Chilean judge rules ex-president was assassinated in 1982; 6 charged with murder, cover-up

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Chilean judge rules ex-president was assassinated in 1982; 6 charged with murder, cover-up
EVA VERGARA
Associated Press Writer
4:46 p.m. EST, December 7, 2009

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A Chilean judge ruled Monday that former President Eduardo Frei Montalva was assassinated nearly 30 years ago and his killing covered up by people linked to the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Six people were charged in the case.

Frei, who preceded Salvador Allende as Chile's president and later became a leading critic of the military dictatorship, died in 1982.An autopsy report blamed septic shock after stomach hernia surgery, but a new autopsy this year by University of Chile pathologists identified two chemicals in his body that attack the digestive system — one that is used in mustard gas and another found in rat poison.

"He was injected with toxic substances, which produced other complications that deteriorated his immune system," Judge Alejandro Madrid told reporters Monday. "That was the cause of death."At the time of his death, Frei, 71, was investigating human rights violations by the dictatorship of Pinochet, who toppled Allende in a 1973 coup.

"This goes to show that though it may take a while, justice in Chile always prevails," President Michelle Bachelet said of the judge's ruling.

Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-chile-frei,0,7441643.story

[ck4829]

1. K&R

[Jack Rabbit]

2. I am so sorry that Pinochet isn't around to see this moment

. . . or to hang for it.

[vinylsolution]

3. And the architect of it all....

.... Henry Kissinger, is still a free man.

Real justice for Chileans would mean the arrest and trial of Kissinger. And time is running out.


R.I.P. Victor Jara ~ murdered September 15, 1973.

[valerief]

6. Oh, he's a vampire. And not one of those lovey-dovey ones. He'll live forever. nt

[Octafish]

14. A poet and a painter pegged Pinochet...

General Pinochet at the Bookstore

Santiago, Chile, July 2004

The general's limo parked at the corner of San Diego street
and his bodyguards escorted him to the bookstore
called La Oportunidad, so he could browse
for rare works of history.

There were no bloody fingerprints left on the pages.
No books turned to ash at his touch.
He did not track the soil of mass graves on his shoes,
nor did his eyes glow red with a demon's heat.

Worse: His hands were scrubbed, and his eyes were blue,
and the dementia that raged in his head like a demon,
making the general's trial impossible, had disappeared.

Desaparecido: like thousands dead but not dead,
as the crowd reminded the general,
gathered outside the bookstore to jeer
when he scurried away with his bodyguards,
so much smaller in person.

from The Republic of Poetry by Martin Espada

[Joe Bacon]

17. Don't forget Milton Friedman and his "Chicago Boys"

Every last one of them are just as guilty as Kissinger is.

[David__77]

4. Frei helped pave the way for the dictatorship.

He encouraged the treasonous actions by the Christian Democratic Party majority during 1973, when they openly called for the fascist coup. Frei was only upset because he imagined he could be like what Micheletti is now in Honduras, but was instead pushed to the side. He was an opportunist and enemy of all Chilean people.

[valerief]

5. It would have been real justice if they prevented the coup. Then again,

we didn't prevent our coup.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Reuters: Ex-president murder probe shakes Chile

Ex-president murder probe shakes Chile
Erik Lopez and Simon Gardner
SANTIAGO
Mon Dec 7, 2009 5:22pm EST

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A Chilean judge on Monday charged figures from Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship with the murder of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva, which could boost support for Frei Montalva's son in Sunday's presidential vote.

World

There had long been suspicions in Chile that the country's former military intelligence service poisoned Frei Montalva in 1982, though officials at the time said he had died from an infection after a hernia operation.

The judiciary said Judge Alejandro Madrid had ordered three people arrested and charged with the murder of Frei Montalva, who ruled Chile from 1964 to 1970. They were his driver, a junta doctor and an ex-member of Pinochet's secret police.

The judge ordered three others to face trial, one as an accomplice to murder and two with covering up the alleged crime.

"This shows that justice takes time, but it does finally arrive as it has in this case," President Michelle Bachelet, who was herself tortured during the dictatorship, told reporters. "This is good for our society."

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B64DJ20091207?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401

[yava]

10. FINALLY

I AM SO HAPPY FOR CHILE, more than 40 years later but better late than never!

[Judi Lynn]

11. What a shame it didn't happen while Nixon still lived! Yes, still better late than never.

Welcome to D.U., yava! :hi:

[damntexdem]

8. And a sitting president was assassinated 36 years ago ...

with U.S. connivance in Pinochet's coup.

[clear eye]

9. Let's not forget the U.S.-based multi-national ITT

that offered to underwrite w/ $1M (1972 dollars) any U.S. action leading to the deposing of Allende. Allende was set to nationalize telephone communications and ITT had just bought in.

On edit: The usual unholy alliance.

[Octafish]

12. Lots of times, terrorists wear nice suits...

The BFEE, f'r instance:

"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." -- Henry A. Kissinger

[L. Coyote]

13. As South Americans begin to restore justice, a lot of people are sweating about their crimes

including Kissinger, Bush, and a people working for Obama now!!

[Judi Lynn]

15. Thanks for posting that thread. People need to know about these actual events. n/t

[Vidar]

16. Late justice is better than no justice. (cf United States).

[Judi Lynn]

18. Not too late for justice in Chile

Not too late for justice in Chile
December 14, 2009

THE BELATED investigation of a 1982 murder in Chile ought to serve as a reminder that there can be no statute of limitations on fascist thuggery, and that it’s never too late to pursue justice. So there was both legal and political value to the announcement this week by Chilean judge Alejandro Madrid that a seven-year inquiry into the death of former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalvo found that he had been poisoned at the behest of former dictator General Augusto Pinochet’s secret police.

Six men are under arrest for the murder, including doctors who performed an autopsy on the former president to remove organs containing traces of the thallium and mustard gas used to poison him. Frei’s was but one of many political assassinations perpetrated by Pinochet’s secret police. For Americans, the most notorious was the 1976 car bombing in Washington, D.C., that killed Chile’s former ambassador to the United States and an American co-worker.

Those old crimes can teach crucial lessons to Americans as well as Chileans. As Chileans voted in yesterday’s presidential election - in which Senator Eduardo Frei, son of the murdered former president, was a candidate - they had reason to remember Pinochet’s 17-year reign of terror. And Americans accustomed to hearing that Chile’s free-market experiments under Pinochet provide a model worth emulating need to be reminded of that regime’s criminality - and of US collusion in Pinochet’s destruction of Chilean democracy.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/12/14/not_too_late_for_justice_in_chile/