Margaret Thatcher mourns Pinochet
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Augusto Pinochet
sambuca — 19 years ago(December 11, 2006 12:26 PM)
(taken from BBC News - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6167351.stm?ls)
Pinochet death 'saddens' Thatcher
Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher is "greatly saddened" by the death of Augusto Pinochet, said a spokesman.
Chile's former military leader, who has died aged 91 in hospital, backed the UK during the Falklands conflict.
Baroness Thatcher also pressed for his release after his arrest in London in 1998 over alleged human rights abuses.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett used the death to pay tribute to Chile's "remarkable progress" since General Pinochet left office.
Mrs Beckett said Chile had become "an open, stable and prosperous democracy" since 1990.
A spokesman for Baroness Thatcher said the former PM would not be issuing a formal statement but would be sending "deepest condolences" to Gen Pinochet's widow and family.
'Escaped' justice
The former military leader died in a Santiago hospital a week after suffering a heart attack.
During the Falklands conflict in 1982, Chile had been Britain's discreet ally against Argentina, and, despite Labour protests, Margaret Thatcher's government ended a ban on arms exports.
A regular visitor to the UK, where he had many friends, Gen Pinochet was arrested in London in October 1998, as he arrived to undergo medical treatment.
For people who were tortured and particularly for people who've lost someone, whose daughter or lover was killed, I think that never goes behind you
Dr Sheila Cassidy
The Spanish government sought to put him on trial in Madrid over the deaths of its citizens in Chile.
Baroness Thatcher had tea with him and publicly expressed her opposition to the request.
Gen Pinochet remained under house arrest on the exclusive Wentworth Estate in Surrey for nearly 17 months before then Home Secretary Jack Straw decided he was too ill to stand trial.
Responding to Gen Pinochet's death, Mr Straw defended the decision by saying he acted in accordance with "clear legal duties".
"What I had to do throughout that 16 months of intense controversy about every decision was to apply the law as I saw it," he said.
"I was presented with evidence by the Chilean embassy of his mental and physical incapacity. I didn't accept that - instead I appointed four outside medical experts who, I was told, were amongst the toughest and most experienced of forensic medical experts in the country.
Duped?
"They presented me with clear and unanimous conclusions that Pinochet would be unfit to stand trial in the UK. In those circumstances I had no option but to release him."
He said that when Pinochet appeared to recover on his homecoming, Mr Straw wondered whether he - and the four medical experts - had been "duped".
The former Conservative chancellor Lord Lamont, who opposed Pinochet's arrest, said Pinochet had had human rights issues to answer, but he had believed he should answer them in Chile - not Britain or Spain.
Lord Lamont opposed arrest on the basis that the Chilean government felt it would be an interference in Chilean affairs.
He also said arresting a head of state would have set a precedent "that would be very wrong".
Yet another case of conservatives putting self-interest above the value of human life? Your call.
-Goodnight, mother of six!
-Goodnight, father of two! -
deligtheelf — 19 years ago(December 14, 2006 08:09 PM)
Uh yeah Venezuela you mean? Well Not many peolpe have a reason to be angry at Fidel there because some Cuban Refuges performned some bombings there. Oh and believe me whenever Castro is mentioned int he news the Miami Cuban Refugee communitte make just as much of a complaint as others when it comes to Pinochet. Ohh and you want to know what is the2000 difference between Pinochet and Castro is? Pinochet overthrew a Elected goverment and replaced it with a facist goverment. While Castro overthrew a unelected Dictator, and replace3d with it with a communist dictatorship. One was replacing a gread goverment style with a bad one, while the other replaced a bad goverment, with one that was just as bad. You see the reason not so much stuff is madeabout Castro is because he wasn't overthrowing a Elected Goverment. Now if Batista had been a legally elected president Peolpe would today hate Castro equally as they did Pinochet.
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sambuca — 19 years ago(December 19, 2006 03:28 AM)
- I doubt Fidel would ever want to overthrow a legally elected government. That is what the economic elites of Cuba would want you to believe - because Fidel would not do their deed, they took off to the USA and started crying out like little kids (always easy to do that when you're safe - takes balls to fight for freedom at your own place). We see much of the same reaction by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela today. They are destined to fail.
- Socialism > Fascism
Whoever tries to dispute that is either not right in the head or trying to fool themselves. They will not fool anybody else!
-Goodnight, mother of six!
-Goodnight, father of two!
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deligtheelf — 19 years ago(December 19, 2006 02:31 PM)
- About Castro I was poinitng out that he is a McIntosh Pinochet is a Golden Delicious yes they both are similar but different. Oh and I do believe Castro had a right to overthrow a dictatorship I however did not feel he had a right to then do away with the democratic process. So if someone wanted to off him I would be quite content.
A no Fascism was made by Musolini and he called it a merger of the state and the Coporations, that means that the state and the corporations worked together. Also Fascism severley curtailed the rights of laborors, especially to form unions. Oh and that was basicly what happaned with Pinochet under him the corporations and the state worked together. Oh and Socialism is not Fascism, and even if Mussolini was origionally a socialist, he abandoned it to form Fascism, which is a reationary, and conservative Ideaology.
Under Socialism it the state is ussually at odds with corporations, they do not work together.
Also under socialism Private Enterprise is ussually curtailed, if not discouraged. Under Fascism it is either ignored, or in fact the gocerment may even help it. All be it the enterprise they are helping are the ones that already exist, and the Goverment helps them by giving them Monopolys over certain industrys.
Which is what pinochet did.
- About Castro I was poinitng out that he is a McIntosh Pinochet is a Golden Delicious yes they both are similar but different. Oh and I do believe Castro had a right to overthrow a dictatorship I however did not feel he had a right to then do away with the democratic process. So if someone wanted to off him I would be quite content.