all those civilians who played a role during the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet should apologise to their fellow Chileans as part of a national reconciliation effort.

"From those civilians who collaborated with the military government we've never heard any repent or self criticism about the downfall of democracy in the country", said President Lagos during an interview with foreign correspondents in Santiago.

President Lagos recalled that both his own Socialist Party, the backbone of former president Salvador Allende administration in 1973, and the Christian Democrats which make up the current ruling coalition and at the time opposed the ousted Socialist president, have issued formal apologies for their role in the institutional crisis leading to the military coup of September 1973.

"So now it's time for the right wing parties to adopt a similar attitude, just saying they are sorry for what they did or didn't do; a constructive retrospection which will then include all civilian actors of the events leading to September 1973.

But some of the people Lagos apparently addressed the message rushed to reject his call for a mea culpa.

Former Santiago Mayor Joaquin Lavin, a conservative who narrowly lost to Lagos in 1999 and is making a second bid for the presidency in this year's election described Mr. Lagos words "unfortunate".

"I really think the president's words are unfortunate at a time when what we want is unity among Chileans and no more quarrels. Let's not keep fighting over things that happened so many years ago" insisted Mr. Lavin.

A junior official in the Planning ministry under dictator Pinochet, Lavin said he did not feel that Lagos's remarks were addressed to him.

A member of Lavin's party, Senator Jovino Novoa argued that the president's comments were motivated by partisan politics given the coming presidential election of next December.

Since the restoration of democracy in 1990, Chile has been governed by Concertacion Democratica, an alliance of Socialists and Christian Democrats.

Mr. Lavin also criticized President Lagos words saying they contradicted his attitude during the recent signing of the new Chilean constitution.

"The spirit of that ceremony where he played the leading role was that a new time had begun, the time of unity, unity of the Chilean people".

President Lagos also surprised public opinion Tuesday when he argued it was positive that the government "retains" the strategic areas for the Chilean economy such as the oil company ENAP and the copper giant CODELCO.

"Having these companies under government control allows us to react to certain changes in the world scenario", added Mr. Lagos.

The Chilean president added that a clear example of this was the recent decision of his administration to mitigate the price of fuel and kerosene, which would have skyrocketed following the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

"Strategic companies must remain under government control", said President Lagos recalling that some of the corporations privatized in the eighties (under Pinochet) mostly in the electrical sector ended up keeping the "know how" of Chilean management and labour.

"This is evident by the fact that the main managers of these transnational corporations in Latinamerica are Chilean", he concluded.