The long agony of the Pinochet regime and the sad end of the life of the dictator
Today we will finish the story about Chile in the times of Allende and Pinochet and talk about the attempts to liberalize the junta regime, the criminal prosecution of Pinochet and his associates, as well as Russian liberals - fans of the Chilean dictator.
Attempts to liberalize the junta regime
In the late 70s of the XX century, Pinochet began to try to whitewash himself and the Chilean regime in the eyes of the world community. He even said in an interview:
"I'm not a dictator, I just have an angry face."
Indeed, "angry":
Pinochet and associates, 1973
He also said:
“It has never been a dictatorship. It was dictablanda."
("Democracy" - from the Latin words dura - hard, and blanda - soft).
“I am a Democrat, but in my understanding of the word. It all depends on what is invested in the concept of democracy.”
And more:
"Democracy bears within itself the seed of its own destruction; democracy must be bathed in blood from time to time in order to remain a democracy."
In 1977, the infamous National Intelligence Agency (DINA) was transformed into the National Information Center.
To give Pinochet's power at least a semblance of legitimacy, a referendum was held on January 4, 1978, called "National consultations on the political program of President Augusto Pinochet." The voters were pressured even through ballots, where the Chilean flag was depicted in the “for” field, while a black rectangle was displayed in the “against” field.
Voting was carried out under the close supervision of the military and special services. In an atmosphere of general fear, Pinochet managed to gain 78% of the vote, but in almost no country in the world did they attach any importance to the results of these “consultations”. Nevertheless, Pinochet declared himself a “constitutional president” for 8 years with the right to re-election (however, in 1986, elections never took place).
On the brink of war with Argentina
In December of the same 1978, Chile almost went to war with Argentina because of the waters and islands of the Beagle Strait (named after the famous ship on which Charles Darwin made his voyage), which separates the main island of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago from the Oste Islands lying to the south, Navarino and other smaller ones.
On May 2, 1977, the international arbitration commission recognized them as the territory of Chile, the Argentines did not agree, their preparations were more than serious: they intended to throw into battle an army of 135 thousand people, an aircraft carrier, a cruiser, 4 destroyers, 2 corvettes, 2 landing ships, 4 submarines boats, 120 tanks and several hundred armored personnel carriers. The Chileans in that direction had 80 thousand soldiers, at sea - only one submarine. In terms of the number of aircraft, the invading army outnumbered the Chilean three times.
For their operation, called "Sovereignty", the Argentines hoped to attract Bolivia and Peru with territorial claims to Chile. At the last meeting on December 21, Argentine General Menendez told the senior officers of the III Corps that they would meet the new year 1973 in Santiago - in the presidential palace of La Moneda with glasses of champagne in their hands.
However, the Americans saved their "son of a bitch" Pinochet. Through unofficial channels, US President D. Carter sent an extremely tough statement to Buenos Aires:
“If you throw even a single pebble, no matter how tiny, the United States government and all of our NATO allies will view Argentina as the aggressor, with all the ensuing consequences.”
The Argentines did not dare to disobey the "world gendarme": the operation "Sovereignty" was stopped at the very last moment - 4 hours before the appointed time to cross the border. Through the mediation of the Pope, negotiations between Argentina and Chile continued until March 1985. In the end, the disputed territories were divided along the fairway of the Beagle Channel.
1988 plebiscite and Pinochet's defeat
In 1980, Chile adopted a new constitution proclaiming freedom of elections, political parties and trade unions. However, it was to enter into force only after 8 years. On September 5, 1988, a plebiscite was scheduled: according to the plan of Pinochet, the citizens had to vote for him to remain in power. But even in the event of the defeat of Pinochet, his powers were extended for another year.
17 parties united in one bloc, calling on their supporters to say "no". Among them were even Christian Democrats who supported Pinochet in the autumn of 1973. But Patricio Aylwin, who now led the Christian Democratic Party, in August 1973 (a month before the putsch) declared that a military dictatorship is better than a Marxist one. It was Aylvin, by the way, who became the new president of Chile.
Patricio Aylvin
The group of international observers was led by former Spanish Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez.
Like all dictators, Pinochet himself believed the reports of the official media and reports of sycophants about the universal loyalty (and even love) of ordinary citizens. But the last rally of his opponents before the plebiscite, which was attended by about a million people, made him doubt and worry.
Supporters and opponents of Pinochet before the 1988 plebiscite:
In the end, to Pinochet's great surprise, the majority of Chileans said "no" to him (in Chile, this plebiscite is often called the "No Referendum"). The turnout was 97,61% of all registered voters, 3 people (967%) voted against the extension of Pinochet's powers.
