Chile re-evaluates Pinochet, Allende

[Say_What]

Chickens comin' home to roost...

<clips>

SANTIAGO, Chile — More than 15 years after relinquishing power, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has few public friends left in the country he once ruled, while the reputation of Salvador Allende, the man whose government Pinochet destroyed, is making a comeback.

The reversal of fortunes is transforming a country that's still agonizing over its recent, violent past and debating how to move forward.

Government prosecutors are turning up damaging details about the role that Pinochet, now 89, played in the execution of thousands of dissidents and the hiding of millions of dollars during his more than 16 years in power.

The ex-dictator has been on the legal defensive since he spent 16 months under house arrest in London in the late 1990s.

Recently, investigations into hidden accounts with U.S.-owned Riggs Bank, where Pinochet allegedly stashed as much as $8 million, have implicated his wife, Lucia Hiriart, and son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, who spent 22 days in a Santiago jail in August in connection with helping to funnel the illegal money.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002534374_chile02.html

[bluestateguy]

1. Celebration at my place when that asshole dies

and it wuill be loud and it will be as offensive as possible.

[Say_What]

3. Pinochet, Kissinger, and Old Bush have to stand trial first...

may they all be haunted by the thousands of dead and disappeared they are responsible for.

[regnaD kciN]

4. Maybe we could organize a concluding "road trip"...

...down to Chile to piss on his grave.

[Say_What]

2. Chile's Bachelet Maintains Lead in Presidential Race, Poll Says

Michelle Bachelet is a socialist who is a Villa Grimaldi (infamous Pinochet torture center) survivor, like Allende she is a doctor. Her father, former General Alberto Bachelet, was tortured and killed in 1974 by the Pinochet thugs.


<clips>

Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Chilean presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet remains the favorite to win the election this December, which would extend the leadership of the center-left coalition that took power after dictator Augusto Pinochet was ousted in 1990.

Forty-nine percent of 819 people polled Sept. 22 through Sept. 29 by Ipsos Opinion Chile said they would vote for Bachelet if the election were held the following Sunday, compared with 48 percent in August.

Opposition candidates trailed by similar margins in the most recent poll indicating it isn't likely that conservative candidates will gain against Bachelet before the election, said Juan Carlos Fanjul, president of Ipsos Chile, at a press conference today.

``The numbers have been consistent,'' he said. ``Obviously, the debates will be a big test.''

Bachelet, 53, who would be the first woman president in Chile, will likely present the clearest plan to address employment, education, health care, poverty and equality issues in the debate, the poll showed. It asked participants to rate the candidates on such issues.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=axXnPRyEyk8Q&refer=latin_america