4 Things to Remember About Chile's 1973 Coup

[Judi Lynn]

54. It seemed he'd never leave. What a shame he couldn't take his evil impact with him.

From the Steven Kinzer tweet's NY Times obit.:

Mr. Edwards was presiding over El Mercurio when Mr. Allende campaigned in 1970 for the presidency and promised revolutionary changes.

He promptly began using his business and political contacts in the United States to urge American officials to intervene to prevent an Allende victory, traveling to Washington to make his case. To further that cause, his newspaper group received money from the Central Intelligence Agency.

When the effort failed with the election of Mr. Allende in September 1970, Mr. Edwards immediately put El Mercurio in the service of destabilizing the new Socialist government.

Days after the election, Mr. Edwards met with Richard Helms, the director of C.I.A., at the request of President Richard M. Nixon’s national security adviser, Henry A. Kissinger, according to United States government records that have since been declassified.

Mr. Edwards discussed with Mr. Helms the timing for a possible military coup against Mr. Allende and those who might take part in it.

“Edwards not only advocated a pre-emptive military coup in his meeting with Helms, but also supplied intelligence on potential coup plotters that the C.I.A. could enlist,” said Peter Kornbluh, head of the Chile Declassification Project at the National Security Archive in Washington. “Based on the declassified record, history will remember him for his betrayal of the democratic institutions of his own country.”

El Mercurio went on to spearhead a propaganda campaign against the Allende government, again drawing C.I.A. support — about $2 million. El Mercurio had been receiving C.I.A. funds since the 1960s, the declassified documents show.

. . .

Mr. Allende was overthrown by the military in September 1973 and died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds during the coup. El Mercurio pledged immediate loyalty to the new military rulers, led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. It was one of the few newspapers allowed to publish, as it continued to receive C.I.A. funds to portray the military junta “in a positive light,” according to the declassified documents.

. . .

Throughout General Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship, El Mercurio lent credence to the military’s misinformation campaigns and denied the extensive, and well-documented, human rights violations taking place.

. . .

In 2015, the Chilean Journalists Association Ethics Tribunal expelled Mr. Edwards from the organization because of his papers’ past ties to the C.I.A., its actions to subvert democracy and its history of covering up human rights crimes under the Pinochet government.

Last year, Mr. Edwards’s name appeared in the so-called Panama Papers, the 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which had helped some of the world’s wealthiest people — including politicians, athletes and business moguls — establish offshore bank accounts. He was listed as one of the clients.

Posting this information here was a tremendous help to those of us who've been aware of the treacherous influence of this horrific newspaper, and its betrayal of the people of Chile.

It would have been far longer, no doubt at all, until it was more widely known.

What a shame the original Edwards ever moved to the Americas. His family's presence has been deadly, but they all made out like bandits, of course!

Thank you to LessAspin for your decision to share the news here.

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