UK Welcomed Pinochet's Bloody 1973 Chilean Coup

[barbaraann]

By Gideon Long

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain welcomed General Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites)'s violent 1973 coup in Chile and regarded his military officers as "decent professionals" who were "on our side," documents released Thursday showed.

While accepting that the coup leaders would crack down hard on their leftist opponents, London's ambassador to Chile said Pinochet was better for Britain than the deposed Socialist government of President Salvador Allende.

"The current regime has infinitely more to offer British interests than the one which preceded it," ambassador Reginald Seconde wrote in a report on the coup three weeks after Pinochet seized power on September 11, 1973.

"The new leaders are unequivocally on our side and want to do business, in its widest sense with us."
...
http://news.yahoo.com/?tmpl=story&cid=574&e=12&u=/nm/britain_chile_dc

It seems like every day the ideas I had about what the world is like fall by the wayside and are replaced by a hideous reality.

[burrowowl]

1. Looks like the U$ and UK

are still in cahoots for shaping the world as they see it. Puke

[barbaraann]

2. yes...for the corporations.

n/t

[Judi Lynn]

3. Unbelievable! What idiots. Kissinger enablers.

From the article:

(snip) Intriguingly though, the government has decided to hold back files relating to the day of the coup itself. They could in theory cast light on the role Western governments -- led by the United States -- played in the overthrow of Allende. (snip)

(snip) More than 3,000 people were killed in the coup and its aftermath. Many were leftists who were tortured and whose bodies were dumped in the Pacific Ocean or in the Mapocho river in the Chilean capital Santiago. (snip/)

One of the earliest photos taken of the bustard right after the coup. A DU reader who has seen this photo tells me the man, General Bonilla, behind Pinochet, on the right side of the photo was killed by an "explosive devise" in his helicopter. He differed with the murderous actions taken against "subversives."

[PROGRESSIVE1]

4. I hope that we are not suprised by this!

Afterall, the U.S and U.K always act together. Just call them "partners in crime"!


:puke:

[burrowowl]

5. No! Not surprised at all.

Would like to see the list of countries involved.
Of course, it may be just the U$ and the UK.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Britain can't put enough distance between itself and Pinochet's Chile now

Here's an article concerning the Chilean (under Pinochet) torture ship, La Esmeralda, pictured here:


The man in the photo is Father Michael Woodward, a British priest who was tortured to death onboard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pinochet's torture ship heads into protest storm

Blair urged to ban training vessel from Britain until Chile admits its use as floating jail after 1973 coup

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Friday June 6, 2003
The Guardian

The Chilean navy's infamous torture ship, the Esmeralda, is to visit Britain twice this summer after the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, refused petitions for it to be banned. Mr Straw acted despite Chile's refusal to admit to or apologise for the vessel's horrific past.
The elegant, four-masted ship, known as "the white lady", will sail into Dartmouth harbour on June 27 despite the protests of the family of a British Roman Catholic priest, Michael Woodward, who died after being tortured on the vessel following General Augusto Pinochet's coup in 1973.

The Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, who campaigned for the prosecution of Gen Pinochet while the former dictator was detained in Britain five years ago, yesterday tabled an early day motion in parliament saying that the ship should not be welcomed in British waters. "We want to condemn the visit of the Esmeralda because of its past associations with the Chilean navy," he said.

Labour MPs and MEPs are lobbying Tony Blair to cancel the visit. "A visit by the Esmeralda would be degrading to those people who were tortured or killed on board," the Labour MEP Eryl McNally wrote to the prime minister.

Chile's continued refusal to admit that the ship was used as a centre for the systematic rape, maiming and killing of opponents of Gen Pinochet's regime has seen its recent trips to Latin American countries greeted by angry protests.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/pinochet/Story/0,11993,971563,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(snip)La Esmeralda Memorial Service in Baltimore
Pinochet Watch 22
14 July 2000

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, June 25-27, members of IPS and local Balimore activists gathered to hand out flyers about the history of torture on the Chilean Naval Ship, La Esmeralda.

On Sunday, June 26, nearly 35 people gathered for a memorial service to honor Father Michael Woodward and others tortured aboard the ship. The service was the leading story on Baltimore Fox News. A photo from the service appeared on the front page of the Baltimore Sun the next day. Many thanks to all who participated in this event.

Three letters to the editor were published the same day in the Sun under the title Don’t glorify tall ships used for torture. The paper had run a special feature story on the ship that glossed over some of its dark history shortly after publishing an op-ed that described the horrors committed on board in great detail. One reader stated in exasperation, For shame. Not three days after The Sun vividly detailed the bloody and sordid history of La Esmeralda - The Sun glorified it in a special section. I can only hope I am not the only reader who was struck by this incongruity, and that in Baltimore La Esmeralda will be met with the public display of the scorn and wrath this ship richly deserves.

When the ship arrived in New York for the Fourth of July weekend, it was met by protests organized by the group Vamos a la Peña del Bronx. The Baltimore Sun Op-Ed This Ship has a Brutal Bloody History, also followed La Esmeralda up the East Coast. The story was republished in the Boston Globe and the Connecticut paper the New London Day.

