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To: lqclamar
The real point which you seek to obscure, of course, is not the military commander's name but rather the fact that Frei called on the military to oust Allende.

The point is you tried to say (your #231) that Frei believed that Pinochet intended to preserve the constitution before the coup. You have yet to offer any evidence for that. All you have are some vague anti-Allende statements that appeal to an army not yet commanded by Pinochet.

The real point which you seek to obscure, of course, is not the military commander's name but rather the fact that Frei called on the military to oust Allende. Pinochet happened to be the commander of that military when it complied, and Frei, consistent and true to his previous word, supported him when it happened.

Frei called for Allende's arrest, as you have often stated. There is no record of him supporting an extraconstitutional military junta, nor is there any record of him concluding that Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte intended to uphold the constitution.

392 posted on 01/25/2007 12:59:08 PM PST by zimdog
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To: zimdog
The point is you tried to say (your #231) that Frei believed that Pinochet intended to preserve the constitution before the coup.

Yes - Pinochet, in his capacity as commander in chief of the military. Frei instructed his supporters specifically to seek military intervention months before the military was even considering it.

All you have are some vague anti-Allende statements that appeal to an army not yet commanded by Pinochet.

Actually there are several very specific statements on record calling for and approving of military action.

"The country has no way out other than a military government. The world does not know that Chilean Marxism had at its disposal arms superior in number and quality to that of the Chilean Army. The Armed Forces were called,and they complied with a legal obligation, because the executive and judiciary, the Congress and the Supreme Court, had all publicly denounced the presidency and its regime for destroying the Constitution." - Frei, statement to the Spanish media, October 10, 1973 Notice his precise language. He specifically attributes the destruction of the Constitution to Allende, not Pinochet. Pinochet's response, he said, was a "legal obligation" made specifically because Allende destroyed the constitution. And once again, I'll defer to Frei's unquestioned expertise on what was legal or not in Chile over your own.

404 posted on 01/25/2007 1:55:18 PM PST by lqclamar
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