10/13/10 digest note:
A couple of days into increasingly grotesque wall-to-wall rescue
world coverage, it was clear something beyond an amazing humanitarian
rescue was at stake. Emotionally, at least, was grossly exploitative
of the miners and their families who eventually complained of being
overwhelmed by media, political pundits and psychological experts
'training' them how to survive, how to talk to the media and turn
their criminal nightmare into commercial deals.
It was also strange the U.S. stayed in the background, for once not
playing #1 world humanitarian' rescuer. The media circus, as well
as the rescue, a brilliantly choreographed, welcome good-news human
-interest story, was even managed to appear non-political. Until
it was over. Oct. 13 the eve. news finale jolted us awake: a WP
'reporter', claimed to be the only journalist - out of nearly 2000
from Chile and the rest of the world - to stay overnight with the
miners in the hospital. Mouthing the by-now familiar singsong litany
about hope and heroism, he ended a weirdly robotic report with the
non-sequitur declaration to the effect that 'the dark days of
Pinochet were finally buried in that sealed mine'.... shifting gears
that put the show in its geopolitical context... reminding us of
another made-in-usa 911. Since the 'miracle', US media mentions
some previously suppressed news that hints at what was going on...
for ex. how Pinera, the US' new Pincohet, was here with north
american 'mentors' while 'his' rescue was going on:
While his rescue team was working to reach the miners, Pinera met
in the United States with Microsoft's Bill Gates and Apple Chairman
Steve Jobs, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
Flawless rescue raises Chile's stature as developed countryhttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013181972_pinera17...
ndication=rss
While his rescue team was working to reach the miners, Pinera met
in the United States with Microsoft's Bill Gates and Apple Chairman
Steve Jobs, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger. Oct.16 Pinera began a weeklong European tour with
plans to meet Monday with Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron
and Queen Elizabeth, as well as the leaders of France and Germany.
Chile's celebrated rescue of 33 miners has bolstered the fortunes
of new President Sebastian Pinera as well as the country's image
as the most stable and efficient economy in Latin America, potentially
attracting more foreign investment and tourism.
Pinera emerged as more than just a president who oversaw a flawless
rescue watched by millions worldwide. He has become a potentially
transformational figure who could change the political landscape
of Chile and bring the South American nation closer to the developed
status it deeply covets.
Pinera was not shy about laying out this vision moments after the
first miner was pulled out. "Chile is not the same country today
as it was 69 days ago,"
he said Wednesday. The nation is "more united and strong than ever,
and I believe that today Chile is a country more respected and
valued in the entire world."
Pinera made good on a central campaign promise: to govern with the
obsessive efficiency of a business. More important, he showed the
model can work.Indeed, Pinera was sounding very much like his
populist South American neighbors in rousing speeches as the miners
were being pulled out, promising his government would bring about
a "radical change" in how Chile enforces workplace-safety regulations.
"Business executives must take better care of their employees because
the principal wealth of our country isn't copper, it's the miners.
It isn't natural resources, it's the Chileans," he said."We are
going to adopt completely the standards of developed countries. If
Chile wants to be a developed country, it's not just to be able to
sit down at the same table with European countries. It's also to
treat our workers as if we were a developed country."
THE MINERS USED AS PAWNS IN U.S. GEOSTRATEGIC WAR ABC lies by
omission continue: TV news 10/17 briefly mentioned other miners and
families held a protest against the San Jose Mining Co. demanding
'rescue' for 300 miners still trapped by unemployment and no benefits
since mine closed, and big changes be made by govt and the industry.
Some (emphasis added) of the 33 Chilean miners attend a mass at the
San Jose mine.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/14/3038673.htm
...The lone foreigner among them, Carlos Mamani of Bolivia, was visited at a
nearby clinic by Pinera and Bolivian President Evo Morales They're
all out: 33 miners raised safely in Chilehttp://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Theyre-all-out-33-miners-raised...
in-Chile/zErWM1aSj0eTDVV4g_P4Gw.cspx?rss=1543
...The lone foreigner among them, Carlos Mamani of Bolivia, was visited at a
nearby clinic by Pinera and Bolivian President Evo Morales Mining
is Chile's lifeblood, providing 40 percent of state earnings, and
Pinera put his mining minister and the operations chief of state-owned
Codelco, the country's biggest company, in charge of the rescue.U.S.
