Pinochet: Just another friendly US/CIA homey.

A while back, I wondered, how many of these fucking murdering, ruthless dictators has the US been down with throughout the years?

I found this site on the net mostly based on a book called "Friendly Dictators" written in 1995 by Dennis Bernstein and Laura Sydel.

Its a little outdated since it was written in 95 and although some might dispute a few of the figures on there, the majority has to be widely recognized and accepted, Im sure.

Heres the page on Pinochet: http://www.omnicenter.org/warpeacecollection/dictators.htm#pinochet

And the home page to the list of all the wondeful company the US has kept: http://www.omnicenter.org/warpeacecollection/dictators.htm

I also recall a friend from high-school named Juan who was from Chile.

During English class, we had presentations, and Juan either brought a book or artwork from the Pinochet years.

During the middle of his presentation, he just broke out and started crying like hell. Of course, the class didnt know how to react really and I totally forgot about that incident until I came across that website and read about Pinochet and it all clicked together.

I think that had to be one of the first times I realized how much political strife there is in the world and how much US foreign policy/the CIA has had a hand in it.

All, I remember Juan saying in his speech after he started crying was "...and I said to myself, 'fuck this shit, man! I get out, you know?'"

Just saw the flick last night. Thursday is the last night but they may have it back at the Ridge down the road.

I didnt know this was winner of "Most Popular Film" at the VFF this year. I dont think anyone reviewed it did they?

Anyhow, it wasnt actually what I expected. It wasnt so much about the coup/Pinochet (CIA aided) takeover itself but that is the backdrop to the story of 2 kids from opposite sides of the tracks.

I never really knew the extent of the color hierchy in Latin America society.

Anyhow, theres a rich kid/euro looking background and he goes to an elite private school. The progressive American priest at the school brings in a group of native kids to attend the school for free as part of an integration effort.

The rich kid and native kid become amigos and both spend time on the other ends but the friendship is tested as the takeover happens...

More than discovering the extent of that color hierchy in Latin America this year, the more i read about why most of the 3rd world is fucked the way it is, the more ive read about the hand that the US goverment/CIA had in much of it.

Pinochet: just another friendly dictator.

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For radicals of my generation, the CIA­assisted coup that brought down the democratically elected Marxist government of Salvador Allende in September 1973 was the most traumatic event of our political lives. For once a bloodless revolution appeared to be working, and then it got squashed. What's more, while Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 3,000-plus victims might seem a small number by the standards of 20th-century mass murder, most of us knew some of the slaughtered, so the massacre seemed very, very personal.