AUGUSTO PINOCHET: THE MYTH OF THE HONEST DICTATOR

Justifications abound among fanatic followers who attempt to set "their" dictator from the rest. In fact, all dictators have mythology that surrounds their figure and their regime. In the case of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet one of such myths was the idea that he unlike other Latin American rulers he was a model of "honesty."

Recent historical evidence provided by the National Security Archive in Washington DC however proved otherwise. In fact, the so called "honest" dictator had over 133 secret bank accounts and used 10 false names.

Pinochet (Ugarte), Augusto
Born , Nov. 25, 1915, Valparaiso, Chile

Leader of the military junta that overthrew the Marxist government of President
Salvador Allende of Chile on Sept. 11, 1973. He subsequently headed Chile's military government from 1974 to 1990.

Pinochet's objective was to extirpate leftism in Chile and to reassert the primacy of free market policies in the country's economy. His junta was widely condemned for its harsh suppression of dissent at the same time that its reversal of the Allende government's socialist policies resulted in a lower rate of inflation and an economic boom in the period from 1976 to 1979. A modest political liberalization began in 1978, after the regime announced that, in a plebiscite, 75 percent of the
electorate had endorsed Pinochet's rule.

A new constitution went into effect in March 1981. Under its terms, the military junta's candidate for president, Pinochet, would serve as president for another eight year term, and in 1989 the military's candidate would be submitted to a national referendum for either approval or rejection by a majority of the voters. During Pinochet's 1980-88 term, his free market policies were generally credited with maintaining a low rate of inflation and an acceptable rate of economic growth despite a severe recession in 1980-83.

Pinochet continued to maintain tight controls over the political opposition, but he fulfilled his constitutional obligation to hold the plebiscite scheduled for 1989. The actual plebiscite, held in October 1988, resulted in a 'no' vote of 55 percent to a 'yes' vote of 43 percent for Pinochet's continuation as president. Thus rejected by the electorate.

Pinochet remained in office until after free elections installed a new president, the Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin, on March 11, 1990.

Pinochet died in Santiago de Chile in 2006 at the age of 91 after more than a decade of unsuccessful attempts by the victims of his regime to bring him to justice.

Source: Brief description and profile from the website: Augusto Pinochet


Source: National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 149

Washington, D.C., March 15, 2005 - Washington D.C.: The National Security Archive tonight posted key documents released on March 15 by the Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs showing conclusively that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet had used multiple aliases and false identification to maintain over 125 secret bank accounts at the Riggs National Bank and eight other financial institutions in the United States. In a review of banking records, Senate investigators found ten false names used by Pinochet to disguise his accounts, among them Daniel Lopez, A.P. Ugarte and Jose Pinochet. Records obtained from the Riggs Bank and Citibank showed that Pinochet presented falsified passports under the names of Augusto Ugarte and Jose Ramon Ugarte for account identification.

Source: National Security Archive

See an extensive compilation of articles on the life of Pinochet in the Latin American Studies Website

THE FALSIFICATION OF OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHS IN TOTALITARIAN REGIMES

One of the most systematic practices of totalitarian regimes is the systematic falsification of official documents to fit into the ruler's particular agenda.

Stalin and Yezhov.


Stalin - Yezhov erased.

Stalin's bloody reign is not without certain irony. Nikolai Yezhov, the young man strolling with Stalin, is shot in 1940. It seems only fitting that when Yezhov is removed from the photograph he is replaced by the waters of the Moscow-Volga Canal. Yezhov was commissar of water transport.

Lenin and Trotsky celebrate the second anniversary of the Russian Revoloution in Red Square.

Lenin Celebrates, but Trotsky has been airbrushed out.

Trotsky and Lenin (top center of stairs) in 1919 photograph of a Red Square celebration is of the anniversary of the revolution. To make it suitable for a 1967 book of Lenin Photos, Trotsky is removed.