Some argue that after the defeat, Pinochet voluntarily resigned. But most researchers are convinced that he did this only because even his closest associates refused to support him, saying that after the new coup, Chile would finally find itself in the role of a world outcast.
Criminal prosecution of Pinochet
In 1990, Pinochet was forced to transfer power to the civil administration. He still remained the commander of the ground forces, which made possible a new coup d'état and the return of the junta to power. Finally, after another 8 years, the aged dictator resigned, becoming a senator for life and receiving immunity from criminal prosecution in Chile.
But unexpectedly, he received a blow where he did not expect at all - in London, where he flew at the invitation of the British Ministry of Defense and where he planned to undergo treatment in one of the private clinics. Here, on October 16, 1998, Pinochet was arrested on the basis of a warrant issued by a court in Spain at the request of citizens of this country once repressed by the Pinochet regime.
The former dictator was under house arrest for about a year and a half, but was released in March 2000. However, already in August of the same year, the Supreme Court of Chile deprived Pinochet of senatorial immunity. Now he was prosecuted already in his homeland - on charges of cases related to murders, kidnappings and torture of political opponents. But a year later, Pinochet's lawyers succeeded in stopping his prosecution on the grounds that the accused was in senile insanity and did not understand the essence of the questions being asked.
Elderly Pinochet in court
On March 11, 2000, the first socialist president after Allende, Ricardo Lagos, came to power in Chile.
Ricardo Lagos
In January 2001, a Chilean court decided to hold Pinochet liable for human rights violations. He was again placed under house arrest for a month and a half. However, this time the former dictator managed to evade responsibility - again under the pretext of senile dementia. But now Pinochet had to step down as senator for life.
In 2004, the prosecutor's office achieved the resumption of criminal cases on new episodes. Pinochet was now also accused of embezzlement and tax evasion. And again - unsuccessfully.
Criminal prosecution of associates of Pinochet
At that time, many of Pinochet's associates were convicted. For example, former head of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) Manuel Contreras, high-ranking DINA official Marcelo Moren Brito and Brigadier General Miguel Krassnoff were convicted. The "exploits" of Contreras and Morena Brito were valued at 300 years in prison (each).
Manuel Guillermo Contreras in Punta Peuco prison, 2004. Died in 2015
Convoy Marcelo Moren Brito, died in a military hospital in Santiago in 2015
Miguel Krasnov was sentenced in several trials to a total of 60 years and 4 days in prison, and another 30 years were added to him in absentia in France - a Chilean court recognized this decision of his French colleagues.
Miguel Krasnov at one of the court hearings
I must say that Miguel Krassnoff seemed to have decided to confirm the validity of the Russian proverb that an apple does not fall far from an apple tree. He was the son of the White Guard Colonel Semyon Krasnov, the nephew of Ataman Pyotr Krasnov, who, as you know, during the Great Patriotic War headed the Main Directorate of the Cossack Troops of the German Imperial Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories. And Semyon Krasnov became a major general in the Wehrmacht. Peter and Semyon Krasnov were hanged by the verdict of the Soviet court on January 16, 1947. And Miguel's maternal grandfather, centurion Vladimir Marchenko, extradited to the USSR together with Semyon Krasnov, was convicted of war crimes and died in one of the Siberian camps.
The pregnant wife of Semyon Krasnov managed to escape from the camp in Lienz. In the Austrian Tyrol, she gave birth to a son and in 1948 moved with him to Chile. Here, Mikhail Semenovich Krasnov-Marchenko, who turned into Miguel, became the executioner of the people of the country that sheltered this family.
In July 2018, nine retired military personnel were convicted and found guilty of kidnapping, torturing and killing Victor Jara.
Death of Pinochet
Pinochet himself, as we have already said, could not be imprisoned. The dictator died of a myocardial infarction on December 10, 2006. At the time of his death, he was over 91 years old. His daughter Lucia, who was one of the ideologists of the junta regime and was a member of the leadership of the right-wing National Action Movement, speaking at a mourning meeting, called the military coup on September 11, 1973 "the flame of freedom" that "illuminated" Chile.
Funeral of Pinochet
However, for some reason, the Chileans did not agree with Lucia. The news of Pinochet's death was received by them with undisguised joy. And therefore, his body was cremated, and the place of burial of the ashes was classified, as the authorities feared that it would be constantly defiled.
Pinochet's wife lived to be 98 years old and died on December 16, 2021. In 2007, she and four of her children, including the mentioned Lucia, were brought to trial on charges of embezzlement of public funds. For some time, members of the dictator's family were under house arrest. But, as you probably guessed, this process also ended in vain.
