Dictators, Pinochet

     The passion aroused by the Pinochet case has found expression in the many messages I have received, far too many and too long to post. To balance things, I will reproduce part of a message from Fred Wainwright:
     I grew up in South America during the time of many dictators. I saw the headlines in the newspapers and shared the grief of thousands of families that lost loved ones to political repression and murder. I also met people who were unwilling pawns in the hands of inhuman leaders. Do you ever wonder what really happened to the "desaparecidos?" An acquaintance of mine, for example, many years ago was conscripted into his country's army and forced at gunpoint to take dead bodies of political "undesirables," cut them open, fill them with rocks, and dump them from helicopters into the ocean. The people who ordered such acts, including Pinochet, need to pay for their crimes, if not with their life, at least with their wealth and freedom.
     We as North Americans are far too naive in assuming that the morals, intellectual capital and geopolitical stability that we enjoy are easily recreated in other cultures and in other countries. Yet it is by far the lesser of two evils to support a rightist leader in an unstable country than to allow leftists to take control. Witness Cuba - it had its problems before Castro, but it was also a country that had tremendous pride, tourism and entrepreneurial energy. Cuba has been nothing but a wasteland since Castro. Those who opposed him in any way were summarily murdered. If you doubt the ongoing pain with which the Cubans are still living to this day, see the movie "Buena Vista Social Club" and pay attention to the background poverty prevalent throughout once vibrant neighborhoods and cities. As a contrast, witness Chile, which has emerged from its dark history of repression with tremendous economic infrastructure and wealth creation. Yet there are too many Latin American countries still mired in downward cycles of ignorance and poverty. Even Brazil is a ticking time bomb because of the continual lack of attention from both military and civilian leaders to the needs of the masses.
     The huge price of pain and poverty that the Chileans, the Ecuadorians, the Argentineans and all Latin American peoples have paid over the years could have been avoided. Despots reigned where the powerful laws of capitalism did not have the chance to fully develop.

Ronald Hilton - 10/9/99