Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05SANTIAGO2402
2005-11-25 15:43:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Santiago
Cable title:  

MEDIA REACTION -PINOCHET

Tags:  OPRC KMDR KPAO PHUM PREL KJUS CI PINOCHET 
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UNCLAS SANTIAGO 002402

SIPDIS

STATE FOR IIP/G/WHA, INR/R/MR, WHA/BSC, WHA/PDA, INR/IAA
STATE FORL/WHA, DRL, S/P

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO PHUM PREL KJUS CI PINOCHET
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION -PINOCHET


On November 24, center-left "Diario Siete" (circ. 23,000)
ran an editorial entitled, "The Inmate." Quotes:

"Unlike other dictators, Pinochet has lived long enough
to see the collective trial of his regime.... We must
recall that Pinochet could do what he did because there
was a power structure that allowed him to do so.... The
entrepreneurial sector served Pinochet's interests and
did not have too many problems with the methods the
general applied. Pinochet helped its interests and it
chose to look the other way as many fellow citizens died
in secret prisons or when there was enough evidence that
the general and his family had a unique way of exacting
retribution for services rendered. Entrepreneurs deemed
it necessary to say that Pinochet never knew about all
this, because if he did not know, neither did they. Not
even Pinochet's worst opponents imagined the general
would surpass everything said of him.... It is
praiseworthy that the judges are doing their job today,
because in addition to producing justice they are helping
Chilean society strengthen its moral regeneration
process."

KELLY