Pinochet Essay, Research Paper

An Overview of Pinochet

“It was a day in spring , December 20,1973 at about 4:30 pm , that I heard several

knocks on the door of my house , which sounded unfamiliar and threatening. My brother had

just returned home from his work in the textile industry and had gone to our common bedroom

to lie down for his usual short afternoon nap. I went to answer the door and encountered three

men with a very cold attitude. One of them asked me in a dry voice ; Does Pedro Rojas live

here ? ”

“Before answering, an infinity of urgent thoughts passed through my adolescent 16-year

old brain. I knew that my brother had been a memmber or a political organization of young

people who supported the party of the recently overthrown government and that in our

neighborhood many of his friends had been detained. For this reason I went through an internal

struggle whether to give the government agent an affirmative answer as to the whereabouts of

my brother……and for twenty-five years now, I have been living with the regret of having done

so. If I had denied my brother’s presence that day , it might have given him a tiny chance of

survival.” -From a real testimony

It all started when Salvador Allende Gossens was elected as president of Chile in 1970

(who was a communist ).

Allende then nationalized many industries , including the copper mines , in which U.S. business

had a lot of money invested in. Doing this cause economical problems and then aggravated by

strikes. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency saw this to be the perfect time for a military coup.

This is where the government is overthrown. As a result of this military coup Allende was

eliminated on September 11, 1973. his successors declared that he had committed suicide,while

his supporters claimed that he was murdered .

At the time Pinochet was the military general ,so when the military coup happened he

took charge . He then greatly improved the economy through more conservative economic

polices. Any one who spoke out or rebeled against pinochet was eliminated. Pinochet was

finally sworn in as president under a new constitution in 1981. Then in October he lost a

plebiscite that would of let him contine as president until after March 1990. Due to all of the

killing he was in hot water with pretty much everyone. But , he couldn’t be tried until 1997

because he held the position of army chief until then.

Now that I’ve heard most of the facts I believe Pinochet to be wrong in killing all of

those people. Yet, one does have to give him credit for greatly improving the economy. But

nonetheless he should be tried for war crimes.The U.S. is also to blame because of our hatred

of the communist government we aided in the military coup. Not to be mean or anything but , he

should get the death penalty for his actions.