President Barack Obama said the rescue had "inspired the world."
The crews included many Americans, including a driller operator
from Denver and a team from Center Rock Inc. of Berlin, Pa., that
built and managed the piston-driven hammers that pounded the hole
through rock laced with quartzite, some of the hardest and most
abrasive rock.
Chilean President Sebastion Pinera, whose popularity has soared
since the mine collapse, is avowedly anti-union. His political roots
are linked to the Pinochet dictatorship which in 1973 overthrew
Chiles democratically-elected president, Salvador Allende. ...
CAPITALIST CHINA, #1 THREAT TO U.S. GLOBAL HEGEMONY, NOT ALLOWED
IN ITS 'BACKYARD' PEACEFUL BUSINESS EXPANSION REPRESENTS 'WAR' TO
U.S....WHICH KEEPS GROWING
10-17 Seattle Times hardcopy 'the newspaper's view': "Deliverance
in Copiapo"
has completely disappeared, as if it never existed. Maybe it hit
too close to home:
"The San Jose Mine in Copiapo produces copper and gold. China and
Chile, the world's biggest consumer of copper and biggest producer,
respectively, signed a broad trade pact in 2006.
The rescue effort was an extraordinary melding of talent and
technology. A Chinese heavy-equipment company provided the massive
construction crane for the operation..."
China, Chile Pledge to Further Bilateral Ties 5/31/05http://www.china.org.cn/english/international/130527.htm
Vice President Zeng Qinghong told visiting Chilean Foreign Minister
Ignacio Walker the Chinese government is ready to further strengthen
Sino-Chilean ties. Zeng spoke highly of the development of
Sino-Chilean relations. He noted that among South American nations,
Chile is the first to forge diplomatic ties with China, the first
to render support to China's resumption of its lawful seat in the
United Nations, the first to recognize China's full market economy
status and the first to start free trade negotiations with China.
Chile is also the first Latin American nation to sign bilateral
agreement with China on its admission into the World Trade Organization,
he added. The five "firsts" demonstrated the continuous growth of
Sino-Chilean relations, he said...the two countries kept frequent
high-level visits in recent years, the bilateral trade progressed
rapidly. Besides, China and Chile cooperate closely with the other
in international affairs.
China's Four-point Plan on Economic Cooperation with Chile 9/7/06http://www.china.org.cn/english/2006/Sep/180399.htm
Trapped 68 Days, First Chilean Miners Taste Freedomhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/world/americas/13chile.html?pagewan...
=name%20of%20first%20miner%20out?&st=cse&scp=1
The decision by Mr. Piqera, Chiles first right-wing leader in 20
years, to make such an unbridled push to rescue the miners was an
extraordinary political calculation. But it has paid big dividends,
bolstering his popularity at home and propelling him onto an
international stage often dominated by other large personalities
in the region.
President Sebastian Piqera has staked his presidency on rescuing
the miners...The race to save the miners has thrust Chile into a
spotlight it has often sought but rarely experienced. While lauded
for its economic management and austerity, the nation found the
worlds attention trained more on its human rights violations and
natural disasters than on uplifting moments....
Alejandro Pino, regional manager of an insurance company for
work-related accidents, has given the miners media training on how
to speak and express themselves, even sending a rolled-up copy of
his guidebook through the borehole.
u.s. media reports deleted this Evo Morales meets with rescued
Bolivian minerhttp://article.wn.com/view/2010/10/13/Evo_Morales_meets_with_rescued_...
_miner_Extra/
Copiapo, Chile - Bolivian President Evo Morales met Wednesday with
compatriot Carlos Mamani, 23, the only non-Chilean trapped underground
since August 5, at the mine from which the worker had been rescued
hours earlier. This is a historic event. We Bolivian authorities
are grateful for the effort that Chileans made,' Morales said.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, Health Minister Jaime Manalich
and Mamani's family were present at the meeting.Morales offered
Mamani a job and a home in Bolivia in case he wants to return to
his native country, and said he was willing to take the miner home
immediately if he wished to go. Mamani made it clear he wants to
stay in Chile, at least for a few days. He plans to meet up with
the other 32 miners on the surface, once the ordeal is over for all
of them.
economic promise but fascist political problems remain Tycoon Pinera
promises rapid growth for Chile By Gideon Long, 8 January 2010, BBC
News, Santiagohttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8464690.stm
Having won Chile's presidential election by a narrow margin,
billionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera must now chart the country's
future for the next four years... Just this month, Chile became the
first country in South America to join the OECD, the club of the
world's wealthiest, most developed states.
