The last Latin American ruler who knew the proper place for Commies and Communism and had the cojones to put them there.
Venezuela needs a man like him.
Posted on 12/03/2006 1:29:35 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SANTIAGO, Chile - Gen. Augusto Pinochet, whose 17-year dictatorship carried out thousands of political killings, widespread torture and illegal jailings, clung to life in a Chilean hospital Sunday after suffering a heart attack and being administered last rites.
Just eight days earlier, the 91-year-old former strongman took full responsibility for the actions of his 1973-90 regime after long insisting any abuses were the fault of subordinates.
Pinochet underwent an emergency angioplasty to restore the flow of blood to his heart, and doctors described his condition as "serious but stable." They planned to perform bypass surgery later in the day, state television reported.
"We are now in the hands of God and of the doctors. My father is in very bad condition," Pinochet's younger son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, said at Gen. Luis Felipe Brieba Military Hospital.
Dr. Juan Ignacio Vergara, a member of the team attending the former leader, said the heart attack was "indeed life threatening," especially because of Pinochet's age.
Pinochet's health had been deteriorating for years. Doctors implanted a heart pacemaker in 1993 and he suffered from diabetes and arthritis. He also was diagnosed with mild dementia caused by several strokes.
The health problems helped Pinochet escape trial for the human rights abuses committed during his regime, with courts ruling out proceedings at least twice in recent years as victims of his rule pressed efforts to bring him to justice.
Last week, Pinochet was put under house arrest after being indicted in the executions of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende, the freely elected Marxist president who was toppled in a bloody 1973 coup led by Pinochet as commander of the Chilean military.
The heart attack came barely a week after Pinochet's 91st birthday on Nov. 25, an occasion he marked by issuing a statement for the first time taking full political — though not explicitly legal — responsibility for abuses committed by his regime.
"Today, near the end of my days, I want to say that I harbor no rancor against anybody, that I love my fatherland above all and that I take political responsibility for everything that was done which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration," the statement said.
Pinochet fell ill around 2 a.m. and was rushed to the military hospital accompanied by his wife, Lucia Hiriart.
He underwent an angioplasty, in which doctors introduce a catheter to a patient's blocked artery and inflate a small balloon to enlarge it, restoring blood flow to the heart. Doctors said the procedure was successful and Pinochet remained conscious in the intensive care unit.
Pinochet's younger son said his father had been "virtually rescued from death" with the angioplasty. But the former leader's spokesman, retired Gen. Guillermo Garin, also said last rites had been administered.
Pinochet's grown children and other relatives, former aides and retired military officers went to the hospital, as did Chile's army chief, Gen. Oscar Izurieta.
As news of the heart attack spread, some 50 Pinochet supporters, most of them women, gathered in front of the hospital, some holding his portrait.
"How could I not be desperate? He's like a father to me, and we all owe him so much," said Julieta Aguilar, standing outside holding a small bronze bust of Pinochet.
Ricardo Lagos Weber, spokesman for President Michelle Bachelet, said the government was closely following the situation.
Critics of Pinochet have often argued that his health problems were being exaggerated to help him avoid trial.
"Pinochet is used to becoming ill every time a court ruling is near," human rights lawyer Hiram Villagra told Radio Bio Bio after the heart attack was reported. "He is hospitalized every time he faces an indictment, that is why we have doubts this time, too."
The Santiago Court of appeals was scheduled to rule Monday on Pinochet's appeal of last week's indictment and the house arrest order.
The house arrest was the fifth such action taken against Pinochet on charges stemming from human rights violations during his dictatorship.
The indictment alleges kidnapping and homicide in connection with the deaths of two Allende bodyguards who were arrested the day of the coup, Sept. 11, 1973. Both were executed by firing squad four weeks later, the military regime announced at the time.
According to an independent commission appointed by the first civilian government after Pinochet's rule, 3,197 people were killed for political reasons during his regime and more than 1,000 of them were "disappeared" by burying them in secret graves or tossing them in the sea.
