Chile-U.S. Relations-Tea and Normalization
Kornbluh, Peter R.
While in the past we have had to endure incomprehension and attacks from many countries, today several of them are falling into step with us, though we have changed nothing. So our struggle...
...Quiet Diplomacy"--the Administration's euphemism for its lack of concern for human rights-has contributed to this repression rather than deterred it...
...When Jeane Kirkpatrick visited Santiago-a visit characterized by one Christian Democrat as "a tragedy for the democratic opposition in Chile"--she refused to meet with members of the Chilean Commission on Human Rights, including its director, Dr...
...The Vicariate of Solidarity, the human rights office of Chile's Catholic Church, has condemned the new constitution as "a legal cover for the unrestricted exercise of repres- sion" by the military dictatorship...
...The country's strategic value to the United States is questionable...
...Ambassador to Chile, George Landau: "treating friends as friends...
...Jaime Castillo...
...This evidence includes: Sales agreements between Chile and an arms export firm owned by former CIA agents Frank Terpil and Edwin Wilson...
...We had a very pleasant tea," the Ambassador later told the press, during which she expressed the Reagan Administration's desire "to have regular consultations, collaboration and to work with Chile in a variety of arenas-bilateral, regional, international," The major impediment to such positive relations with Chile was section 406 of the Foreign Assistance Act which prohibited all military sales, credits, assistance and economic aid to the regime...
...State and Defense Department sources suggest privately that Chile may be one of those "friendly foreign governments" that the CIA plans to use as a proxy in covert counterinsurgency and destabilization activities in the Caribbean Basin...
...Nevertheless, in February 1981, the Administration withdrew sanctions imposed by Carter for the military government's refusal to cooperate in the case...
...History Has Absolved Me" The resumption of U.S...
...Moreover, the CIA, FBI, and State Department all possess new evidence that further exposes the Pinochet regime's role in past acts of terrorism and ties the government to other international terrorists...
...aid cut off because of human rights violations-a fact that did little to enhance the regime's image internationally...
...Largely symbolic, Carter's sanctions included a cutoff of ExportImport Bank loans and credits to Chile...
...client state in the Southern Cone...
...In June, Chile's foreign minister, Rene Rojas, was received in Washington by Secretary of State Haig, Vice President Bush, and U.N...
...The implementation of the new "constitution" last March repre- sents a quantum step in the institutionalization of human rights violations...
...In lifting the embargo, however, Congress stipulated that military and economic assistance could not be reinstated until the Administration certified that the regime has made progress in two areas: human rights and bringing to justice three Chilean intelligence officers who took part in the murders of Letelier and Moffitt...
...From General Pinochet's point of view, the new U.S...
...political and economic interests...
...ANDSIEX M R IlAN...
...In turn, Kirkpatrick visited Chile in August for private talks with General Pinochet...
...Indeed, since the Reagan Administration came to power, human rights groups in Chile have suffered "a systematic campaign of harassment, arbitrary arrest, torture and expulsion from the country...
...So our struggle has been a just one...
...And it is clear that the Administration expects Chile to play a role in securing the hemisphere for U.S...
...the regime has refused to extradite them to the United States to stand trial and has never attempted to bring them to justice in Chile...
...With tensions continuing with Argentina over the Beagle Channel, the economy deteriorating rapidly and social unrest increasing, the regime feels the need for both...
...ban on arms sales to Chile...
...Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick in Santiago, Chile August 1981 The restoration of full bilateral relations between the United States and the eight-year-old military regime of Augusto Pinochet awaits only the delivery of President Reagan's certification on Chile to Congress...
...U.N...
...Improved Human Rights...
...Through a series of diplomatic gestures, the Administration has attempted to transform Chile from an international outcast to a more respectable U.S...
...firms complained to the State Department that they were about to lose lucrative sales opportunities in Chile...
...colleague, Ronni Moffitt, in Washington, D.C...
...And I say to you: Chile has not changed its strategy...
...arms manufacturers are already applying for the export licenses necessary for them to sell their wares in Chile...
...During the Carter Administration, the dictatorship was held at arms length for its gross violations of human rights and its sponsorship of the 1976 assassination of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his U.S...
...But the restoration of full bilateral relations between Chile and the United States has its symbolic significance for the regime as well...
...Last July, Colonel Jaime Abdul Gutierrez, Salvador's military vice-president, traveled to Santiago to award Pinochet with a medal of honor...
...in Chile's rapidly expanding market...
...General Pinochet is considered something of an idol by Salvador's military officers...
...The transfer was arranged during a meeting between Contreras and Terpil in July 1976, and was in direct violation of the U.S...
...Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick...
...Henry Kissenger is said to have sarcastically remarked that, "Chile is a dagger pointed at the heart of the Antarctic...
...According to the FBI, de Stefano's group, the Youth Front of the pro-fascist Italian Social Movement, was responsible for the 1975 machine gun attack in Rome on Christian Democrat leader Bernardo Leighton and his wife...
...military and economic aid comes at a welcome time for Chile's rulers...
...In El Salvador, the Chilean military is conducting a training pro- gram for Salvadorean soldiers...