Mr Pinera also has the benefit of cash in the bank. Between 2005
and 2008, when money was pouring into the country from the sale of
its chief commodity, copper, Chile racked up combined fiscal surpluses
of $42bn (#26bn) - equivalent to a remarkable 26% of GDP. Mrs
Bachelet spent some of that money to offset the impact of the global
economic crisis but there is plenty left over, and with the all
important copper price creeping back up towards historic highs
thanks to incessant demand from Asia, the prospects for the Chilean
economy are bright. [Analysis: Copper's Surge, 10-14-10, outpaced
gold, 2 yr. high after report of industry's gains in China]. Mr
Pinera has vowed to deliver an annual growth rate of 6% over the
next four years and one million new jobs - bold promises in a country
with a work force of less than nine million. Chile economy relies
heavily on the export of copper Whether he is able to keep those
promises will depend largely on the price of copper, which accounts
for more than half of Chile's export revenue.
The most immediate challenge Mr Pinera faces is what to do with his
personal wealth, estimated at around $1.2bn. Most of that money is
held in shares in national airline LAN, and Mr Pinera has vowed to
sell them before he takes office in order to avoid a conflict of
interest. If he handles that process with anything less than full
transparency the centre-left opposition will pounce on it as proof
of what they have alleged all along - that Mr Pinera is a voracious
businessman who is not to be trusted with the public purse. Aside
from his LAN shares, Mr Pinera also owns important stakes in a
Chilean TV channel and the country's most successful football club,
prompting many to compare him to Italy's Silvio Berlusconi....
The very fact that Chileans were prepared to elect Mr Pinera suggests
the Chilean right is finally emerging from the long shadow cast by
the Pinochet era, when more than 3,000 people were killed in political
violence and 28,000 were tortured...But as memories of those dark
days fade and a new generation of Chileans emerges, the electorate
is gradually overcoming its fear of the political right. ...Mr
Pinera was studying in Harvard at the time of Gen Pinochet's coup
in 1973, but came back to Chile three years later, making his fortune
by pioneering the sale of credit cards. He opposed the Pinochet
regime [SIC], but his brother was a minister in it and, in the
election of 1989, Mr Pinera campaigned for Pinochet's candidate.That
has led some to question his commitment to democracy... On foreign
policy, Mr Pinera faces a lonely four years in office. Much of Latin
America has swung to the left in the past decade and he will find
few natural allies in the region. Relations with Chile's northern
neighbours Peru and Bolivia - already dismal - are unlikely to
improve.
Chiles Ghosts Are Not Being Rescued by John Pilger / October 15th,
2010http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/10/chiles-ghosts-are-not-being-rescued/
The rescue of 33 miners in Chile is an extraordinary drama filled
with pathos and heroism. It is also a media windfall for the Chilean
government, whose every beneficence is recorded by a forest of
cameras. One cannot fail to be impressed. However, like all great
media events, it is a fagade.
The accident that trapped the miners is not unusual in Chile and
the inevitable consequence of a ruthless economic system that has
barely changed since the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
Copper is Chiles gold, and the frequency of mining disasters keeps
pace with prices and profits.
There are, on average, 39 fatal accidents every year in Chiles
privatised mines. The San Jose mine, where the men work, became so
unsafe in 2007 it had to be closed but not for long. On 30 July
last, a labour department report warned again of serious safety
deficiencies , but the minister took no action. Six days later, the
men were entombed.
For all the media circus at the rescue site, contemporary Chile is
a country of the unspoken. At the Villa Grimaldi, in the suburbs
of the capital Santiago, a sign says: The forgotten past is full
of memory. This was the torture centre where hundreds of people
were murdered and disappeared for opposing the fascism that General
Augusto Pinochet and his business allies brought to Chile.... In
1990, Pinochet bequeathed a constitutionally compromised system as
a condition of his retirement and the militarys withdrawal to the
political shadows. This ensures that the broadly reformist parties,
known as Concertacion, are permanently divided or drawn into
legitimising the economic designs of the heirs of the dictator. At
the last election, the right-wing Coalition for Change, the creation
of Pinochets ideologue Jaime Guzman, took power under president
Sebastian Piqera. The bloody extinction of true democracy that began
with the death of Allende was, by stealth, complete.
