Thread: Remembering the Victims of 9/11....

Of the many military coups faced by the republics of Latin America, it is the coup of 11 September 1973 that has engraved itself most permanently on the collective memory. The images of the bombing of the Moneda Palace, of the despair on the face of Salvador Allende shortly before his suicide, of the defiant expression worn by Pinochet behind his dark glasses and of the public burning of books that circulated around the world and became the symbol of military brutality.

The dispersal into exile of 200,000 Chileans, most of them to Europe, added to the media images of men and women who had seen their lives destroyed by the death or disappearance of friends and relatives. The murder of thousands of political opponents and the detention and torture of people who were identified with the constitutional government isolated the military regime internationally.

The coup was supported by the US government of Richard Nixon. But after 1977, the Carter administration distanced itself from Pinochet because of his repeated violation of human rights. The regime remained in power for 16 years, becoming one of the longest lasting military dictatorships in Latin America, and it almost certainly introduced more changes than in any other country. Economic policy took a radical neoliberal turn under the influence of Milton Friedman. Allende's nationalisations were reversed and a programme of privatisations was introduced, together with the elimination of tariff barriers; this, alongside the banning of trade unions, produced a dramatic fall in real wages and an equally dramatic increase in business profits.

Chile: the other 9/11 anniversary | Raúl Zibechi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk (more at link)


Please remember Victor Jara, in the santiago stadium:

On the morning of September 12, Jara was taken, along with thousands of others, as a prisoner to the Chile Stadium (renamed the Estadio Víctor Jara in September 2003). In the hours and days that followed, many of those detained in the stadium were tortured and killed there by the military forces. Jara was repeatedly beaten and tortured; the bones in his hands were broken as were his ribs.[4] Fellow political prisoners have testified that his captors mockingly suggested that he play guitar for them as he lay on the ground with broken hands. Defiantly, he sang part of "Venceremos" (We Will Win), a song supporting the Popular Unity coalition.[4] After further beatings, he was machine-gunned on September 15, his body dumped on a road on the outskirts of Santiago and then taken to a city morgue.

Víctor Jara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

crud. I hate when I have a misspelled word in my thread title

Much thanks, Benjamin for fixing it. And thank you Leo for your kind words.

In 1987, U2 released The Joshua Tree, which included the track "One Tree Hill" where Bono sings "And in the world a heart of darkness, a fire zone where poets speak their heart then bleed for it. Jara sang his song, a weapon in the hands of love, though his blood still cries from the ground."In 1987, U2 released The Joshua Tree, which included the track "One Tree Hill" where Bono sings "And in the world a heart of darkness, a fire zone where poets speak their heart then bleed for it. Jara sang his song, a weapon in the hands of love, though his blood still cries from the ground."



Víctor Jara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by katiegrrl0

An excellent post. A big thumbs up.

Truth be told, I had you and IG in mind when I decided to post this.

The Cold War wasn't as clear as the Hot War World Wars in the earlier part of the century, but it still have massive casualties. Chile was certainly one of them as were several other Latin American, Middle Eastern and African countries which became proxies for the war between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Originally Posted by Divine Wind

The Cold War wasn't as clear as the Hot War World Wars in the earlier part of the century, but it still have massive casualties. Chile was certainly one of them as were several other Latin American, Middle Eastern and African countries which became proxies for the war between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Exactly. It is a total fallacy to say that Reagan ended the Cold War without a shot being fired.

Originally Posted by JayDubya

While this article wants to condemn him, the only good guy in this mess was Friedman, and his role was minor at best.


Allende was going Castro; he should have been, and was, stopped.

Pinochet and his supporters actions during Allende's overthrow were unconscionable.


Friedman's advice helped to restore freedom to the nation, first economic freedom, and then, the rest, as they naturally follow.

Incidentally, Friedman was also an instrumental force in ending the draft in the United States.

Nixon: "we will make their economy scream" - Nixon choked the Chilean economy by denying them loans, by refusing to trade with them and by threating other countries that did do these things.

It's kind of easy to fix an economy once the US takes its collective foot of that country's neck.

Further, Iraq seemed to have a pretty good economy before the US invaded that country, but Saddam needed to be overthrown because he was "evil' and yet Pinochet is given a bye because the economy was good?

Allende was the duly elected President of a sovereign nation. The people of that country elected him in fair elections. "He had to be stopped," is bullshit. The CIA, Nixon and Kissinger were out of line.

Do you seriously want to debate this issue with me in a thread I created to honor the victims of 9/11?