One surprising result of this publicity was a public apology issued by a former Chilean Naval Cadet:

CHILE MUST APOLOGIZE FOR TALL SHIP TORTURES; William A. Yankes
Published on Friday, July 7, 2000
© 2000 The Baltimore Sun

PORT HUENEME, Calif. - The Esmeralda a torture ship? Never!

I always have respected the Esmeralda for her objectives. She is a floating embassy gloriously clad in white, known to Chileans as La Dama Blanca (The White Lady). The fondest memories of my youth are of the timeI spent aboard her.

While I was a cadet in the Chilean Naval Academy, I and everyone I knew viewed the Esmeralda as the symbol of all that was bright and good about my country. I was eagerly looking forward to sailing with my graduating class as a midshipman in 1973.

But before that happened, my family fled to the United States to avoid President Salvador Allende's Marxist regime. At 17, I was forced to leave with them.

I first heard about torture on the Esmeralda from protesters while visiting the ship in San Diego, Calif., in 1997. I dismissed the charges as absurd. I was sure it was just another attack by extremists determined to besmirch her unimpeachable reputation.

When I asked a Chilean naval officer, a former classmate of mine at the naval academy, whether civilians had been tortured on the Esmeralda, he looked straight at me and said, 'We were at war'. My heart sank, but even then I couldn't bring myself to believe it.

But while traveling in Chile in March, I interviewed several Chilean writers, some of whom told me they had been tortured. They said that it was well known that people had been tortured on several ships, including the Esmeralda, during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Finally, I had to accept that it was true.
(snip/...)
http://www.tni.org/pin-docs/esm-baltimore.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Pinochet liked to say that no blade of grass moved in Chile without his order."
http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/printout/0,13155,901020701-265371,00.html

[R Hickey]

7. Henry Kissinger is a monster -

Some day I hope to piss on his grave.

[Judi Lynn]

8. This might surprise you, it shocked me, for sure

Just ran across it a moment ago, looking for something else about the Chilean torture ship.

There were OTHER Americans killed by the Chilean government under Pinochet: killed because of their political beliefs. I had only heard of Charles Horman until a moment ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(snip) FBI WATCHED AN AMERICAN WHO WAS KILLED IN CHILE COUP
by Diana Jean Schemo, New York Times, July 1, 2000
WASHINGTON, June 30 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation collected intelligence on an American student living in Chile who was killed soon after Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s takeover of Chile in 1973, according to newly declassified documents made public today.

In a December 1972 report from one informant, the FBI said that the student, Frank R. Teruggi Jr., had attended a Conference on Anti-Imperialist Strategy and Action held by former Peace Corps volunteers who, the FBI said, espouse support of Cuba and all third world revolutionaries.

Though Chilean authorities have never confirmed that Mr. Teruggi was executed, he was arrested at his apartment days after the coup and tortured at the National Stadium, witnesses said. His body was discovered in the morgue 10 days later, riddled with bullet holes.

The document was one of several hundred released today as part of a major declassification project – ordered by President Clinton last year – on rights abuses under General Pinochet’s 1973-90 dictatorship.

But today’s release, which represented the final government disclosures on three Americans killed in Chile during the dictatorship, disappointed family members and human rights activists. While the documents offered some details, they broke no new ground as to the circumstances under which the Americans died. In addition to Mr. Teruggi, they were Charles Horman, an American journalist whose plight was portrayed in the 1982 movie Missing, and Boris Weisfeiler, a mathematics professor who disappeared in 1985.

The Central Intelligence Agency released only six documents concerning Mr. Horman’s death. It released a dozen or so more on the death of Mr. Teruggi, all concerning the attempts of the dead man’s father to see a document the agency refused to release 24 years ago. The intelligence agency continued to withhold that document today, arguing that its information was provided by a foreign intelligence service.
(snip/...)

http://www.tni.org/pinochet/watch/watch22.htm#watched

On edit:

I finally found the item I was seeking:

(snip) Noting international law, British police courageously arrested Pinochet in October 1998 after a Spanish court charged him with "crimes against humanity" including the murder of Woodward. Although British officials allowed the 84-year-old general to return home in March on alleged health grounds, he faces more than 100 cases against him in his home country. Recently, a Chilean court lifted a major obstacle to these cases by revoking Pinochet's immunity.

Times have changed in the United States as well. Back in the summer of 1976 when La Esmeralda was last docked in Baltimore harbor, FBI investigators were busy conducting extensive surveillance of the Americans protesting the ship. In hindsight, the FBI's focus appears shockingly misplaced. While they had their lenses on peaceful protestors, the real security threat was heading toward our nation's capital apparently unnoticed. On Sept. 21, 1976, Pinochet's agents detonated a car bomb, killing former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and 25-year-old American Ronni Karpen Moffitt in Washington as they drove to work at our organization, the Institute for Policy Studies. (snip/...)

From an article originally published in the Baltimore Sun
http://www.commondreams.org/views/061800-103.htm