Word: pinochets
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...death of General Augusto Pinochet in December prompted reactions, both international and domestic, from across the political spectrum. Newspapers in all countries covered the event and commented in some way on Pinochet’s legacy. The majority described him as a dictator and related, objectively, the legal challenges he has faced in recent years with respect to human rights violations...
DIED. Augusto Pinochet, 91, Chilean general turned dictator who oversaw the torture of some 28,000 and "disappearance" of 3,200 perceived adversaries during his 17-year rule; in Santiago. After ousting Marxist President Salvador Allende in a bloody 1973 coup, the cunning, right-wing Pinochet banned political parties but also instituted free-market policies that stabilized Chile's economy. His 1998 arrest for war crimes as well as his subsequent house arrest offered some comfort to victims of his regime. But he always managed to evade trial, claiming illness and never expressing remorse. In 2003 he said, "I feel...
McCaffrey presumes, like Augusto Pinochet, to be the keeper of an ideological truth, a vision of pure conservatism that must be pursued at all costs. Emboldened by this presumptive omniscience, the author and Pinochet extend themselves into the arrogant defense of inhuman action to further their personal philosophies. This is the greatest sin of dictators and tyrants, because this simple construct allows for the denial of the rights and humanity of those who stand between the ruler and the achievement of his goal. Whether the despot must murder 3,000 or 11 million to achieve his ends, he will...
McCaffrey’s apology demonstrates his ignorance of this basic concept of the value of life. In defending Pinochet, he claims that the tyrant stood for “the principles on which Western nations were founded,” principles based in the free market. This misapprehension is unsurprising, coming from a young conservative, but no less troubling. There are three key foundational principles we respect in this Western nation, so much so that we know them as the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness...
There is no small irony in McCaffrey’s comparison of President Salvador Allende to Fidel Castro, because it is Pinochet who will be remembered alongside the Cuban dictator. Throughout his apologetic treatise, McCaffrey argues that Augusto Pinochet should be absolved of his crimes because he committed them in the pursuit of his uniquely pure ideology. But like Castro, who stated explicitly his desire to be absolved by history, Pinochet will find no absolution. He will be remembered only as a tyrant, a murderer, a traitor to his country, and a betrayer of his countrymen...