MEDIA REACTION -PINOCHET

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