Why Chile Is Hopeful (Ariel Dorfman NYT)

[struggle4progress]

Durham, N.C. — As a Chilean, I can only imagine that when Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who led a bloody coup against Chile's elected government on Sept. 11, 1973, watched the death and destruction that were visited on the United States by terrorists exactly 28 years later, he must have felt a grim sort of satisfaction, perhaps a perverse tremor of absolution. He had been chastised by the world and accused of crimes against humanity, but maybe now people would understand that his violations of human rights were a small price to pay for security, finally realize that democracy is a luxury we cannot afford in times of war, and agree that it is absolutely necessary to strike your enemies preemptively.

Three years later, however, I wonder if the general is not now cursing those fundamentalist Islamic attacks. Because in a strange twist of fate, thanks to that tragic American Sept. 11, General Pinochet now finds himself with the prospect of two separate trials in Chile. What changed his destiny, and will perhaps allow justice to be done, is that the Patriot Act passed in the aftermath of 9/11 helped United States senators investigate secret accounts in American banks for financial links to Al Qaeda.

During their investigation, the legislators discovered that a certain foreign terrorist named Augusto Pinochet had deposited as much as $8 million in accounts at Riggs Bank, headquartered in Washington, over the last decade. That revelation in July opened the door for a Chilean judge to interrogate General Pinochet about his finances. How was it possible that a Chilean general with a modest salary, who had sworn to leave office as poor as when he had arrived, end up with all that cash?

This scandal could not have come at a worse time for the general. Over the last few years, a case against General Pinochet for his participation in Operation Condor - a secret plan instigated by the military governments of five South American countries that led to countless acts of terrorism in Latin America, Europe and the United States (including the 1976 assassination of former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier in Washington) - had been slowly making its way through the Chilean courts. Because the general's lawyers had managed on several previous occasions to get their client excused by claiming he was mentally incompetent, most observers anticipated that the case would be dismissed. <snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/11/opinion/11dorfman.html?th


"And I alone am escaped to tell thee..."