Piqera is a billionaire who controls a slice of the mining, energy
and retail industries. He made his fortune in the aftermath of
Pinochets coup and during the free-market experiments of the zealots
from the University of Chicago, known as the Chicago Boys. His
brother and former business partner, Jose Piqera, a labour minister
under Pinochet, privatised mining and state pensions and all but
destroyed the trade unions. This was applauded in Washington as an
economic miracle, a model of the new cult of neo-liberalism that
would sweep the continent and ensure control from the north.
Today Chile is critical to [ED: critical to the U.S. imperialist
global agenda Obama serves well] President Barack Obamas rollback
of the independent democracies in Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela.
Piqeras closest ally is Washingtons main man, Juan Manuel Santos,
the new president of Colombia, home to seven US bases and an infamous
human rights record familiar to Chileans who suffered under Pinochets
terror.
Post-Pinochet Chile has kept its enduring abuses in shadow. The
families still attempting to recover from the torture or disappearance
of a loved bear the prejudice of the state and employers. Those not
silent are the Mapuche people, the only indigenous nation the Spanish
conquistadors could not defeat. In the late 19th century, the
European settlers of an independent Chile waged their racist War
of Extermination against the Mapuche who were left as impoverished
outsiders. During Allendes thousand days in power this began to
change. Some Mapuche lands were returned and a debt of justice was
recognised. Since then, a vicious, largely unreported war has been
waged against the Mapuche. Forestry corporations have been allowed
to take their land, and their resistance has been met with murders,
disappearances and arbitrary prosecutions under anti terrorism laws
enacted by the dictatorship. In their campaigns of civil disobedience,
none of the Mapuche has harmed anyone. The mere accusation of a
landowner or businessman that the Mapuche might trespass on their
own ancestral lands is often enough for the police to charge them
with offences that lead to Kafkaesque trials with faceless witnesses
and prison sentences of up to 20 years. They are, in effect, political
prisoners.
While the world rejoices at the spectacle of the miners rescue, 38
Mapuche hunger strikers have not been news. They are demanding an
end to the Pinochet laws used against them, such as terrorist arson,
and the justice of a real democracy. On 9 October, all but one of
the hunger strikers ended their protest after 90 days without food.
A young Mapuche, Luis Marileo, says he will go on. On 18 October,
President Piqera is due to give a lecture on current events at the
London School of Economics. He should be reminded of their ordeal
and why.
Sebastian Pinera sees Chile plans jolted by earthquakehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8559724.stm
Sebastian Pinera will face one of the most daunting challenges ever
confronted by a Chilean president when he takes office on Thursday,
less than two weeks after the country was hit by a massive earthquake.
He has already acknowledged that his pre-election plans have largely
gone up in smoke, and he will have to reassess everything in the
light of the catastrophe.
Despite the enormity of the challenge, the earthquake and its
aftermath could well play into Mr Pinera's hands... Raul Sohr, a
Chilean political analyst said "Suddenly people want someone in
charge with a firm hand and that's what Pinera is offering." Mr
Sohr also said that to some extent, the quake "lets Pinera off the
hook". "If he meets his targets he can take the credit for it and
if he doesn't he can always blame it on the impact of the earthquake."
Pinera applies US model of govt./NGO " aid"
Chileans bitter about quake responsehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8548774.stm
For days, we have seen trucks loaded with drinking water, basic
food and mattresses on their way to the city, yet there was scant
evidence of any major aid distribution on the ground. Some
four-and-a-half days after one of the largest earthquakes in recent
history struck the province of Concepcion, and several nearby fishing
villages were swept away by the subsequent tsunami, aid is beginning
to reach the affected region. Guarded at every entrance by armed
soldiers, the car park of a shopping mall in Concepcion is the
main distribution point for the regional aid effort..."The next
stage will be getting these items to the people..."... the people
living in the most precarious conditions in Concepcion - those who
are camping in the streets in tents for fear of re-entering their
quake-damaged houses - feel abandoned by the authorities in the
wake of the disaster....Col Ramirez, has no time for the suggestion
that the reaction has been too slow...."This is exemplary, a model
of the kind of co-operation between the military and civil society
we must repeat everywhere to overcome this catastrophe." ....
