Word: pinochets
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Before agreeing to step down in 1989, Pinochet awarded himself a parliamentary immunity from prosecution for the thousands of Chileans who were kidnapped, tortured and murdered during his 16 years of military rule. At the time, Chile's political parties had little choice but to accept that deal as the price for restoring democracy...
...watching, Slobo? Pay attention, Saddam. It's been a bad week for tyrants everywhere, what with Wednesday's reported decision by Chile's high court to strip General Augusto Pinochet of his self-authored immunity from human rights prosecutions, followed by Thursday's indictment of former Indonesian strongman Suharto on corruption charges. Retirement, it seems, is the hardest part of despotism...
...hype in Warsaw notwithstanding, democracy has never been the linchpin of U.S. foreign policy. During the Cold War, the very term "democratic" was simply a synonym for anticommunist - Suharto, Mobutu, Generals Diem and Pinochet, the medieval Islamists who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan and many other dodgy candidates were all in the "democratic" camp, remember. Even since communism's decisive defeat has allowed Washington to abandon such questionable company, it's simply not true to proclaim democracy as the basis for U.S. foreign policy...
...Chileans went to the polls during his 18-month absence and returned to power the same Socialist party Pinochet had overthrown in his 1973 coup, and despite the moderation of new president Ricardo Lagos, who was briefly jailed under the dictatorship, his government is quite happy to see Pinochet on the defensive. "For the most part this is simply going through the motions of stripping Pinochet of his immunity and of his glory in order to correct the historical record," says TIME Latin America bureau chief Tim McGirk. "Given his rapidly declining health he's unlikely ever to make...
...question mark over any attempt to pursue Pinochet has always been the reaction of the Chilean military, whose leadership remains supportive of its former commander in chief. "While the Lagos government is quite happy to see the courts going after the former dictator, a few weeks ago the heads of the different branches of the armed forces met with Pinochet to publicly offer their support. While a substantial part of the military would like to forget Pinochet and move on, there are still elements who believe what the dictatorship did was necessary to root out communists." But even if they...