I'm not glad Pinochet is dead

marjorie says...

While its true that my first thought upon hearing that Pinochet was dead was "good riddance," I am not "glad" he's dead. Those two sentiments are not the same.

In truth, I would have preferred to have seen Pinochet brought to justice for his crimes before his death. His crimes were many: he presided over the whole sale murder of Chilean leftists, he initiated a rein of terror for those he left alive, and he was a thief. More broadly, he destroyed a democratic socialist government and paved the way for neoliberalism in Latin America. In this sense, he hurt us all...every last one of us. Speaking of neoliberalism, isn't it odd that Pinochet died very shortly after Milton Friedman, the neoliberal economist who gave him instructions? Frankly, I'd put Friedman right up there with Pinochet, along with the U.S. government, in culpability for the crimes I listed. Just because you don't have the actual blood on your hands doesn't mean you aren't responsible for your work behind the scenes.

You can never expect much from the mainstream media so don't expect good commentary now. But as you're reading all the drivel, much of which I am sure will mention the Soviet Union and Communism, keep in mind that Salvador Allende was a democratically elected socialist president of Chile. It was his government that was destroyed by Pinochet not some communist dictatorship. In fact, its the way of the right, not the left, to destroy democracies...history bears that out.