Venezuela breaks ties with U.S.-allied Colombia 07/23/2010http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organization+of+American+States
Venezuelan President Chavez has broken diplomatic relations with
neighboring Colombia, accusing its close U.S. ally of fabricating
reports that Colombian rebels find safe haven inside Venezuela.
Venezuela flip-flopping Hemispheric Brief: A Pan-Latin America
Politics and Policy Briefhttp://www.joshuafrens-string.com/2010/03/venezuela-flip-flopping.html
The Commander of U.S. Southern Command, Gen. Douglas Fraser, presented
his first annual Posture Statement to the House Armed Services
Committee yesterday, a week doing the same in the Senate. This
document (PDF), presented to the oversight committees every year,
explains how the regional unified command views threats in the
region, and how it plans to address them. This was the first such
testimony for Gen. Fraser, who assumed command in July.
(Video of his House testimony is here, and video of his Senate
testimony is here.) The two testimonies were most notable for a
flip-flop on Venezuela only mentioned in 2 paragraphs in Gen.
Frasers entire 42-page testimony during the hearings question-and-answer
phases. Asked about Venezuelan support for Colombias FARC and Spains
ETA in the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 11, the general
responded that there was no solid evidence indicating that Caracas
is, as a matter of official policy, supporting the two groups, both
on the State Departments list of foreign terrorist organizations...
Yesterday, however, [a]ccording to Reuters, Fraser said Venezuela
continues to provide the FARC a safe haven and financial logistical
support based on information found on a laptop computer of a FARC
commander seized by Colombian soldiers during a raid on a guerrilla
camp in Ecuador in 2008. A week earlier, the general had dismissed
the laptop files as old evidence.
Frasers words matter because of the seriousness of the allegation.
If the U.S. government signals that it believes it is Venezuelan
government policy is to fund a group that kills large numbers of
people in neighboring Colombia, then the U.S. government is effectively
signaling that Colombia has a casus belli. That is why both U.S.
and Colombian officials have generally avoided stating publicly
that Hugo Chavez is backing the FARC. (It is undeniable that Venezuela
has not been at all aggressive in clearing the FARC out of its
border zones, but the same can be said about Colombian narcotraffickers
and new paramilitary groups that also operate across the border.)
In addition to a lengthy section about Haiti relief efforts, Gen.
Frasers written testimony puts a strong emphasis on trafficking as
a principal threat to U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere. He
uses the term to describe more than just narcotics, encompassing
organized crime and gangs as corollary challenges to be confronted.
More than his predecessors, the general directly links organized-crime
activity with a potential terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland:
the same routes and networks by which illicit traffickers smuggle
1,250-1,500 metric tons of cocaine per year around the region could
be used wittingly or unwittingly to smuggle weapons, cash, fissile
material or terrorists. (also notable because it clashes strongly
with State Department estimates, presented March 1 International
Narcotics Control Strategy Report, that the entire region produced
only 705 tons of cocaine in 2008.)
U.S ATTEMPTS TO DOMINATE LATIN AMERICA'S LONG, DEADLY HISTORY IN
CHILE
U.S. CRIMES WHITEWASHED Rescue May Redeem a Troubled Past for Chilean
City By SIMON ROMEROhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/world/americas/15copiapo.html?th&em...
COPIAPS, Chile Though the vuvuzelas have quieted down, this desert
city is still basking in the daring rescue of the 33 men trapped
deep in a copper and gold mine nearby for more than two months. And
for some, the triumph was a striking contrast to another set of
events here in Copiaps also involving its miners from a much
darker time in Chiles history.The year was 1973, in the weeks after
the coup by Gen. Augusto Pinochet that ended the democratically
elected government of Salvador Allende. In the predawn hours of
Oct. 17, 1973 37 years before the mine rescue, almost to the day
military personnel murdered 16 men near here, including some who
worked for Chiles state mining company.A squad operating under Brig.
Gen. Sergio Arellano Stark executed the men using weapons that
included military knives called corvos.
