Word: pinochets
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...SIGNIFICANCE of last week's Chilean plebiscite will deceive no one. Called by President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte as a means of discrediting critics in the United Nations and other international organizations that have repeatedly condemned the Pinochet regime for systematically violating human rights, the plebiscite was nothing more than an elaborate charade in which the formal trappings of democracy were used to justify its demise...
According to the Pinochet government, over 75 per cent of the five million participants in the plebiscite affirmed their support for the present government "in the face of international aggression." Critics, however, were quick to point out that citizens were forced to vote, that dissidents were permitted only limited opportunities to campaign against the government, that only government officials had access to the ballots after the election, and that many voters apparently voted in support of the government out of fear that a "no" vote would lead to reprisals...
Despite these criticisms, Pinochet has taken the position that the election results constitute a vote of confidence in his government, and he has used the results to justify his decision not to hold new elections for at least eight more years. In so doing, Pinochet has played out a grim encore to his brutal overthrow of the Allende government only four years...
Chilean Generalissimo Augusto Pinochet reports that his junta has received an overwhelming vote of confidence. Says the Generalissimo. "Once we discounted invalid ballots cast by communists, anarchists, rebels, homosexuals, and the criminally insane, the vote of confidence was unanimous." Two million Chileans cannot be reached for comment...
...Soviets and other East-bloc nations protested that Carter was interfering in the domestic concerns of sovereign states. But Carter had struck a chord, and throughout the year the sound would not be stilled. The campaign focused world attention upon political thuggery, torture, repression?and there were reverberations. The Pinochet regime in Chile belatedly sought to polish its discreditable image by announcing that it was disbanding the country's notorious secret police agency, DINA. In Iran, the Shah's hated secret police organization, SAVAK, eased up somewhat on political dissidents. In the Eastern bloc, the human rights campaign produced mixed...