MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pinochet, not a “President,” Chile's Lower House approves

Pinochet's name should not be among those of the people who were elected President of Chile

Chile's Lower House Tuesday passed a resolution striping late dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte from the title of “president” by 67 votes against 47 and 8 abstentions, it was reported in Santiago. The initiative should not pass to the Senate as it is a draft statement that also defines Pinochet as a “military and political figure” and his government (1973-1990) as an “authoritarian regime.”

“I want to salute the House's vote because 67 deputies were up to the task of a country that wants to call itself democratic,” said Communist deputy Lorena Pizarro. “Augusto Pinochet, the murderer, the thief, was never president. But beyond a matter of words, it has to do with how history recognizes him, and, to me, it seems unpresentable that the National Congress Library has him registered with those who were presidents of the Republic: a dictator cannot be given that nomination,” she added.

Congressman Johannes Kaiser of the Pinochetista Republican Party pointed out that “it is interesting that this body that we all respect for its technical and political independence has considered that Augusto Pinochet Ugarte should have been President of the Republic.”

“You may not like it; you did not like not being able to overthrow him by armed means, you did not like the fact that they prevented you from establishing your Cuban regime in Chile in 73,” he added.

Among the activities marking this year's 50th anniversary of the coup d'état, Government Minister Camila Vallejo paid tribute to the reporters killed during the dictatorship and announced that their names would be “stamped in the Government Palace” outside the hall of the Journalists' Association of La Moneda.

“We know that some of these communicators, on September 11, fought to confront the coup d'état and the democratic rupture, they gave their lives in the defense of this government palace,” Vallejo said.