I think you are severely overstating the severity of his regime. There were 3,000 political deaths in two decades under Pinochet, the majority of them being Allendist loyalists in the weeks after the coup. Though not excusable, that has to be the single mildest death toll for any dictatorship or monarchy in the entire 20th century. It's also a stretch to say that Pinochet eliminated elections, when he began setting the stages for their reestablishment only 2 years after the coup. You may recall that by the mid 80's Pinochet himself voluntarily transitioned the country over to the free electoral system it has today, and stood before the electorate himself. He voluntarily stepped down after losing an election in 1988.
The "oppressed" political opposition you speak of was the Allendist faction - an openly marxist pro-Castro political party that advocated forced seizure of private property and the nationalization of industry. That's not quite the same thing as banning a legitimate minority party from the political opposition. Think more along the lines of banning the bolsheviks.
What's wrong with this statement?
And as far as "los desaparecidos" goes, I always associated that with the dictatorship in ARGENTINA, not Chile. I wonder why the term has been revived as the "intellectual property" of the Pinochet regime, with no mention of Argentina, or other places.Somehow, at least as far as this thread goes, the term is now semi-officially emblazoned on the chest of the dead Pinochet (obviously, he can't dispute or disown it now, being dead)This strikes me as the same sort of strategem employed in the ongoing and perpetual demonization of Joe McCarthy and "McCarthyism" as being responsible for EVERYTHING in the roughly decade long postwar period of "The Red Scare" , including and maybe PRIMARILY going after icons like Lucille Ball, and some other innocuous showbiz personalities---of course McC had NOTHING to do with "Red Channels" or any effort like that---he had more serious fish to fry.