As for the assessment of the results of Pinochet's rule, for a long time in Chile they tried to promote the "draw" theory, according to which during the junta there was not only bad, but also good. These attempts suffered a final collapse in 2014, when Chile passed the Prohibe homenaje y/o exaltación de la dictadura cívico militar law, which prohibits “honoring or glorifying the military-civilian dictatorship.”
Are there machine guns in Russia?
Pinochet was perhaps the most famous foreign dictator in the USSR; entire generations of Soviet people were brought up in hatred for him. It is all the more surprising that in Russia he suddenly had many admirers, who consider themselves the most notorious liberals. Yulia Latynina, for example, once said:
"Pinochet shot 5 commies and built a miracle."
About it fake miracle we have already spoken, we will not repeat ourselves. The notorious A. Sakharov, having learned about the military coup, sent Pinochet an obsequious letter asking him to take care of Pablo Neruda. It contained these lines:
"The violent death of this great man will darken for a long time the epoch of renaissance and consolidation of Chile that you have proclaimed."
Literally, the publicist M. Leontiev confessed his love for Pinochet:
“Pinochet and his people did not lie to anyone. They turned the Chilean economy into the most viable in Latin America. The main thing is that the general created an effectively working social system, built on a really liberal principle ... Pinochet told me how the Americans rotted them, refusing to supply Chile weapon. And how the country was rescued in this regard by communist China, South Africa and Israel.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance A. Lifshitz spoke sympathetically about Pinochet:
"Chile is an example of what strong government and market reforms can do."
In Yeltsin's Russia, a whole group of admirers of this dictator came to power in the country. Attempts to rehabilitate Pinochet were made back in the late 80s, when they suddenly began to declare him not a tyrant, but the savior of the country. And we decided that the experience of reforms carried out at gunpoint could be very valuable and useful.
And in 1991, after Yeltsin came to power, a large group of young economists was sent to Chile, among whom were, for example, Chubais, Koch, Naishul, Lvin, Vasiliev, Boldyrev and others. Everyone was delighted with the trip, except for Boldyrev. Returning to Moscow, B. Lvin wrote in the Rush Hour newspaper:
“I, calling upon myself the fire of criticism, am ready to speak about the greatness of Pinochet. Yes, he was a great man."
Since 1993, Lvin has been living in the USA, working at the World Bank.
It is said that in 1994, a young official from Sobchak's team, Alfred Koch, became very upset when he left his briefcase in the premises of the City Council Commission on Economic Reform. The reason for the excitement was the fact that this portfolio was presented to him personally by Augusto Pinochet. To Koch's delight, the briefcase was returned to him safe and sound.
A. R. Kokh - Chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for State Property Management (1996-1997), Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation (1997), General Director of the Gazprom-Media holding (2000-2001), defendant in a criminal case on abuse of office, terminated under an amnesty. In 2015, he emigrated to Germany and in August of the same year, in honor of the Independence Day of Ukraine, he laid flowers at the grave of S. Bandera
In 2015, Vyacheslav Igrunov, a former dissident, one of the founders of the Yabloko party, a deputy of the State Duma of the first three convocations, in an interview with Lenta, spoke about meetings with participants in a trip to Chile:
“We had a very heavy debate on this topic.
They thought after the trip this way: to impoverish the population in order to devalue the labor force ... to concentrate resources in the hands of a few so that these few can compete in the international market.
I told them: these methods will lead to strikes and the collapse of the country.
They replied that they understand this, because the main task is to first destroy the trade unions.
I objected that it is possible to negotiate with trade unions, and without them there will be radicals and "wild" protests.
Their response to my remark was stunned: “What, we don’t have machine guns?”
Their idea of strong power is not about the state, but about a dictator who breaks the people through the knee and carries out reforms. The phrase "breaking through the knee" in this environment appeared quite early.
They thought after the trip this way: to impoverish the population in order to devalue the labor force ... to concentrate resources in the hands of a few so that these few can compete in the international market.
I told them: these methods will lead to strikes and the collapse of the country.
They replied that they understand this, because the main task is to first destroy the trade unions.
I objected that it is possible to negotiate with trade unions, and without them there will be radicals and "wild" protests.
Their response to my remark was stunned: “What, we don’t have machine guns?”
Their idea of strong power is not about the state, but about a dictator who breaks the people through the knee and carries out reforms. The phrase "breaking through the knee" in this environment appeared quite early.
There were no rebuttals from the persons mentioned in this interview.
V. Igrunov
Attempts were made to extrapolate the Chilean events to Russia. Having made a proportion in relation to the population, it was determined that, in the event of the implementation of the plans for reforms according to Pinochet's recipes, from 770 to 800 thousand people should have been subjected to repression in Russia.
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