Altogether, the unit, which came to be called the Caravan of Death,
killed more than 70 Chileans suspected of leftist activities that
month...For the relatives of those killed by the Caravan of Death,
which flew from city to city on Puma helicopters to carry out the
killings using powers that General Pinochet given it under martial
law, the rescue of the miners this week shows how much Chile has
evolved since General Pinochets rule ended in 1990...
But the emotional reactions to the rescue still mingled with memories
of the massacre, and Chiles political shifts over the years served
as a backdrop.President Sebastian Piqera, a conservative billionaire,
is the first right-wing leader the country has had in the 20 years
since General Pinochet left power, and the nations past complicates
the way he is viewed here.
March 11, 2010, the right wing is back at the scene of the crime,
reads a line of graffiti on one of Copiapss walls, referring to Mr.
Piqeras inauguration date presumably spray-painted before his
popularity was bolstered by the rescue. Despite the broad admiration
here for the handling of the rescue by Mr. Piqeras government, some
here noted that those responsible for the killings in 1973 had not
answered for their crime...Relatives of the victims have planned a
procession to take place in Copiaps this weekend, making its way
from the citys cathedral to the cemetery. It is our historical duty
to keep this memory alive and to dishonor the officers responsible
for these crimes.
CHILE 9/11/1973: ANOTHER MADE-IN-USA 911 & ITS MEDIA BORN IN THE
USA - PINOCHETS BLOODBATH : The Apparatus Of Silence December 19,
2006 http://www.medialens.org/alerts/06/061219_born_in_usa.php
[following examples of UK media complicity by silence]... A theme
is emerging, is it not?
Jonathan Kandell in the New York Times trotted safely with the media
herd in his 2,600-word piece: General Pinochet initially led a
four-man junta in the 1973 military coup that brought him to power,
with the support of the United States government... (Kandell, Augusto
Pinochet - Dictator Who Ruled by Terror in Chile, Dies at 91, New
York Times, December 11, 2006) ... the coup was launched on September
1, 1973, with the support of the US which had played an active role
in supporting the anti-Allende opposition. (General Augusto Pinochet,
November 25, 1915 - December 10, 2006, The Times, December 11, 2006)
The theme, then? US backed, supported, fomented and assisted the
coup, and cut off aid. But the active, central role played by the
United States is simply not described....
The vast political sabotage of Chilean democracy and the fierce US
determination to destroy Allendes regime militarily were buried out
of sight
...as was the general trend in Latin America (and the Third World more
generally) of which these horrors form one tiny part. A media
database search showed that the words Pinochet and CIA have been
mentioned in only seven articles in the UK national press since
Pinochets death.
Not Acceptable To The United States
...The rationale for overthrowing Allende was outlined in a CIA report dated
November 12, 1970: "Dr. Salvador Allende became the first
democratically-elected Marxist head of state in the history of Latin
America - despite the opposition of the U.S. Government. As a result,
U.S. prestige and interests are being affected materially at a time
when the U.S. can ill afford problems in an area that has been
traditionally accepted as the U.S.
'backyard'." (Quoted, Kornbluh, op. cit) The US was concerned,
Kissingers aides recall, because Allende was a living example of
democratic social reform in Latin America. (Quoted, Curtis, p.130)
Kissinger stated that the contagious example of Chile would infect
not only Latin America but also Southern Europe. (Ibid)...
October 16, a secret cable from CIA headquarters to the CIA station
chief in Santiago, read: "It is firm and continuing policy that
Allende be overthrown by a coup... prior to October 24. But efforts
in this regard will continue vigorously beyond this date. We are
to continue to generate maximum pressure toward this end utilizing
every appropriate resource. It is imperative that these actions be
implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG [U.S.
government] and American hand be well hidden." (Quoted, Kornbluh,
op. cit)...
Only 19 days after Allendes death, a secret briefing paper prepared
for Kissinger - entitled "Chilean Executions" - put the "total dead"
from the coup at 1,500. The paper reported that the junta had
summarily executed 320 individuals - three times more than publicly
acknowledged. After three months, 11,000 people had been killed.
Between 1994-1997 a further 2,400 people disappeared. According to
the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR): ... the
single-minded ferocity of the coup and the subsequent deliberate
use of torture, disappearances and murder had at that time no
parallel in the history of Chile or Latin America, a continent with
a long experience of dictatorship and military brutality. (Quoted,
Curtis, op. cit, p.130) CIIR described how the Pinochet regime
instigated a policy of permanent terror. (Ibid, p.131) When Kissinger
was told of initial reports of massacres following the coup he
responded: "I think we should understand our policy - that however
unpleasant they act, the [military] government is better for us
than Allende was."
