In 1973 Pinochet led a violent military coup of the democratically elected government of Chile. From the beginning, murder was the literal order of the day, a useful political contrivance, in the brutal regime of General Augusto Pinochet. Murder is the business of thugs for hire, not that of legitimate generals, politicians, presidents, statesmen or honest businessmen. In this regard, it needs mentioning that the military of Chile is a police force, not an army. Thugs, no matter in whose employ or how powerful, no matter how starched their uniform or dark their glasses, no matter how deep their yearning for a respectability that respectable people can never bestow upon them, are the enemies of democracy and all free peoples.
Democracy is the people's best friend.
As cannot be mention too often, Augusto Pinochet is a thug, an enemy of democracy and human decency in human affairs. The coup of 1973 ended more than 100 years of freedom and democratically elected government in Chile, the longest existing democracy in Latin American history. The coup of 1973 was financed, organized, instigated, informed, encouraged and, let no one forget, armed by the CIA at the instigation of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. General Augusto Pinochet, the high ranking thug with an attitude in a uniform who changed active verbs into dead nouns, was, as dictator of Chile, an instrument of American foreign policy. An understanding of the significance of the last three sentences is necessary for an appreciation of the stakes involved in bringing Pinochet to justice.