Museum to Chile's Pinochet sickens victims

[Judi Lynn]

Museum to Chile's Pinochet sickens victims
Fri Dec 12, 2008 9:29pm GMT

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Family and friends of former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet quietly inaugurated a museum in his memory on Friday, replete with uniforms and medals he wore, to the horror of victims of his rule.

Among items displayed at the new Pinochet Foundation museum in an upscale quarter of the capital, Santiago, are the last uniform he used as commander in chief of the Chilean Army along with dozens of his medals.

"I am happy because this is a way of doing some justice to what he represented and what he did," said Lucia Hiriart, his widow, flanked by family and some former ministers and retired military. The event was low-key.

Pinochet led a bloody coup against the socialist government of Salvador Allende in 1973, ushering in 17 years of dictatorship in which 3,000 people died or disappeared and around 28,000 were tortured.

Victims of his rule, some of whom complain the wheels of justice turn too slowly in Chile, were disgusted.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE4BB6TH20081212?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401

[Judi Lynn]

1. How to Remember Pinochet

Published on Wednesday, January 3, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
How to Remember Pinochet
by Katherine Roberts Hite and Eliana Loveluck

~snip~
General Augusto Pinochet’s ashes have barely been scattered and already the debate in Chile has begun over how he should be
Even major US newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal counsel that while the man who ran Chile for seventeen years was no friend of human rights, he nevertheless “righted” the country. They ask us to consider a more “complicated” story of Pinochet’s place in history. These newspaper editorials claim that thanks to Pinochet, democracy now flourishes in Chile. According to their argument, somehow the renowned dictator paved the way for the democrats that followed his 17-year rule.

But consider the following:

The Chilean government denied Pinochet a state funeral because he was under indictment—and house arrest at the time of his heart attack—for the murders of Chilean men and women and for the embezzlement of tens of millions of dollars. Chilean president Michelle Bachelet said that a state funeral for Pinochet would be an assault on the Chilean conscience.

While Pinochet supporters mourned the dictator at his service at the Military College, thousands of other Chileans participated in an alternative commemoration and protest at the monument to Salvador Allende, Chile’s democratically-elected president overthrown by Pinochet in a bloody coup d’etat. As they mourned the death of democracy those many years ago, they also resurrected the memory of Pinochet’s victims.

Who were the victims? The musician, Victor Jara, whose hands were broken at the Chile Stadium, where thousands of prisoners were held in those first few weeks of terror after the coup, who was then shot and killed, his body dumped unidentified in a morgue. The university professor who taught subject matter incomprehensible to the military junta, subjects such as journalism, sociology, and political science. The schoolteacher whose student denounced her because he knew she was an Allende sympathizer. Doctors, professionals, workers, students.

In the press this week there was an image of a woman, a mother, kissing a skull. She was one of the few whose relatives’ remains had been identified, and she could kiss his skull to express her love. So many other Chileans will never be able to say goodbye to their loved ones even in this cruel manner, for there are still 1100 Chileans who remain disappeared at the hands of Pinochet’s men, including hundreds who were taken in helicopters, had their stomachs slashed open, and then were dropped into the Pacific Ocean.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0103-50.htm

[Judi Lynn]

2. They need to include an exhibit for his notorious chief torturer, Osvaldo Romo:

Last Updated: Wednesday, 4 July 2007, 19:42 GMT 20:42 UK
Infamous Pinochet-era agent dies

One of the most notorious figures from the regime of former military ruler of Chile, General Augusto Pinochet, has died in prison, officials have said.
Osvaldo Romo, who was serving 15 years in jail for killing three dissidents during Gen Pinochet's rule, died of heart and respiratory problems.

Known as "El Guaton" (The Fat One), he was awaiting trial for human rights abuses committed between 1973 and 1990.

Romo fled to Brazil afterwards, but was eventually extradited back to Chile.

A former officer in the feared Dina secret police force, Romo was accused by his victims of being a sadistic torturer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6271462.stm

http://www.purochile.org.nyud.net:8090/Lauriani.jpg http://www.ulibros.cl.nyud.net:8090/reportaje/img_libros/romo.gif

If you can stand it, an interview with subtitles of Osvaldo Romo. Photo of this creature in old age portrays a man who was very ill with diabetes. For some reason that photo has scattered around on the internet for ages, placed there, probably, by people who felt a need to see a towering fiend brought very low by time itself, presumably:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsUmU2aAVbY&NR=1

[Judi Lynn]

3. This is a longer look at Romo from a paper published in the States:

Confessing Evil: A Performative Approach to Perpetrators= Confessions and Chilean Memory Politics
Leigh A. PayneDepartment of Political Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison
[e-mail]
Presented at the XXIV International Congress of the Latin American Studies AssociationDallas, TX, 27-29 March 2003

http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/lasa2003/payneleigh.pdf


or HTML version:
~~~~ link ~~~~

[Judi Lynn]

4. The Chile Coup: The U.S. Hand

The Chile Coup: The U.S. Hand
by Peter Kornbluh
iF magazine, November / December 1998

Twenty-five years ago, tanks rumbled through the streets of Chile, terrified civilians were lined up before firing squads at the National Stadium, the elected president was dead.

Yet, at Richard Nixon's White House, the events were a cause for celebration, a culmination of three years of covert operations, propaganda and economic sabotage.

Newly declassified U.S. government records put Washington's role in the Chilean coup in sharper focus than ever before. The papers also shed light on corners of the story that previously had been suspected, but not proven.

The documents describe how an angry Nixon demanded a coup, if necessary, to block the inauguration of Marxist Salvador Allende following his victory in the 1970 Chilean elections.

The documents reveal that an early coup plan -- known as "Track II" -- continued through the assassination of pro-constitutional Chilean Gen. Rene Schneider, who was gunned down by military plotters on Oct. 22, 1970.

The fuller documentary record contradicts the long-standing claim by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that "Track n" was shut down a week before Schneider's murder.

After Allende's inauguration, Nixon did not give up. The documents detail what his administration did to make the Chilean economy "scream," how the CIA spread "black" propaganda, and how Washington finally goaded the Chilean army into the coup of 1973.
The Chilean coup leader, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, held power for the next 17 years, relinquishing control in 1990 only after arranging immunity for himself and his top generals.

Until Oct. 16, Pinochet had escaped all punishment for his actions which left thousands dead and Chile a bitterly divided nation.

More:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Terrorism/Chile%20Coup_USHand.html

[a la izquierda]

5. The audacity of people who glorify this monster.

Unfortunately at the moment, I don't have time to read much on South America, as my dissertation research keeps me pretty busy with Mexican history. And I haven't kept up with recent literature as I should have, but I do know that the history of this period in Chile is slowly starting to invade the collective memory of more and more people. There are two really good movies about this period, one is a documentary, the other a drama, that people should see: the documentary is called Chile, Obstinate Memory. The drama is called Machuca. I showed Machuca to a class once and not one student walked out with dry eyes, even the men.
When I graduate, I plan to study political violence and the poor (including indigenous groups, which is my specialty). The histories are such that, once people realize the complicity of governments in the name of national security (including ours), one can only be as equally monstrous to ignore, albeit in a different way. Guatemala is particularly bad, but Chile and Argentina are incredibly unpleasant as well.

Thanks for always posting information from our southern brothers and sisters. I can't take the time to translate what I read down here from Spanish, it's just too time consuming!

[judasdisney]

6. Pope John Paul II called Pinochet "dearest friend"

http://www.acc.umu.se/~samhain/summerofhate/summer_of_hate_five_popes.html