Word: pinochets
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...Latin America, coups and military dictatorships have often been the rule. Chile's 1981 constitution grants dictatorial authority to President Augusto Pinochet, the general who seized power in 1973. In Argentina, the three-year effort at civilian rule under constitutionally mandated human-rights principles still sways precariously if the military glowers too hard. Mexico is politically stable and boasts a constitution that provides for separation of powers between branches of government, but the Institutional Revolutionary Party and its forerunner have controlled the presidency -- and much of the other branches -- since...
Alfonsin recognized that permitting loyal opposition would safeguard his government more effectively than repression. It is a lesson too often lost on Alfonsin's counterparts in other Third World nations, such as Chilean President Pinochet. The United States, for its part, should realize that support for rightist strongmen who do not tolerate peaceful opposition seldom invites accomplishments as stirring as that of the Argentinian president...
John Paul declined to celebrate a private Mass hoped for by the Pinochets, but prayed with them briefly in the palace chapel, an event that was broadcast on the government-owned television channel. Pinochet is eager to show he is not a pariah and hopes the goodwill extended to John Paul by ordinary Chileans will rub off on him. Chile's bishops had initially invited the Pope to come and celebrate the peaceful resolution of a territorial dispute between Chile and Argentina that nearly led to war before a Vatican- brokered peace agreement was signed in 1984. John Paul...
...free elections "in the not too distant future." At present the government has scheduled a plebiscite for 1989 to approve a presidential candidate chosen by the military. Those seeking a clue to the Pope's strategy found it during his meeting with the bishops. In a quiet dig at Pinochet's rule, he told them that "every nation has the right of self- determination" but noted that "it is also necessary that respect for human rights is assured." That restraint contrasted with his tough talk aboard the papal jet en route to Uruguay but typified the Pope's comments...
...week's end John Paul celebrated a Mass before 600,000 people in Santiago's Parque O'Higgins. While his previous appearances had been mostly peaceful, this one was marked by perhaps the ugliest violence the Pope has witnessed during all his foreign travels. As protesters unfurled anti-Pinochet banners, threw stones and set fires not far from the papal platform, police opened up with tear gas and water cannons. Some heard gunshots ring out. At least 161 people were injured. The Pontiff continued to speak but at times held his head in sorrow, and later declared, "Love is stronger...