Source: 'The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs in Stalin's Russia

TOTALITARIAN ART

Communist Realism

"The more than half the century of the communist ideology's domination in Russia brought about the most dramatic experience to which art was exposed in the past century. It is difficult today to encompass in ones mind that great space of events and facts which either destroyed or deformed the model of artistic life which had been worked out in the USSR. More particularly so because it was not limited to Russia's geographical borders but, after 1945, included all of Central Europe and part of Germany. That model, exported together with blueprints of a socialist revolution, made its mark on the cultures of many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The tragedy of the situation in which Russian creative artists found themselves was that - in contradistinction to Italy or Germany - due to the internal entanglement and dilemma posed by the belief in the possibility of achievement of an avant-garde utopia by the participation of art in the revolutionary changes and the existing realities of the "most progressive political system." All avant-garde circles not only supported the communist revolution, but took an active part in bringing it about. The questions raised by the revolution frequently led artists into specific creative activity, generating concepts and questions regarding it. This was so, intra alia, in the case of Russian constructivism in its radical creative phase. The artist of that school voiced the death of art and declared belief in the coming "culture of work." On the pages of the periodical "Lef" (1923-1925), edited by Majakowski, appeals were made for a final dissociation from all froms of artistic activity. It was proclaimed that the artists are producers "serving their class, their social group." As Majakowski formulated it: "the goal of our group is communist art (hail com-culture and com in general!)" For this circle of artists, communism was synonymous with artistic radicalism, modernity of the language of expression and work on the formulation of new esthetic needs of the community."

Source: Excerpt from Sztuka a systemy totalitarne (Art in a totalitarian system) by Waldemar Baraniewski. Totalitarian Art

20 TIANANMEN LATER

Those who refer to the “efficiency” and “productivity” of the fastest growing economy of the world often forget that the Chinese state is grounded on the most cruel pillars of repression and human rights violations. Today, those of us, believers in freedom and not in economic statistics that often erase the human experience, remember with pride and sadness those days of June 1989 when Chinese university students spontaneously, out of an official refusal to mourn the remains of a reformist party official, led one of the most brave and honourable resistance movements of the 20th century – The Tianannmen Square Rebellion.

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For a brief description of events see: June 4, 1989: Tiananmen Square massacre takes place - The History Channel

I express my opposition to Google's complicity with the Chinese regime in helping them act as 'Great Brothers' of information.

24 January 2006
"Google Agrees to Censor Results in China," Associated Press, January 24, 2006.

Online search engine leader Google Inc. has agreed to censor its results in China, adhering to the country's free-speech restrictions in return for better access in the Internet's fastest growing market. Although China has loosened some of its controls in recent years, some topics, such as Taiwan's independence and 1989's Tiananmen Square massacre, remain forbidden subjects.

Graphic Memory and Captions: Tiananmen Square, 1989 The Declassified History


A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Cangan Blvd. in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989. The man, calling for an end to the recent violence and bloodshed against pro-democracy demonstrators, was pulled away by bystanders, and the tanks continued on their way. The Chinese government crushed a student-led demonstration for democratic reform and against government corruption, killing hundreds, or perhaps thousands of demonstrators in the strongest anti-government protest since the 1949 revolution. Ironically, the name Tiananmen means "Gate of Heavenly Peace". (AP Photo/Jeff Widener)


A Beijing University student leader argues with a policeman about the students' right to march as they are told not to march when emerging from their campus in Beijing, China, on April 27, 1989. Students from more than forty universities march to Tiananmen Square in protest of the April 26 editorial in the Communist Party newspaper despite warnings of violent suppression. (AP Photo/Mark Avery)

Calling for freedom and democracy, demonstrating students surround policemen near Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, Thursday afternoon on May 4, 1989. Approximately 100,000 students and workers marched toward the square demanding democratic reforms. (AP Photo/Sadayuki Mikami)


The bodies of dead civilians lie among mangled bicycles near Beijing's Tiananmen Square early June 4, 1989. Tanks and soldiers stormed the area overnight, bringing a violent end to student demonstrations for democratic reform in China. (AP Photo)


A rickshaw driver fiecely peddles the wounded people, with the help of bystanders, to a nearby hospital Sunday, June 4, 1989. PLA soldiers again fired hundreds of rounds towards angry crowds gathered outside Tiananmen Square at noon. (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing)


Local residents loaded the wounded people on a rickshaw flatbed shortly after PLA soldiers opened fire on a crowd in this June 4, 1989 photo. On Friday, it will be 10 years since the military assault that killed hundreds and ended seven weeks of protests centered on Tiananmen Square.(AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing)


PLA soldiers locked in arms try to march past a human blockade of students outside of the Great Hall of People in this June 3, 1989 photo. Soldiers were reported to resort to teargas and amunitions. On Friday, it will be 10 years since the military assault that killed hundreds and ended seven weeks of protests centered on Tiananmen Square. (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing)


