martes, septiembre 05, 2006
Pinochet and the USA
Pinochet and the USA: The Hidden History of Chile's Military Coup
http://www.parascope.com/ds/papertrail/index.htm
British authorities stunned the world in October, arresting Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet as he visited London for medical treatment. As leader of the September 1973 military coup that toppled Chile's elected government, Pinochet ushered in years of repression that left thousands of Chileans dead, disappeared and scarred by torture.
Foreigners in Chile also fell victim to the Pinochet regime. The arrest was prompted by an extradition request from Spain, where a judge is seeking compensation for the families of Spanish citizens killed and tortured in the crackdown that followed Pinochet's coup. At this time it is unclear whether British authorities will send Pinochet to Spain to face trial, but the arrest has sparked hopes that maybe, just maybe, one of Latin America's most notorious tyrants will be held accountable for his crimes.
Pinochet is not the only guilty party, for he did not destroy Chile's democracy by himself. A massive destabilization effort -- one made in the USA -- preceded the coup against elected president Salvador Allende. Acting on orders from the Nixon White House, the CIA staged a massive covert program to sow political turmoil in Chile, "make the economy scream," and embolden the military to move against Allende.
The operation is a classic case study in CIA subversion. All manner of coup plotting, bribes, economic denial measures, undercover political subsidies, psychological warfare and media manipulation were brought to bear against Chilean society. When Allende's administration weakened under the strain, Pinochet and his co-conspirators in the military command seized power.
As the coup government began rounding up and executing Chilean leftists, the CIA basked in the glow of a job well done. But just two years later a special investigation in the U.S. Senate revealed the ruthless and deceptive policies that had helped propel Pinochet into power.
The work of congressional investigators and private researchers has yielded a sizable collection of declassified documents that makes it possible to follow Washington's anti-Allende crusade step by step. Peter Kornbluh, a Latin America analyst at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., assembled a selection of key records on the case to mark the 25th anniversary of the coup.
The documents, which include papers from the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Council and the departments of State and Defense, are available in this electronic briefing book. Read the hidden history of the Chile coup, and discover why Pinochet -- and Nixon administration policymakers -- have much to account for.
Pinochet and the USA, Pt. 2:
Inside the Regime, but CIA Role Still Hidden
Chile's former military dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, was catapulted into power by a CIA-supported coup that sent the country's long-standing democracy into hibernation from 1973-1990. During those dark years, Pinochet and his henchmen tortured and killed thousands of Chileans, crimes that led to a Spanish judge to indict the general in absentia in 1998. In a surprise move, British authorities arrested Pinochet shortly thereafter when he visited London for medical treatment.
Pinochet is currently languishing in a comfortable detention center while the question of his possible extradition to Spain is settled. In the meantime, the Clinton administration has promised to do what it can to shed light on Pinochet's role in human rights abuses. The United States does have important evidence to offer, owing to the CIA's close ties to Chile's military regime. (See our previous report, Pinochet and the USA, Pt. 1.)
Those ties left a paper trail -- years of classified reports on what the agency learned from its top Chilean sources. Early in 1999, President Clinton promised to make the government's files on Pinochet public. The State Department, Pentagon and CIA were all tasked with identifying and releasing pertinent documents. The second major batch of records declassified since Pinochet's arrest, released on October 8, 1999, provided important details on the fates of hundreds of Chilean victims of state terror. It also showed that U.S. officials were aware of the intimidation, torture and murder programs run by Chile's secret police.
The documents are also notable for what they do not include -- namely, any substantive information on the CIA's role in backing Pinochet's rise to power and his repressive rule. Such documents, human rights activists and foreign policy researchers have noted, surely exist. When Congressional investigators delved into the CIA's Chile operations in the mid-1970s, they unearthed classified memos showing how the agency, at the behest of the Nixon administration, aided and abetted Pinochet.
"While Chileans are learning about their dark history from the U.S. documents, American citizens are learning almost nothing about their own government's actions," noted National Security Archive analyst Peter Kornbluh in an October 24, 1999 op-ed published by the Washington Post. Kornbluh, who has closely monitored Clinton's Chile Declassification Project, charges that "the 'securocrats' of the national security bureaucracy are blocking the release virtually all documents that chronicle the full extent of the U.S. role in Chile." The recent declassifications leave us with "a public record skewed by omission, open to charges of fraud and a coverup."
