By Neddie Jingo!: Pinochet Passes By

Neddie Jingo's encounter with Pinochet:

By Neddie Jingo!: Pinochet Passes By: June, 1975: Santiago de Chile

Your Ned, the son af an American diplomat, is a sophomore at an international school at the farthest edge of town, in the Andean foothills. His anti-authoritarian teenaged years in their fullest pimply bloom, he insists, despite his parents' entreaties (or, who knows, perhaps because of them) on affecting the uniform of the Pissed-Off 1975 Teen: the long, ratty hair, jeans worn through at the knee, the general surliness.

In a fascist dictatorship -- gun emplacements on the public thoroughfare, DINA agents prowling the streets in unmarked cars ready to pounce and "disappear" you to torture chambers on Dawson Island, itchy-trigger-fingered Carabineros on street corners stopping any random passerby who looked vaguely "socialist" -- the Pissed-Off 1975 Teen look is the sort of thing that the Authorities lick their chops at. It's utterly impossible to understand, in a cosmopolitan democracy, the raw, adrenaline-pumping fear that can gnaw at your vitals when you can be hauled off the street at any instant for the way you dress. I'm sorry, punk rockers and Disaffected Victims of the Man: you can't know. There is no comparison.

I came to dread with a sickly nausea those knee-trembling moments when a machine-gun-wielding cop would pick me out of a crowded sidewalk, step in front of me, and accost me for my ID: "A ver, joven..."

And I was safe! I was untouchable! I had Diplomatic Immunity! I had a diplomatic carnet de identidad that rendered me literally untouchable!

Most of my friends were theoretically untouchable, too -- but try explaining that to my pal Joe, son of the Bolivian chargé d' affaires, who got his knee broken in just such an encounter. He'd forgotten his wallet. Boom. Rifle butt to the patella. Don't forget, punk.

The trip to school that year was a bouncy, uncomfortable ride with several other kids in the back of a covered pickup truck. A few families had banded together, hired a driver for the duty. Our outbound trip wound its way through Santiago's fashionable districts, picking up kids, then out to Calle Las Condes for the drive to the beautiful foothills.

One morning, we were going down a one-way street on our usual route. Minding our own business. Obeying the speed limit. Being good citizens. Out of nowhere, coming directly at us, came two motorcyle cops, gesticulating wildly -- get out of the way! Get out of the way!

On a one-way street. Going the wrong way.

Directly into oncoming traffic.

The motorcycles were followed by several police cars, Carabineros leaning out the windows, also waving their arms. One of the cars slowed momentarily, and a particularly vehement cop shouted directly into our drivers' face; apparently the rather deft dive the driver had made onto a spare patch of sidewalk hadn't been fast enough to please him.

Then a Mercedes limousine passed imperiously by, oblivious to the strewn traffic on either side of the quiet city street. A profile in an ornate military peaked cap, distinctive brush moustache clearly visible, adorned the opened back window. Generál Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, Presidente de la República de Chile.

It's a good thing those Carabineros were so preoccupied ahead, clearing the way for the Great Man. I'm not sure they would have taken kindly to the Pissed-Off 1975 Teen Neddie's upraised middle finger that extended from the back of the truck.

I hope dying hurt a whole lot, you rat-faced son of a bitch. I hope you suffered the tortures of the damned. I hope no one wiped your brow or comforted you while you suffered and died. I hope you died alone.

Comments

[Ponzi Q. Globalization]

During interrogation she was slapped all over the body and punched in the face, breasts and abdomen. She was kicked on the buttocks and backs of the thighs, usually while lying down. On one occasion when she was in her cell an interrogator seized her hair and banged the back and right side of her head against the wall. She did not lose consciousness. She was electrically tortured. She was stretched out on a metal bed with hands and feet bound. She was given shocks on the temples, chest and heel. A metal object was applied to her vaginal labia and she was electrically tortured there, but the device was not forced inside.

On about the eighth day she was sexually tortured. She was stripped naked and her blind-fold was removed. She was made to lie on the floor then kicked and raped by four men, one of whom subjected her to fellatio. This type of torture lasted about an hour. They also threatened to violate her with a dog and to lock her in a room with rats.

She was told the man she had been living with had been killed. She was then taken into a room where a corpse lay with its face covered and told it was this man. She knew it was not however, as the body's height and build were different from his. The corpse had been split open down the middle and there were wounds on the abdomen. It was beginning to decompose, and she was forced to lie right by it facing it. At one stage the towel was removed from its decomposing face.