Pinochet faces two other indictments, one tied to allegations of rights abuses and one involving tax avoidance charges.
I imagine some of the posters mistook Pinochet for someone else. Guevera perhaps? Chavez? It's always amazing the number of people who know zilch nada about historical events/people...
How else can I explain the utter nonsense posted by some.
Like I said. the United States has Veto Power over affairs in Latin America even when the people of those nations freely elect their leaders.
The US has Veto Power over all of Latin America!
Prehaps a Pinochet is needed in Iraq.
I wish that were the case. I find it sickening there are Allende apologists on FR coming out of the woodwork. To see the word "atrocities" associated with Pinochet is to remove the shock of that word. It's like elevating someone who has committed the equivalent of a jaywalking offense to mass genocide. I pray for these people's ignorance.
Thank you for informing us that we have no right to protect ourselves and our neighbors from infestations of evil and tyranny. We just want to make sure you folks are all clearly identified.
I don't know anything about Pinochet.
Is he getting the same treatment Diem and Franco get?
Both were flawed men, and I don't think I would be particularly happy living under either, but I do know that they are vilified beyond justification by the MSM. Is the same true for Pinochet.
Better that than someone who believes the document is no better than toilet paper. Abraham Lincoln once said that as a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. Well, I'd rather die a freeman than see my country reduced to being run by a tyrant like Pinochet.
Really, no tears for this puke.
Whis is by no means the same thing as taking personal responsibility.
Interesting you brought up Lincoln. Pinochet is very much his country's Lincoln. Lincoln took out the trash, too. He knew what it took to preserve his nation and did not treat the Constitution as a mutual suicide pact.
When Allende the Marxist scumbag got elected, they began seizing property. Socialization of the means of production spread rapidly and widely. The government took over virtually all the great estates. It turned the lands over to resident workers. By 1972 food production had fallen and food imports had risen.
Also during 1971-72, the government dusted off emergency legislation from the 1932 Socialist Republic to allow it to expropriate industries without congressional approval. It turned many factories over to management by the workers and the state.
The country began to quickly go to hell in a handbasket as all Socialist experiments soon do.
Allende tried to stabilize the situation by organizing a succession of cabinets, but none of them guaranteed order. His appointment of military officers to cabinet posts in 1972 and 1973 also failed to stifle the opposition. Instead, it helped politicize the armed services. Outside the government, Allende's supporters continued direct takeovers of land and businesses, further disrupting the economy and frightening the propertied class.
He began to prepare for a military takeover.
Pinochet said, "BASTA!" (Enough!)
He had a pair and put them to use to rout the Socialists with relatively little loss of life.
Vaya con Dios Señor Pinochet! Libertador de la gente de Chile!
Pinochet was his coutry's Stalin without the political classification. Comparing him to Abraham Lincoln is a gross insult to Lincoln.
"SANTIAGO, Chile - Gen. Augusto Pinochet, whose 17-year dictatorship carried out thousands of political killings, widespread torture and illegal jailings, clung to life in a Chilean hospital Sunday after suffering a heart attack and being administered last rites."
Before we break out the party hats and maracas...This guy was hated by the media and the left because the target of his "atrocities" were the communists he kicked out. There is no doubt that he was a tyrant, but he was not nearly as indiscriminate in his tortures as his commie predecessor, Allende (a particular leftie darling, btw).
It's beyond belief the ignorance on this thread. Thanks for shining the light of truth.
The last Latin American ruler who knew the proper place for Commies and Communism and had the cojones to put them there.
Venezuela needs a man like him.
"Pinochet was his coutry's Stalin without the political classification."
You obviously have some serious mental issues, sir.
And you, sir, obviously would be more at home in Pinchet's Chile than in a free society.
Pinochet made it so that Chile IS a free society today. To compare him to the 2nd greatest (political) mass-murderer in history demonstrates your profound failure to grasp reality, sir.
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