Pinochet died two days ago, on December 10th, Human Rights Day. An interesting coincidence. He has long been criticized for violating human rights to achieve his political goals. Politically-motivated assassins, tortures and disappearances during his rule are in the thousands.
Pinochet, through a coup, came into power in 1973, just a few months after I was born, and stayed in power for 17 years. He’s been a controversial figure in Chile ’s history. His role as a leader has been debated hotly in the media. His supporters hail him as someone who brought democracy and free market economy to Chile , and nipped communism in the bud. His opponents denounce him as a political thief who stole power from a democratically elected President, Salvador Allende, and pursued his political agenda ruthlessly. No matter what the excuse was or is, a military dictator is a military dictator.
On Sunday, we watched a documentary, The Agronomist, directed by Jonathan Demme. (He also directed The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia , and the Manchurian Candidate). The documentary is about a Haitian journalist, Jean Dominique, who bravely spoke out against successive military dictatorships in Haiti . He also founded Radio Haiti Inter and started broadcasting in Kreyole, a language spoken by most of the populace, for the first time in history, in Haiti. He also started Haiti ’s first film club thinking that movies, with powerful images, can make positive changes to a society where most of the people are illiterate. Coming from the mulatto elite class, yet he spent his whole life passionately defending and promoting the rights of poor unrepresented peasants. His radio station was repeatedly attacked and shut down by political thugs and the Duvalier dictatorship’s secret police force, Tonton Macoutes. In the end, on a quiet April morning of 2000, he was shot to death in front of his radio station. Up until now, the assassin and the ultimate criminal who ordered the assassination were still not found.
Chile and Haiti both reside in the same hemisphere. Their culture and people are quite different. Yet, a history of military rule is something both countries shared. The interesting part is that, in both countries, the US had been involved in propping up, or unintentionally facilitated the rise of military regime. In Chile , the US ’ fear of a Communist government coming into power promoted its support for Pinochet. In Haiti, US facilitated the return of the democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, back to Haiti, with the US making huge compromises with the military general who forced Aristide off to exile. But only merely 3 years later, Aristide’s government was overthrown by paramilitary groups lead by an ex-US Special Force agent. What an irony! The US ’ military support of certain regimes and governments at certain times have buried bombs and seeds for a multitude of unforeseeable problems such as the Taliban.
It seems that Chairman Mao was right on the target when he said that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun (枪杆子里出政权).” But where does it end?! As long as only certain people have access to the barrel of a gun, the rule of law will be extremely hard to establish and take roots.
Pinochet, through a coup, came into power in 1973, just a few months after I was born, and stayed in power for 17 years. He’s been a controversial figure in Chile ’s history. His role as a leader has been debated hotly in the media. His supporters hail him as someone who brought democracy and free market economy to Chile , and nipped communism in the bud. His opponents denounce him as a political thief who stole power from a democratically elected President, Salvador Allende, and pursued his political agenda ruthlessly. No matter what the excuse was or is, a military dictator is a military dictator.
On Sunday, we watched a documentary, The Agronomist, directed by Jonathan Demme. (He also directed The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia , and the Manchurian Candidate). The documentary is about a Haitian journalist, Jean Dominique, who bravely spoke out against successive military dictatorships in Haiti . He also founded Radio Haiti Inter and started broadcasting in Kreyole, a language spoken by most of the populace, for the first time in history, in Haiti. He also started Haiti ’s first film club thinking that movies, with powerful images, can make positive changes to a society where most of the people are illiterate. Coming from the mulatto elite class, yet he spent his whole life passionately defending and promoting the rights of poor unrepresented peasants. His radio station was repeatedly attacked and shut down by political thugs and the Duvalier dictatorship’s secret police force, Tonton Macoutes. In the end, on a quiet April morning of 2000, he was shot to death in front of his radio station. Up until now, the assassin and the ultimate criminal who ordered the assassination were still not found.Chile and Haiti both reside in the same hemisphere. Their culture and people are quite different. Yet, a history of military rule is something both countries shared. The interesting part is that, in both countries, the US had been involved in propping up, or unintentionally facilitated the rise of military regime. In Chile , the US ’ fear of a Communist government coming into power promoted its support for Pinochet. In Haiti, US facilitated the return of the democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, back to Haiti, with the US making huge compromises with the military general who forced Aristide off to exile. But only merely 3 years later, Aristide’s government was overthrown by paramilitary groups lead by an ex-US Special Force agent. What an irony! The US ’ military support of certain regimes and governments at certain times have buried bombs and seeds for a multitude of unforeseeable problems such as the Taliban.
It seems that Chairman Mao was right on the target when he said that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun (枪杆子里出政权).” But where does it end?! As long as only certain people have access to the barrel of a gun, the rule of law will be extremely hard to establish and take roots.
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