Chile's Bachelet welcomes Palestinian refugees fleeing violence in Iraq

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Herald Tribune/Associated Press

Chile's Bachelet welcomes Palestinian refugees fleeing violence in Iraq

The Associated Press
Friday, May 16, 2008

SANTIAGO, Chile: President Michelle Bachelet says Chile wants to become a "second fatherland" for 117 Palestinian refugees who fled violence in Iraq.

Bachelet says she knows what it's like to "rebuild a life from zero" after spending several years in exile during Chile's 1973-1990 dictatorship.

She spoke Thursday during an event to welcome the refugees at the government palace in Santiago.

The Palestinians arrived in Chile recently and are settling in the capital and two nearby cities with help from the government.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=12941321

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Michelle, with her brother, Alberto, and parents, Angela and Alberto Bachelet

If you've not discovered already, Michelle Bachelet, along with her father, and mother, and fiance were all imprisoned in Nixon-backed bloody butcher Augusto Pinochet's prisons, and her father died during his imprisonment there.

Both of the women were tortured, like the father. Michelle Bachelet's boyfriend simply "disappeared" as did thousands of other polticial prisoners.

Here's a quick summary of her experience as a prisoner:
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2532/context/cover/

"Revenge of the prisoner’s daughter"
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/2425,features,revenge-of-the-prisoners-daughter

[muntrv]

1. So how long till the republickers demand that we invade Chile?

[Lady-Damai]

2. Interesting. n/t

[roody]

3. k

[Peace Patriot]

4. It's heartening to see examples of what good government looks like--

and good diplomacy, compassion, open-mindedness and generosity in government leaders. It seems that the only examples of these things we have are coming out of South America. Countries with leaders who believe that the countries' oil profits should be used to benefit the poor, and not pad the pockets of the rich. Imagine that. Inconceivable in BushWorld. Countries where the leaders believe in democracy and encourage maximum citizen participation in government and politics. Venezuela, whose government is vilified here, has one of the most vibrant political cultures in the western hemisphere, and elections that put our own to shame for their transparency. Leaders with a genuine love of their country and their people. Leaders like Batchelet--who has negotiated sea access for Bolivia, a long standing dispute between Chile and Bolivia, that originated in a war that still riles people up. It came as naturally as breathing, to Batchelet, to settle this dispute. Leaders like Chavez, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Cristina Fernandez in Argentina, who have been trying to get peace settlement talks going in Colombia's 40+ year civil war, beginning with hostage releases by the rebel leftist guerrillas (sabotaged every step of the way by the Bush Junta and its puppet in Colombia).

These things--gestures of kindness, diplomacy, and seeking opportunities for peace and social justice--should be the normal activities of government leaders. But they are so absent here that it is startling to hear news of them elsewhere. The Bushite M.O. is cruelty and conflict. And many of our party leaders have gone along. It seems inconceivable that any Democratic leader would extend a kind hand to Palestinian refugees, and why haven't they cut off military aid to Colombia--a country with one of the worst human rights records on earth--and offered asylum to the millions of Colombian refugees who have fled the Colombian military and its rightwing death squads (funded by our tax dollars!), into Venezuela and Ecuador. What are we doing to help? Nothing! Both of our political parties are making things worse by larding $5.5 BILLION on the fascists in Colombia, with no thought of the fallout on the poor and the displaced.

Well, I could go on. It just struck me how NORMAL Batchelet's action is, in some places, and how rare it is here, to the point that we can hardly remember what normal government is like.