Pinochet's downfall
Pfaff, William
versive elements." Official figures...
...The been reestablished...
...together with an American associlines...
...docmilitary junta of the 1970s-1980s to the two and a half months, in an extraordi- uments have met opposition from the latest international effort to establish nary feat of arms, thanks to sensational CIA and from some Nixon administrasupranational criminal law...
...Human-rights orPIMOCHET'S DOWNFALL ganizations claim that the true number is Was Margaret Thatcher responsible...
...policy forces in Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, if you think about it...
...ining the record and has promised to inin southern Latin America...
...nects both Pinochet and the Argentine take the islands...
...Among the suspresent plight, but to her inadvertent re- the international judiciary, and the widen- pected Brazilian victims were two former sponsibility for putting him where he is ing public demand in Europe and Latin presidents of the country...
...has tried to make the truth known, calltreaty almost certainly would not exist Witnessing this fiasco of the Argentine ing the release of U.S...
...the United States), to create a permanent and by December 1983, civilian rule had Secretary of State Madeleine Albright international War Crimes Court...
...ly h ying fifty officers...
...0 rest issued by a Spanish judge, Baltasar © 2000 Los Angeles Times Syndicate Commonweal 8 September 22, 2000...
...toward Pinochet and the so-called Oper- Uruguay, Bolivia, and Brazil, to cooper- The CIA's concern is one of those ation Condor...
...ternational climate, Pinochet began nego- Argentine junta, and Operation Condor Still another line connects the CIA (and tiations that eventually brought civilian an ethical obligation of the United States...
...Bolivia has convicted Pinochet goes before the justice of his this story because of what she did as some of those responsible and is currentown country in October, when the Britain's prime minister in April 1982...
...That observation zens in Chile, during the Pinochet dicta- ate) by two Venezuelans authorized by might be applied to the lines linking Au- torship...
...This is the naval, air, and army improvisation in the tion officials, despite President Bill ClinUN treaty, signed two years ago by the South Atlantic...
...Garz6n wanted the general tried leader Orlando Letelier, assassinated on Pegis once said that God in Spain on charges concerning the mur- Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, T writes straight with crooked ders or "disappearances" of Spanish citi- D.C...
...tablishment of the permanent War dren from their parents...
...Uruguay has portant single agent, two decades ago, for their actions, emboldened a new pres- granted amnesty to those who commitin the restoration of democracy to Ar- ident of Chile and the courts in that coun- ted crimes but has a commission examgentina, Chile, and neighboring nations try to bring Pinochet to justice...
...One victim was a former Chilean ambassador to the United States, the Socialist opposition he medieval scholar Anton Garz6n...
...Chilean judge Juan Guzman is to inter- Early that month, the military junta that The implication of the CIA in events rogate him concerning crimes allegedly had seized power in Argentina six years leading up to the Pinochet coup in Chile committed while hew was president of earlier invaded the British Crown Colony is now established beyond question, as is Chile...
...Americans might be because two years ago British justice chose send can c-mcjil to: called before it...
...Thatcher's ex- grounds, permitting the general to return Brazil has ordered its archives on Oppressed sympathy for the general in his to Chile...
...Archives have today...
...This they did within Demands for full publication of U.S...
...Thatcher reacted Washington's contemporary knowledge Another crooked line of fatality con- with fury, ordering British forces to re- of Operation Condor and its objectives...
...General Margaret Thatcher is fundamental to demnify victims...
...One would like to think to execute an international mandate of ar- this concern unjustified...
...Argentina surrendered, ton's as yet unfulfilled promise that the vast majority of UN members (excluding the military government was discredited, relevant information would be disclosed...
...However, The CIA claims that release of the docuministration in the 1970s) to the refusal Pinochet was responsible not only for his ments would disclose "a pattern of acof the United States in 1998-2000 either government's acts in Chile, but for Oper- tivity" revealing methods "employed to sign that UN treaty or to open fully its ation Condor, an alliance of secret police worldwide"-a remarkable admission, own records concerning past U.S...
...The British home secretary even- the CIA-"through negligence" to enter gusto Pinochet to Margaret Thatcher...
...This is possible o tom our online...
...govconfront charges that range from politi- ernment itself, to relentlessly resist escal torture and murder to the theft of chil- ( ome cL1t witk us...
...I do not refer to Mrs...
...Jisc..ussion group, Crimes Court...
...tually refused extradition on medical the United States as tourists...
...the supposed realpolitik of the Nixon ad- rule back to his country as well...
...She was, arguably, the most im- America that retired dictators be judged been opened in Paraguay...
...of the Falkland Islands...
...However, these pressures from eration Condor opened...
...Official figures from the governments of those countries sugWILLIAM PFAFF gest that some thirteen thousand of their citizens died or "disappeared" during the 1970s and early 1980s...
...documents contoday, had it not been for what hap- military, and sensing a change in the in- cerning the Pinochet dictatorship, the pened in Latin America...
...closer to thirty-five thousand...
...Next month Pinochet will ate in "the clandestine elimination of sub- causing the Pentagon, and the U.S...
Vol. 127 • September 2000 • No. 16