Beijing residents ask soldiers what they were going to do with the machine gun on their dashboard as they surround and stop a carload of chinese soldiers on their way towards to Tiananmen Square in this June 3, 1989 photo. Friday June 4, 1999 is the 10th anniversary of the military assault on pro-democracy protesters who had occupied the square for seven weeks. Hundreds died in the early hours of June 4, 1989 when troops shot their way through Beijing's streets to retake the square. (AP Photo/Mark Avery, File)


A student from Beijing Normal University reads a pro-democracy statement to Chinese troops trapped by Beijing residents after being stopped on their way to Tiananmen Square in this June 3, 1989 photo. Friday June 4, 1999 is the 10th anniversary of the military assault on pro-democracy protesters who had occupied the square for seven weeks. Hundreds died in the early hours of June 4, 1989 when troops shot their way through Beijing's streets to retake the square. (AP Photo/Mark Avery)


huge crowd gathers at a Beijing intersection where residents used a bus as a roadblock to keep troops from advancing toward Tiananmen Square in this June 3, 1989 photo. Friday June 4, 1999 is the 10th anniversary of the military assault on pro-democracy protestors who had occupied the square for seven weeks. Hundreds died in the early hours of June 4, 1989 when troops shot their way through Beijing's streets to retake the square. (AP Photo/Jeff Widener)


A student protester puts barcades in the way of an already burning armored personnel carrier that rammed through student lines during an army attack on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in this June 4, 1989 photo. Friday June 4, 1999 is the 10th anniversary of the military assault on pro-democracy protesters who had occupied the square for seven weeks. Hundreds died in the early hours of June 4, 1989 when troops shot their way through Beijing's streets to retake the square. (AP Photo/Jeff Widener)


A man tries to pull a Chinese soldiers away from his comrades as thousands of Beijing citizens turned out to block thousands of troops on their way towards Tiananmen Square in this June 3, 1989 photo. On Friday, it will be 10 years since the military assault that killed hundreds and ended seven weeks of protests centered on Tiananmen Square. (AP Photo/Mark Avery)


Bicycle commuters, sparse in numbers, pass through a tunnel as above on the overpass military tanks are positioned in Beijing, China, two days after the Tiananmen Square massacre,on Tuesday morning, June 6, 1989. The slogan on the wall at left reads, "Strike down martial law." (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)


A Chinese couple on a bicycle take cover at an underpass as tanks deploy overhead in eastern Beijing, China, June 5, 1989. Chinese troops crushed a pro-democracy demonstration held by students and other demading democratic reform in Tiananmen Square on June 4. (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing)


Chai Ling, a Chinese dissident who led the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989, is shown during a news conference she held with her husband, Feng Congde, in Paris, France, Wednesday, April 18, 1990. Chai warned China's communist rulers that their days are numbered and said resistance in the country is growing daily. Chai and Feng spent ten months on the run in China before reaching France earlier this month. (AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz)


This is a May 27, 1989 photo of student leader Wang Dan in Tiananmen Square Beijing calling for a city wide march. (AP Photo/Mark Avery)


Chinese dissident Wang Dan meets reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday May 6, 1998. Wang, leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests, was released from jail 17 days ago. (AP Photo/William Philpott)


FILE--This March 4, 1994 file photo shows the guard tower at the Liaoyuan prison in northwest China's Liaoning province, the place where Chinese Tiananmen Square democracy movement dissident Liu Gang was held for six years. Gang has now escaped to the United States where he is seeking asylum. (AP Photo/Charlene Fu)


Chinese dissident Chen Ziming is seen in this September 1989 file photo at an unknown location. China released the ailing dissident Wednesday, November 6, 1996, just weeks before the expected arrival of U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher on a visit to improve ties. Chen, one of the organizers of the pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989, was freed on medical parole and arrived home Wednesday, his younger brother Chen Ziping said. (AP Photo)


pro-democracy activist wearing a headband with the words ``Don't Forget June 4 '' and holding a lighted candle raises his fist during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, June 4, 1996 by thousands of people at Hong Kong's Victoria Park to mark the seventh anniversary of the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)


Chinese dissident Wang Dan is seen in his family's home in Beijing in this March 8, 1994 photo. In a secretive trial lasting less than four hours, China Wedensday convicted the leader of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests of trying to overthrow the Communist government. Wang, 27, was found guilty of "conspiring to subvert the Chinese government" and sentenced to 11 years in prison, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)