On five occasions she was taken into a small, very hot room and left there for a few minutes. She had a burning feeling all over but did not think she actually was burned.

She was taken into a room full of rats, but managed to jump up on a bed and so escaped from them. She was threatened: the interrogators said they would kill her, the man she had been living with and her parents. She was also insulted and called a whore.

On each of the last five days of her imprisonment a "friendly" interrogator visited her. He was very fatherly and asked her about her friendships and her life history. He repeatedly assured her (almost hypnotizing her in the process) that she had been very well treated.

She was partially deprived of sleep for the first 14 days, getting only a few hours' sleep between each interrogation session. She was held incommunicado throughout her 19 days at the CNI centre. She was blindfold all the time except when in her cell, when being sexually tortured and when confronted with the corpse. She was naked during several of the torture sessions; the rest of the time she wore overalls and zapatillas.

She was handcuffed all the time (including when she ate) except when she went to the toilet. The food was adequate. The day after her arrival at the CNI centre, she was photographed in her cell, which was about 3m by 2m and contained a concrete bunk, blankets and a pillow.

http://members.tripod.com/~mneumann/pinochet.html

Since our government supported Pinochet over Allende and our government is and always has been good, I must conclude, along with the late Milton Friedman, that Allende would've been worse. I have to admit that sometimes it is hard to believe though.

[oneangryslav]

But, Chile's economy has grown a little bit more quickly than that of any other Latin American country, and they privatized Social Security--the true measure of freedom. Anyway, back to National Review's Corner for me.

[sm]

If Allende had won and been this bad or worse, we would be justified in our criticism of him, too.

Pinochet and his enthusiastic supporters have to bear their own guilt and can't shove it off on anyone else.

[Jack]

Such harsh words for a man that was a hero to the likes of Milton Friedman and Margaret Thatcher.

[dale]

Stephen Cohen has an article in The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061225&s=cohen
telling of the Soviet privatizer's enthusiasm for Pinoche and his "free" market dictatorship.

"But the most influential pro-Yeltsin intellectuals, who played leading roles in his post-Soviet government, were neither coincidental fellow travelers nor real democrats. Since the late 1980s, they had insisted that free-market economics and large-scale private property would have to be imposed on a recalcitrant Russian society by an "iron hand" regime. This "great leap," as they extolled it, would entail "tough and unpopular" policies resulting in "mass dissatisfaction" and thus would necessitate "anti-democratic measures." Like the property-seeking elites, they saw Russia's newly elected legislatures as an obstacle. Admirers of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who had brutally imposed economic change on Chile, they said of Yeltsin, now their leader, "Let him be a dictator!" Not surprisingly, they cheered (along with the US government and mainstream media) when he used tanks to destroy Russia's popularly elected Parliament in 1993."

[Barry]

Nah, sm, those guys are very good at blaming everybody else.

What I've taken away from observing the responses to his death was that, when liberals accuse right-wingers of being 'fascists', we're exaggerating, but only by some. A large number of right-wingers are truly fascists.

[anne]

http://www.calvorn.com/gallery/photo.php?photo=6991&exhibition=7&ee_lang=eng&u=21730,10

Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Camman's Pond-Merrick, NY.

Interesting, Dale.

[dale]

We've had communism imposed on societies by authoritarian regimes and we've had free market capitalism imposed by authoritarian regimes. Has there ever been a social democracy imposed by force?

[bigTom]

This is one of those cases where a long-term good result was obtained by nasty means. There will always be those for whom the good justified the harm, and vice versa. I hope that now that the prime perpetrator has passed, that Clileans, and the rest of the world as well can put this era behind them.

[elspi]

bigTom

I think I speak for all decent human beings when I say “Fuck you and the horse you road in on”. The reason that Chile is doing so well is not because “Pinochet was right” It is because “Pinochet was wrong”.

If Pinochet was right, then after he left, Chile would have turned into the next killing fields. It is a testament to the fundamental decency of the people he oppressed, tortured and killed that when they came to power, they didn’t kill every single one of Pinochet’s supporters (god knows they had it coming).

[Daniel]

It is a myth, and a pretty ridiculous one that Pinochet actually helped Chile in one way or the other, here are some FACTS for you to bear:

In 1975, the gross domestic product fell 16.6%

By 1975, wages had fallen to 47.9% of their 1971 level. Unemployment stood at 20%, or 28% if you count those being aided by Government emergency problems.