(Kornbluh, The Pinochet File,www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
NSAEBB/NSAEBB110/index.htm) Peter Kornbluh is director of the
National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project at George
Washington University. In an October 1998 article, Kornbluh described
how the CIA laid the ground work for the coup d'etat in Chile.
(Kornbluh, The Chile Coup - The U.S. Hand, iF magazine, October 25,
1998;
www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Terrorism/Chile%20Coup_USHand.html) [...]
MAJOR GEOSTRATEGIC THINKTANK 'JUSTIFIES' U.S. SPONSORED TERROR IN
CHILE AS PART OF US-SU IMPERIALIST RIVALRY FOR WORLD DOMINATION The
Other 9/11: The United States and Chile, 1973http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/59382/kenneth-maxwell/the-othe...
he-united-states-and-chile-1973?page=3 Kenneth Maxwell, Director
of Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Nov-Dec. 2003
...Kornbluh, who has put together several collections of declassified
documents on key U.S. foreign policy crises, led the campaign to
declassify more than 25,000 closely held records on U.S.-Chilean
relations through the National Security Archives, a nonprofit
nongovernmental organization that he helped establish with the
support of several U.S. foundations. This effort, he says, is part
of an ongoing international campaign "to hold Pinochet and his
military responsible for the murder, torture and terrorism committed
during his regime."..
Kornbluh's bill of particulars and the supporting documents he has
uncovered confirm the deep involvement of the U.S. intelligence
services in Chile prior to and after the coup. In outline, this
story has been known for many years and will be no surprise to
Chileans. ...documents include: transcripts of top-secret discussions
among President Nixon, Kissinger, and other cabinet members on how
"to bring Allende down"; minutes of secret meetings chaired by
Kissinger to plan covert operations in Chile; new documentation of
the notorious case of Charles Horman, an American murdered by the
Chilean military and subject of the movie Missing; comprehensive
documentation of the Letelier case and the extensive CIA, National
Security Council, and State Department reports surrounding it; and
U.S. intelligence reporting on Operation Condor....
Kissinger's response to Kornbluh's charges will undoubtedly be
twofold. On the general level, he will argue that Chile and its
problems were marginal to the larger concerns the Nixon administration
was facing in the Middle East and South Vietnam, not to mention
Watergate: Nixon and his would-be Metternich were fully engaged
elsewhere with "big" events....
On Kornbluh's side, what is lacking in the forensic approach (and
it is a weakness of much writing on U.S. diplomatic history) is
location in time and space. We see only the U.S. side of a story
that is at least two-sided, if not multifaceted. Very little of the
complex political and social history of Chile in the 1970s enters
here; nor do we see the roles of many other actors beyond the Chilean
military, U.S. clandestine operatives, and their political masters.
Chilean society was at the time highly mobilized on the left as
well as the right. All the Chilean political parties -- from Communist
to Christian Democrat -- received and welcomed outside support,
much of it clandestine.The Soviets and the Cubans had their own
involvements, and the international left held Chile as a potential
model. So it was not only Nixon and Kissinger who looked into the
Chilean mirror and saw what they wanted to see; others did too, and
from different angles.If anything, both sides were guilty of knee-jerk
reactions prompted by Cold War phobias.
U.S. methodology in Chile was not that different from the tactics
used to remove regimes from Guatemala City to Tehran deemed dangerous
to the geopolitical status quo. Kissinger defenders may be right
in asserting that this was not high on his agenda. But the outcome
might have been better if he had paid greater attention to the
details instead of leaving them to "old hands." In the end, what
have persisted through the decades to haunt him are the "marginal"
cases: Timor, Angola, and Chile; the old triumphs against the Soviet
Union are barely remembered by a generation for whom the days of
Cold War threats are long gone.But what is very clear in all of
this is that the coup in Chile is exactly what Kissinger's boss
wanted. As Nixon put it in his ineffable style, "It's that son of
a bitch Allende. We're going to smash him."
As early as October of 1970, the CIA had warned of possible
consequences: "you have asked us to provoke chaos in Chile. ... We
provide you with a formula for chaos which is unlikely to be
bloodless. To dissimulate the U.S. involvement will be clearly
impossible." ...