FILE--Chinese senior leader Deng Xiaoping, left, shakes hands with officers of the People's Liberation Army in Beijing June 9, 1987 while former President Li Xiannian, left, looks on. In this file photo, Deng praised the military suppression of the pro-democratcy movement in an address to the officers in his first public appearance after the Tiananmen Square incident. Deng, 92, died Wednesday night, Feb. 19, 1997 in Beijing. (AP Photo/File, Xinhua News Agency)


The portrait of Mao Tse-tung overlooking Tiananmen Square faces off a statue erected in the square May 30, 1989. The statue was dubbed "The Goddess of Democracy" by students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, who modeled it after the Statue of Liberty. (AP Photo/Jeff Widener)


Chinese human rights activists and former political prisoner Harry Wu gestures while talking to the media during a rally in San Francisco's Chinatown, Sunday, June 1, 1997, during a memorial program for the victims and survivors of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. Off to the left is the "Goddess of Democracy" statue memorializing of the Tiananmen Square incident. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)


Demonstrators carry a banner depicting the Goddess of Democracy during a march through a Hong Kong street Sunday, June 1, 1997 to remember those killed in the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in China eight years ago in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)


A masked protester waves a copy of a Chinese newspaper featuring the Tiananmen military massacre by Chinese soldiers in Hong Kong after its handover Tuesday, July 1, 1997. Britain returned Hong Kong to China after 156 years of colonial rule and the Chinese People's LIberation Army entered the city. (AP Photo)


A Chinese man wearing a T-shirt with protest slogans is tackled by a military policeman after he threw leaflets in Beijing's Tiananmen Square Friday, June 4, 1999, the 10th anniversary of the bloody military assault on pro-democracy demonstrators. The man, who claimed to be a Beijing University student, was protesting official corruption, a key complaint of the 1989 protesters. Hundreds died when troops shot their way through the city streets on June 4, 1989, to retake the square from student led demonstrators who had occupied it for seven weeks. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)


A plain clothed policeman, with a two-way radio wrapped in a newspaper, keeps watch in Beijing's Tiananmen Square Friday, June 4, 1999, the 10th anniversary of the bloody military assault on pro-democracy demonstrators. Security was increased in the square Friday in an attempt to prevent any public commemorations of the bloody crackdown. Hundreds died when troops shot their way through the city streets on June 4, 1989, to retake the square from student led demonstrators who had occupied it for seven weeks. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)


China's banned sect Falun Gong protesters, sitting in center, are picked up by police officers as they meditate in Tiananmen Square on Wednesday September 29, 1999 in Beijing. Taking no chances with disgruntled unemployed workers and the recent crackdown on Falungong meditators, security is tight in the capital as the city prepares for National Day celebrations this Friday, October 1. (AP Photo)

DEMAND FREEDOM FOR CUBA

I join the universal voice of justice and human rights in demanding for Cuba:

- Freedom to all political prisoners in Cuba
- Freedom to enter and exit the country
- Freedom to access Internet

For more information about Human Rights Violations in Cuba see - Anmesty International Report on Cuba

Cuba: Five Years Too Many, New Government Must Release Jailed Dissidents

Prisoner of Conscience in Cuba: LIST

Cuba: General Information on Human Rights Violations and Reports from Anmesty International

THE CUBAN DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT

Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet in a gesture of great courage shouts 'Long Live Human Rights!" in front of the police and a large crowd at the time of his arrest in Havana City the Spring of 2003. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for defending Human Rights

These photos correspond to the Ladies in White/Las Damas de Blanco - a movement of brave and honest cuban women who are wives, daughters, mothers and relatives of political prisoners in a brave manifestations in pro of the release of all political prisoners in Havana

Dr. Darsi Ferrer, his wife and a group of dissidents marching through a Park in Havana demanding freedom for Cuba and an end to government discriminations against nationals at the Human Rights Day in Dec 10, 2008

This is a hankerchief written from a Cuban prison by political prisoners

CHILDREN OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

Giordano G. Gonzalez holds a picture of her mother Adianes Jordan imprisoned for her political ideas.


Child prostitution is one of the most detestable realities of cuban society today.


A picture of a Cuban child murdered by the Cuban regime in the 13 March Tugboat Massacre in 1994.

General Raul Castro reacts to the blogger action!