Critics like Kornbluh are hoping that the third and final release of U.S. documents on Chile, scheduled for this April, will offer definitive answers on what role Washington played in Pinochet's rise and rule. To see the documents released thus far, search the Chile Declassification Project links in the State Department's Electronic Reading Room.
http://www.parascope.com/ds/papertrail/index.htm
British authorities stunned the world in October, arresting Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet as he visited London for medical treatment. As leader of the September 1973 military coup that toppled Chile's elected government, Pinochet ushered in years of repression that left thousands of Chileans dead, disappeared and scarred by torture.
Foreigners in Chile also fell victim to the Pinochet regime. The arrest was prompted by an extradition request from Spain, where a judge is seeking compensation for the families of Spanish citizens killed and tortured in the crackdown that followed Pinochet's coup. At this time it is unclear whether British authorities will send Pinochet to Spain to face trial, but the arrest has sparked hopes that maybe, just maybe, one of Latin America's most notorious tyrants will be held accountable for his crimes.
Pinochet is not the only guilty party, for he did not destroy Chile's democracy by himself. A massive destabilization effort -- one made in the USA -- preceded the coup against elected president Salvador Allende. Acting on orders from the Nixon White House, the CIA staged a massive covert program to sow political turmoil in Chile, "make the economy scream," and embolden the military to move against Allende.
The operation is a classic case study in CIA subversion. All manner of coup plotting, bribes, economic denial measures, undercover political subsidies, psychological warfare and media manipulation were brought to bear against Chilean society. When Allende's administration weakened under the strain, Pinochet and his co-conspirators in the military command seized power.
As the coup government began rounding up and executing Chilean leftists, the CIA basked in the glow of a job well done. But just two years later a special investigation in the U.S. Senate revealed the ruthless and deceptive policies that had helped propel Pinochet into power.
The work of congressional investigators and private researchers has yielded a sizable collection of declassified documents that makes it possible to follow Washington's anti-Allende crusade step by step. Peter Kornbluh, a Latin America analyst at the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., assembled a selection of key records on the case to mark the 25th anniversary of the coup.
The documents, which include papers from the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Council and the departments of State and Defense, are available in this electronic briefing book. Read the hidden history of the Chile coup, and discover why Pinochet -- and Nixon administration policymakers -- have much to account for.
Pinochet and the USA, Pt. 2:
Inside the Regime, but CIA Role Still Hidden
Chile's former military dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, was catapulted into power by a CIA-supported coup that sent the country's long-standing democracy into hibernation from 1973-1990. During those dark years, Pinochet and his henchmen tortured and killed thousands of Chileans, crimes that led to a Spanish judge to indict the general in absentia in 1998. In a surprise move, British authorities arrested Pinochet shortly thereafter when he visited London for medical treatment.
Pinochet is currently languishing in a comfortable detention center while the question of his possible extradition to Spain is settled. In the meantime, the Clinton administration has promised to do what it can to shed light on Pinochet's role in human rights abuses. The United States does have important evidence to offer, owing to the CIA's close ties to Chile's military regime. (See our previous report, Pinochet and the USA, Pt. 1.)
Those ties left a paper trail -- years of classified reports on what the agency learned from its top Chilean sources. Early in 1999, President Clinton promised to make the government's files on Pinochet public. The State Department, Pentagon and CIA were all tasked with identifying and releasing pertinent documents. The second major batch of records declassified since Pinochet's arrest, released on October 8, 1999, provided important details on the fates of hundreds of Chilean victims of state terror. It also showed that U.S. officials were aware of the intimidation, torture and murder programs run by Chile's secret police.
The documents are also notable for what they do not include -- namely, any substantive information on the CIA's role in backing Pinochet's rise to power and his repressive rule. Such documents, human rights activists and foreign policy researchers have noted, surely exist. When Congressional investigators delved into the CIA's Chile operations in the mid-1970s, they unearthed classified memos showing how the agency, at the behest of the Nixon administration, aided and abetted Pinochet.
"While Chileans are learning about their dark history from the U.S. documents, American citizens are learning almost nothing about their own government's actions," noted National Security Archive analyst Peter Kornbluh in an October 24, 1999 op-ed published by the Washington Post. Kornbluh, who has closely monitored Clinton's Chile Declassification Project, charges that "the 'securocrats' of the national security bureaucracy are blocking the release virtually all documents that chronicle the full extent of the U.S. role in Chile." The recent declassifications leave us with "a public record skewed by omission, open to charges of fraud and a coverup."
Critics like Kornbluh are hoping that the third and final release of U.S. documents on Chile, scheduled for this April, will offer definitive answers on what role Washington played in Pinochet's rise and rule. To see the documents released thus far, search the Chile Declassification Project links in the State Department's Electronic Reading Room.
// posted by Mr. Shang @ 10:45 a. m. 