Kissinger's 1976 Cable Sheds More Light on 'Operation Condor'http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/04/10/kissingers-1976-cable-reopens...
ersy-over-operation-condo/
Letelier was among the most effective opponents of Pinochet, who
seized power in Chile during a bloody military coup on Sept. 11,
1973. A former economist at the Inter-American Development Bank,
Letelier served as socialist president Salvador Allende's first
ambassador to Washington, D.C.; he had also held the post of foreign
minister, and at the time of the coup, was minister of defense --
Pinochet's boss. Living in exile in Washington, Letelier led an
international campaign to ostracize the Pinochet regime...
UN Says Latin American Democracy Still Vulnerablehttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/12/ap/latinamerica/main6949178...
(AP) MEXICO CITY (AP) - Democracy has taken root in Latin America,
but remains fragile three decades since coup-imposed military regimes
were replaced by freely elected governments, a U.N. report warned
Tuesday. It says drug violence, weak states with corrupt police and
inefficient courts, and wealth concentrated in few hands threaten
representative government across the region. The new assessment of
Latin America's democratic gains and weaknesses comes amid dramatic
political events in the region....
"There is a problem in the quality of our democracies," said U.N.
Assistant Secretary-General Heraldo Munoz, director of the United
Nations Development Program's regional bureau for Latin America,
who helped oversee the report.
"We need to strengthen institutions and the rule of law" so even
those in power are held to account, he said. "We need to stimulate
a culture of democracy that goes beyond free elections."...despite
free elections and widespread limits on presidential re-election,
most countries still have strong presidents and lack the independent
courts and legislatures necessary to check executive power. In
Venezuela, democratically elected President Hugo Chavez has effectively
stacked the courts and congress in his favor, and changed the
constitution to be re-elected in perpetuity...
The [ED: US led UN Development Program]UNDP and the Organization
of American States worked together on "Our Democracy: Second Report
on Democracy in Latin America," to be discussed in Mexico City at
an international forum attended by Mexican President Felipe Calderon
and U.N. and OAS officials. The report builds on a similar one
conducted in 2004, and consulted hundreds of leading figures during
debates and meetings around the region....
Above all, the report says, the organization of power in Latin
American countries must change.It calls for an end to the region's
tendency toward strong presidents, which lessen the power of their
government's judiciaries and legislatures, and improved participation
by, and increased power for, citizens."Governments shouldn't only
be formed democratically, but govern democratically as well,"
US/UN timely meeting Latin American Democracy Forum Highlights
Economic, Social and Tax Challenges in Advancing Democracy in the
Region October 13, 2010http://www.oas.org/OASpage/press_releases/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E...
OAS: DEMOCRACY FOR PEACE SECURITY & DEVELOPMENT Promoting Democracy
Defending Human Rights Ensuring a Multidimensional Approach to
Security The Latin American Democracy Forum being held October 12
to 14 in the Mexican capital opened today with a debate on the state
of democracy in the region in the 21st century The Latin American
Democracy Forum is the outcome of a joint initiative of the OAS,
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Federal
Electoral Institute of Mexico that seeks to provide a space for
dialogue and exchange of ideas on political electoral and academic
subjects that concern Latin America.
http://www.isria.com/pages/13_October_2010_78.php original
source:http://www.oas.org/OASpage/press_releases/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-
378/10
"Monroe Doctrine" still operative in US global domination agenda:
Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Chile, now Ecuador US media silent over
CIA/ School of the Americas backed failed coup in Ecuador Wayne
Madsenhttp://upge.wn.com/?query=u.s.+implicated+in+ecuador+coup+attempt&tem...
eetah-photo-search%2Findex.txt
Obama Administration and Coups and Coup Attempts in Latin America
Eva Golangerhttp://upge.wn.com/?query=u.s.+implicated+in+ecuador+coup+attempt&tem...
eetah-photo-search%2Findex.txt
Latin America Rising Pepe Escobar, Asia Times Correspondent,http://upge.wn.com/?query=u.s.+implicated+in+ecuador+coup+attempt&tem...
eetah-photo-search%2Findex.txt USAID, NED collaborate with Latin
Americans to overthrow 'uncooperative' regimes