Chile's Pinochet 'suffers stroke'

[MaineDem]

Former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet has been taken to hospital after suffering a stroke, doctors say.

"His vital signs are stable, and he has made a partial and conscious recovery," a statement from the Santiago hospital said. He is to remain in hospital.

Judge Juan Guzman ruled on Monday that the former leader was fit to stand trial on alleged human rights abuses during his 17 years of military rule.

His lawyers are contesting the ruling and a verdict is due next Monday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4108039.stm

[Southpaw Bookworm]

1. Oh dear, that's a pity

:nopity:

May he meet up with all of the "Disappeared" and Salvador Allende on his way to hell.

[acmavm]

2. How convenient.

.

[MaineDem]

3. I love the quotes around "suffers stroke" in the headline

Tells us how the BBC is thinking of it, doesn't it?

[Ekova]

7. No doubt.

I'm sure Kissinger is breathing a little easier.

[0007]

4. Every times the heat comes down on Pinochet he goes to the hospital

I say throw Augusto Pinochet in a rat infested prison for the rest of his life.

[mitchtv]

5. Bull

I guess they'll have to try Kissinger.

[Mr. Mousie]

6. Yeah, screw Pinochet... BUT....

I think that it would be MAJOR to see him go on trial for his crimes, especially if the truth could come out about how the US funded the opposition to Allende (a fairly moderate reformer) and supported Pinochet's rule of terror. Think about the repercussions that could have today as the US parades around the world claiming to uphold democracy and human rights, even as it bloodies its hands from Guantanamo, to Fallujah, to Afghanistan and beyond. So while I really don't care much about if Pinochet has a stroke, or brain rot, or anal warts, I'd love to see him stand trial, so some sordid details can come out before the world.

The exposure of this bloody empire should be a major concern of people who really DO stand on the side of justice.

[imenja]

10. agree with one exception

Allende called himself a socialist. Many historians and political scientists refer to his and the Unidad Popular's victory in 1970 as an "electoral revolution." You may describe him as moderate in comparison to Fidel Castro, but Kissinger and Nixon saw Allende as more dangerous, precisely because of Allende's commitment to democracy.

[Mr. Mousie]

18. "Socialist"

The reason I call him a moderate is that I don't think that his policies were going to put Chile on a socialist path, that would really bring forward the power of the people, and put them in charge. (BTW, I think that's true for Castro as well.) So I don't think that he was really all that committed to socialism--he was more of a nationalist, to my understanding. Sort of like Arbenz in Guatemala.

Now, the US certainly played up the fact that he called himself socialist--but that was mainly for propaganda purposes. What pissed them off wasn't in the main his ideology, but the fact that he messed with their interests in Chile and the region. By comparison, Saddam certainly wasn't a socialist, but he stood in the way of the empire, so he had to go.

[imenja]

19. more than economic interests

Allende posed a threat to US perceptions of their geo-political interests that extended beyond his expropriation of the copper industry. Henry Kissinger's _The White House Years_ is surprisingly blunt on the subject. He feared the example a successful democratic socialist government would post for governments throughout Latin American and emerging socialist movements in Europe and beyond.
I respect Allende's definition of his own ideology and party membership. Chile's "electoral revolution," however, extended beyond Allende himself. There is an interesting book by Peter Winn called _Weavers of the Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism_ (Oxford, 1989). It tells a sort of "bottom up" view of the Allende period by focusing on actions by workers in the pursuit of socialism.
I hope you realize my designation of Allende as socialist is not in any way meant pejoratively. That he was a member of the socialist party and nationalized Chile's copper holdings and other assets in no way justified the American sponsored coup.
I agree with your classification of Arbenz as moderate. His goal was to create a diversified capitalist economy that benefited a greater share of the population. He was not a member of the Communist or Socialist parties. The Dulles' claimed he was soft on communists in order to justify their coup. It's difficult to know what Allende would have achieved if his reign had not been cut short by the coup. His expropriations, however, were far more extensive than those planned by the Arbenz government. Arbenz seized only non-cultivated, large plantations and redistributed them to small farmerss. Allende nationalized all US owned copper companies as well as other industries and converted them, if I remember correctly, to collective holdings. All entirely justified, in my opinion.

[Laughing Mirror]

8. Six years ago he was unfit to stand trial in London

Now it's a stroke in Santiago. A durable old cuss, Pinochet.

[Vidar]

9. Chimp should take notes. Splendid acting.

[NEOBuckeye]

11. Definitely. We'll put him on trial eventually as well.

I'm sure that Pinochet thought he was going to get away with his crimes. Bush and Cheney today are no different, though I don't know if I'd put money on Cheney's rotten heart holding out as long as Pinochet's has to stand trial.

[daleo]

12. Who couldn't see this coming?

I wonder how many strokes he has left in him?

[Chicago Democrat]

13. Try him anyway...

Try him after he's dead.

[daleo]

16. The ultimate "in absentia" trial

If he dies, maybe the Chileans can take the evidence against him and use it to extradite Kissinger.

[Mr. Mousie]

17. "extradite Kissinger"

"extradite Kissinger"--now that would be pretty sweet. Does anyone know what we could actally DO to put some pressure on? I know they're saying he's had a stroke now, but fuck it. He's got a lot of blood on his hands, and a lot of US dollars in his bank.

The world deserves to trace all of that back to its source.

[sasquatch]

14. COOL! Let's throw'em in a pool and watch him swim in a circle!!

:evilgrin:

[Just Me]

15. He avoids both life and death.

So sad. Too, bad.

[Straight Shooter]

20. Another tyrant who emerged on the catastrophic date of September 11

"The World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks occurred exactly 28 years after Gen. Augusto Pinochet toppled the elected Chilean government of President Salvador Allende, an event I watched in Santiago, the Chilean capital. The bloody U.S.-backed coup on September 11, 1973, marked the advent of a regime that systematically employed terror at home and abroad to remain in power for almost 17 years.

Before the attack on the Pentagon, the most sensational foreign-led terrorist action in the U.S. capital came at the hands of Pinochet operatives. On September 21, 1976, agents of the Chilean secret police agency, the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), detonated a car bomb just blocks from the White House, killing a leading opponent of Pinochet’s, Orlando Letelier, and his assistant Ronni Moffitt. I met Letelier, who had served as Allende’s foreign minister, at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. He was deeply committed to democracy and a humane world.

These assassinations were linked to the hemisphere’s first international terrorist network, known as Operation Condor. Begun in 1974 at the instigation of the Chilean secret police, the network consisted of the intelligence services of at least six South American countries. They collaborated in tracking, kidnapping and assassinating political opponents. Documents divulged by President Bill Clinton’s administration show that the CIA knew about these international terrorist activities and may have even abetted them.

The Chilean secret police, often with help of Condor partners, carried out a number of international terrorist operations. In 1974, a car bomb killed retired Gen. Carlos Pratts in Buenos Aires, where he had sought refuge after Pinochet replaced him as head of the military shortly before the coup. In 1975, DINA operatives attacked and maimed Chilean Christian Democratic politician Bernardo Leighton and his wife in Rome."

More at http://www.americas.org/item_243

Hey, Pinochet :nopity:

[Swamp Rat]

21. Even IF he did have a stroke and his brain is jelly, they should try the

remaining and functioning organs. Try his goddamn dentures for all I care, but they MUST call Kissinger to the stand.

[stackhouse]

22. hi guys just popping in thanks i'm new here