In 1980, the so called Chilean economic miracle lasted shortly, as, hoping to attract heavy foreign investment, and to make Chile a new Korea or Taiwan, the "Chicago Boys" (A group of economic advisers during Pinochet's government), kept interest rates high. The investment came, but it was in the way of loans to Chilean banks, and no one bothered in actually investing in production. By the end of 1981, the government was forced to take over the nation's biggest banks in order to avoid economic calamity.

Between 1982 and 1986, unemployment rose to more than 30%, and wages had fallen by as much as 20%.

With a population of just 12.5 million people at the time, the debt stood at 17 billion dollars, one of the biggest debts per-capita in history. Had the dictatorship not ended, this would have caused a scenario similar to the one that occurred in Argentina a couple of years ago. Speaking of which, had the pope not intervened, Pinochet would have gone to war with Argentina, an event that would have completely devastated the country.

The richest 20% of the population during Pinochet's government, increased their percentage of national shares from 51 to 60%, while the next 60% of the population, Chilean middle class, suffered a loss from 44 to 35%.

Pinochet's conservative policies hampered the women's job opportunities, and by the end of the dictatorship, women's median income was 36% of men's. A significant decline from a pre-coup high of 68%

Apart from that, the government killed more than 3,000 innocent people, and it is estimated that 1 out of a 100 Chileans was put in Jail at least once during the dictatorship because of political reasons.

Anyone who says Pinochet helped Chile knows nothing about history, and lives in a little bubble where a democratically elected president represented a communist threat that justified a 17 year dictatorship. Idiots.

[ogmb]

This only works if you put the accent on the ·ced·, all Spanish-like:

Joe Stalin's Mercedes
This is Joe Stalin's Mercedes
We're just drivin' 'round the block in Joe Stalin's Mercedes

L.B.J.'s Mercedes
L.B.J.'s Mercedes
We're just peein' on the side of the road in L.B.J.'s Mercedes

Aw, this is Somoza's Mercedes
This is Somoza's Mercedes
We're just drivin' 'round the block in Somoza's Mercedes

General Pinochet's Mercedes
General Pinochet's Mercedes
Can't go left in General Pinochet's Mercedes

Well my Mercedes
Is Johnson's Mercedes
Is Stalin's Mercedes
Is Somoza's Mercedes
Is General Pinochet's Mercedes and be referred to Reagan's Mercedes

Gonna drive my Mercedes off a bridge
Gonna drive my Mercedes of a bridge
If I can find a bride I'll drive my Mercedes off a bridge

Where's the bridge?
Has anybody seen the bridge?

[Ponzi Q. Globalization]

I saw Camper Van Beethoven at the 9:30 Club in D.C. a loooong time ago. In the 1980s. Or was it Cracker? Was it the early 90s? Maybe it was the Mekons. Too many intoxicants in too short a time.

BTW, I believe you got the conspicuized consumptive autogenitalflashingmobile wrong. Should be a Caddie. But I guess you knew that. For the ignorant out there here are the lyrics in all their glory...

Joe stalin's cadillac
This is joe stalin's
We're just drivin' 'round the block in joe stalin's cadillac

L.b.j.'s cadillac
L.b.j.'s cadillac
We're just peein' on the side of the road in l.b.j.'s cadillac

Aw, this is somoza's cadillac
This is somoza's cadillac
We're just drivin' 'round the block in somoza's cadillac

General pinochet's cadillac
General pinochet's cadillac
Can't go left in general pinochet's cadillac

Well my cadillac
Is johnson's cadillac
Is stalin's cadillac
Is somoza's cadillac
Is general pinochet's cadillac and be referred to reagan's cadillac

Gonna drive my cadillac off a bridge
Gonna drive my cadillac of a bridge
If i can find a bride i'll drive my cadillac off a bridge

Where's the bridge?
Has anybody seen the bridge?

Now go forth and purchase and listen to "New Roman Times".

[andres]

Cadillacs? Too unreliable. Chile's military ruling class between 1973 and 1990 showed a distinct preference for Mercedeses. They should have gone Japanese, but they always were a bunch of Germanophile bastards, down to the goose stepping. Ahem.

[William]

"They should have gone Japanese"

Absolutely!