MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
A comment on the anniversary of the Chilean coup
By Trent Boultinghouse - This week marked the 39th anniversary of the Chilean coup d’etat that ousted the constitutional president of Chile, Salvador Allende, from office and gave rise to the vicious dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet was known for his adherence as an unabashed apostle to a hard-lined laissez-faire free market economic policy that was widely seen as the impetus for Chile’s economic revival. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesOOOOOHHHHH, SO THAT'S WHY BRITAIN WOULDN'T ALLOW HIS EXTRADITION!!! He was enough of a traitor and a bastard for Whitehall to want to protect...ok I get it now, thanks Mercopress!
Sep 12th, 2012 - 08:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Well, the writer of this dirty words have been never in Chile, nor before neither after the tragedy we have lived between 1970 and 1973.....so his words are empties of value....
Sep 12th, 2012 - 09:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Probably, this one-neurone-brain man is repeating the story told by the former soviet empire sons, leaded by the Chilean communist heroes and the Concertacion Parties.....
In fact, Chile have changed from a grey diminished latam country before 1973 to a superb brilliant country after 1973 being an example for the other countries, even some developed ones, in economics....The Chilean miracle is real and, in spite the leftist Gvt. we have had for 20 years, we have kept as a growing country that makes envious to our neighbors and other countries far away....
A message to the writter of this political panphlet.....please, visit us and talk with the regular Chilean people and learn some of our history, present and future.....
Superb? No, SUBMISSIVE. You bow to your international masters and are rewarded by them in turn, like a dog would. You play in their system, by their rules, and are rewarded by them much in the economic activity they seem fit to bestow upon you.
Sep 12th, 2012 - 11:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The Chilean miracle is based on the only nation of latin america to so willingly go to its knees and defend foreign interests against its neighbors, even its own people.
The only miracle is how they brainwashed so many Chileans into betraying democracy and make ENDLESS excuses for undisciplined, dishonorable military officers that led an insurrection against the institutional law and order of their one fatherland.
BRILLIANT?? No brilliancy from those traitors will surpass the darkness of of the black, poisonous clouds that came out of the Estadio Nacional.
We are de only country in Latam (Peru could be in the same way) progresist and near to be developed, very high over our neighbors which only spent time sinking its own citiziens under its regresive policies like Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and even Brazil....thanks to their bad leftist leaders specialist in create hatefulness between their population, robbing their goods and money to be put into their own pockets....
Sep 13th, 2012 - 01:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0Why we must support some countries that always have attacked and dissapointed us...just because they are neighbors..??? No, we must support those countries that have been loyal to us in good and bad times from long time ago....The neighbors are not choosen but friend yes, they are....
So, keep your envy safe because you will have it as a long term company.....sorry for you, guys.....may be some day you would be a prosperous country (if you change from left to right policies, of course...)
Bye bye....sleep well poor boy (if you can).....
The human rights record of Pinochet is infensible but it is/was down to the Chilean people to judge him.
Sep 13th, 2012 - 09:07 am - Link - Report abuse 0Having visited a number of SoAm countries for long periods, it is true that Chile is by far the most stable and developed.
Sep 13th, 2012 - 11:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0Do you really think Chile has had a leftist government for the last 30 years? Surely they are much more centrist and that is responsible for the stability. Politics and Pinochet really does polarise opinion in Chile so governments have moved towards the centre to find an acceptable ground for the majority. Or do you disagree?
Interestingly, I have taken Chilean friends to Argentina with me on short trips and their overwhelming first impression was how much poorer Argentina is. The difference between the impression Argentina likes to project and the reality are worlds apart. They enjoyed their time in Argentina but, I think, had a new appreciation for Chile and how much they have progressed in comparison.
@3 Hermes,
Sep 13th, 2012 - 04:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It is a curious statement you make:
“The only miracle is how they brainwashed so many Chileans into betraying democracy”
I go to the ballot box, I make my vote, we get a freely elected government. I don’t see how that is a betrayal of democracy or the result of brainwashing. In fact Chile is one of the most democratic countries. There are no issues with vote rigging, no manipulation of the poor, no suggestion of corruption, no daily, hour-long, presidential preaching on prime time TV.
You say we are on our knees. You couldn’t be more wrong, we were on our knees on 10th Sep 1973. Ignoring of questions of moral hazard for the moment, from that point on our economic fortunes changed. We are still a poor country, but much, much better than we were 40 years ago. That is one of the reasons why there was so much institutional resistance to bringing undisciplined military officers to justice in the democratic era – because a significant percentage of the population approved of the military. That is not the result of brainwashing. If Pinochet had taken a successful country and ruined it, no one would excuse the military. However, he took control of a broken country and fixed it. The human cost was too high, but that is true of all conflicts.
Submissive? That’s funny. There can be few countries in the world as independent as us. We belong to no strategic military alliance, we belong to no transnational political alliance. We have negociated more bilateral trade agreements than any other country in the world. In that respect we exemplify an independent trading nation in a multi-polar world.
You say: “You play in their system”.
Please enlighten us. Who does the system belong to oh wise all seeing one?
Whoever they are, how magnanamous of them to give us growth and a strong currency in such hard times.
@6 Elaine: yes you are correct. Both left and right stay in the centre to avoid the polemic extremes.
A good article. Thanks mercopress =)
Sep 15th, 2012 - 02:14 am - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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