...ThA I[Al16AVEMYSflFn KlLUN6 MM wai1 AND XNNI Mcf f-- BYBNGUN6 11)NO OINWASlIN63ToRDt T.Z WISED I140UD Thi I US1TJ 9ANYBOW INMY Pl1EWIrU ME VANDEKP UNIFORM % MAn ME BY Ec Through its Senate stand-in, Jesse Helms (R-NC), the Administration successfully sought to repeal the Kennedy Amendment last December...
...The nerve gas, commonly known as Sarin, was concealed in a Chanel #5 perfume bottle...
...By contrast, Reagan has adopted a policy described by the outgoing U.S...
...Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty International, have filed lengthy reports on the Chilean situation and all contradict the Administration's impending certification...
...In return Pinochet offered to increase Chile's technical assistance to the Salvadorean junta...
...to the present authorities," Amnesty reported last September, "still risk sudden death, torture, imprisonment or banishment to remote areas...
...An Invitation To Tea The Administration has also promoted the exchange of high-level diplomatic visits, unheard of since the days of Henry Kissinger's warm relations with the Pinochet regime...
...At least one, Pablo Fuenzalida, has been gruesomely tortured...
...President Reagan's first gesture of friendship was to absolve the Pinochet regime of responsibility in the car-bombing deaths of Letelier and Moffitt...
...While Congressman Thomas Harkin (D-lowa) charged that the White House had "acquiesed to the Chilean government's manifest intention to sponsor, support, and protect international terrorism," the Administration justified the decision by stating that "American businesses will be able to compete more effectively...
...The Chilean system is not much different from what we have here...
...As in El Salvador, the Administration will certify that the regime has made "significant progress" in respecting human rights...
...The certification of progress in the area of human rights, which will enable the Administration to resume military and economic aid to Chile, has already been written (and may be delivered by the time of this publication...
...For the dictatorship, the abrazo from the Reagan Administration is interpreted as long overdue recognition of the junta's contribution to fighting international communism and promoting free market capitalism in the hemisphere...
...enhance U.S.-Chilean relations and end the Pinochet regime's status as an international pariah...
...posture confirms what he has continually told the Chilean people: "our struggle has been a just one...
...For example, Castillo's expulsion, according to Chile's new ambassador to the United States, "is absolutely legal and doesn't have anything to do with the policy of human rights in Chile...
...Pardoning The Terrorists President Reagan is also obliged to certify that the Pinochet regime is "not currently aiding and abetting international terrorism and has taken appropriate steps to cooperate to bring to justice" those former agents of DINA, the Chilean secret police, indicted in the slaying of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt...
...The Quid Pro Quo What has been the quid pro quo for Washington's largess toward Chile...
...International human rights organizations, including the U.N...
...The Reagan Administration gave the go-ahead for such loans after a number of U.S...
...Augusto Pinochet March 1981 My conversation with the President had no other fundamental purpose than for me to propose to him my government's desire to fully normalize our relations with Chile...
...The invoices call for a shipment of 1,059 Colt Cobra revolvers, one million rounds of ammunition and some electronic surveillance equipment...
...The three, including former DINA director, Manuel Contreras, are free men in Chile...
...While damning, this evidence has been ignored in the Administration's quest to restore warm relations with the Pinochet government...
...Even the Administration's own spokesperson on the case, John Bushnell, admitted last March that, "I have not seen evidence that this [the investigation 47into the murders] is a particularly active case" in Chile...
...The United Nations Special Rapporteur, in a report released last November, added that "particularly those who defend human rights and criticize human rights violations were subject to increasing repression...
...Nevertheless, the Reagan Administration and the Pinochet regime do share a vehement anti-communist political ideology and an orthodox free market economic ideology as well...
...Seven years ago we stood practically alone," Pinochet told Chileans shortly after the Reagan Administration moved to improve relations...
...Citizens suspected of nonviolent opposition JanlFeb 1982 aInTfllcrII[mu FJnUI '..' ., I6AVE OMYIITIFFi - AM (0N1MEDIN O 0t :1...
...Helms argued that "we have an obligation to give Chile equal treatment...
...Letters from Townley to Chilean colleagues which suggest that General Pinochet met with a right-wing Italian terrorist, known as Alfredo de Stefano, while on a trip to Spain to attend Francisco Franco's funeral...
...On November 5, 1980, the day after Reagan's election, a Federal District Court judge found the regime legally culpable for the assassinations...
...Support from regional allies is pivotal in the Reagan Administration's policy in Central America...
...Pinochet In From The Cold The resumption of military aid to Chile culminates a yearlong effort by the Reagan Administration to Peter R. Kornbluh is a Research Associate at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C...
...Under the constitution, many of the abusive practices conducted over the last eight years-arrest without warrant, imprisonment without communication for five to twenty days, internal and external exile, etc.-have become "legal...
...Confirmation that convicted DINA assassin, Michael Townley, transported a deadly nerve gas into the United States as part of the plot to kill Orlando Letelier...
...Two days after Kirkpatrick left, Castillo and three other leading opposition politicians were sum! marily expelled from the country...
...Today we form part of a well-defined world trend...
...Since then several other Commission officials have been arrested...
...Sponsored in 1976 by Senator Edward Kennedy, the legislation targeted Chile as the first country ever to have U.S...
Vol. 16 • January 1982 • No. 1
