Word: junta
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Since the right-wing military junta of General Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile three years ago, nothing but insults have been exchanged by Santiago and Moscow. So when Strongman Pinochet ostentatiously offered to give the Kremlin his country's top Communist prisoner in exchange for a jailed Russian writer last month, his proposal was widely dismissed as a futile gesture designed to mute critics of his oppressive regime. Last week the improbable bargain was consummated. In exchange for the release of Chilean Communist Party Chief Luis Corvalán, 60, the Kremlin freed Dissident Vladimir Bukovsky...
Unfolding Mystery. Negotiations for the swap had been carried out under tight security wraps. As the mystery unfolded last week, the U.S. Government acknowledged its crucial role as intermediary between Chile and the U.S.S.R., which have no diplomatic relations. Last month the Chilean junta, anxious to polish up its image in Washington, released about 300 political prisoners, while holding on to Corvalán for an exchange that would have dramatic public relations value. Washington suggested that Bukovsky would be a candidate for a swap. Acting as go-betweens in discussions between Chilean and Soviet diplomats in Washington were...
...largest Communist Party and holds the Order of Lenin, the Soviets' top peacetime decoration. "Corvalán is a splendid prize for the Kremlin," observed British Sovietologist Leopold Labedz. "He can now be set up as the highly visible and potent center for Communist opposition to the Chilean junta." Bukovsky, on the other hand, had proved to be a considerable embarrassment to the Kremlin as the symbol of harsh Soviet repression of dissidents...
...another "great" day eight years ago, Peru's leftist military junta took power. Shortly after this change came agrarian reform, closer Peruvian links with the Soviet Union, and the expropriation of U.S. copper and oil interests. The drop in food production after the land reform, however, sent high prices even higher, threatening the popularity of the government. As a result Juan Velasco, "the father of the Peruvian revolution," was replaced in 1975 by the less socialistic Francisco Morales. The Morales government tilts toward the center, encouraging foreign investment in Peru with better terms and repayment for expropriated holdings. Perhaps this...
...that rebuff, Pinochet's government reluctantly granted the amnesty as a first limited step toward regaining international respectability. Nonetheless, Amnesty International estimates there are still more than 1,000 political suspects in prison. Of the thousands of people who have been in Chile's jails since the junta took over, hundreds have simply "disappeared"; most are presumed to have been tortured and killed by DINA, Chile's secret police...