Buckdog

One of the worst Right Wing dictators in modern history has suffered a heart attack and is on his death bed.

General Augusto Pinochet seized control of Chile in a military coup with the assistance of the United States of America in 1973. He was courted by the Nixon and Ford administrations and had a warm relationship with former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

On September 11, 1973, a military coup d'état removed the democratically elected leftwing President, Salvador Allende.

The military coup was extremely violent from the very beginning. The military surrounded the La Moneda Palace with tanks and infantry troops and bombed it with Hawker Hunter fighter jets. The president and some of his aides were besieged in the palace. Allende refused to surrender, and addressed the nation for a last time in a potent farewell speech. President Salvadore Allende was murdered by soldiers in the presidential palace. The coup was supported and aided by the US Central Intelligence Agency.

The worst violence occurred in the first few months after the coup, with the number of suspected leftists killed or "disappeared" soon reaching into the thousands. In the days immediately following the coup, the National Stadium was used as a concentration camp holding 40,000 prisoners. Some of the most famous cases of "desaparecidos" are Charles Horman, a U.S. citizen who was tortured and killed during the coup itself; Chilean songwriter Víctor Jara, murdered while held prisoner at the Chile Stadium immediately after the coup, and the October 1973 Caravan of Death (Caravana de la Muerte) where at least 70 persons were killed.

Approximately 130,000 individuals were arrested in a three-year period. These were mostly trade unionists, social democrats, basically anyone whose politics leaned to the left. The number of dead and "disappeared" reaching into the thousands within the first few months. Most of the people targeted had been supporters of Allende.

This evil dictator has never been brought to justice to account for the his crimes. The fact that British Conservatives and American Republicans actively supported him, is a crime in itself.

Toronto Sun

Buckdog