Pinochet doco sparks protests in Chile

11 Jun 2012, 12:49 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Anti-Pinochet demonstrators are dispersed by a riot police water cannon in front of the Caupolican Theatre in Santiago, Chile. (Getty)

Anti-Pinochet demonstrators are dispersed by a riot police water cannon in front of the Caupolican Theatre in Santiago, Chile. (Getty)

Police in Chile have used tear gas to disperse demonstrators protesting against the screening of a documentary praising General Augusto Pinochet.

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Police in Chile have used tear gas and water cannons to break up protests against the screening of a documentary praising General Augusto Pinochet.

The clashes occurred on Sunday at the Caupolican theatre. There were several arrests.

The general ruled the South American country for 17 years and died in 2006.

The Chilean government estimates that more than 3000 people were killed during the Pinochet years, included those whose bodies have not been found.

Thousands more were tortured, arrested or forced into exile during his rule.

General Pinochet led a coup against the democratically-elected Marxist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, on 11 September 1973 and only left power in 1990.

"No to the dictatorship's heritage," reads a poster outside the theatre. Relatives of victims say the documentary, Pinochet, is insensitive and glorifies the general's brutal regime.

The organisers say it aims to show General Pinochet as he really was, and not as the media portrayed him - as a ruthless dictator.

"We want to set the record straight," said Juan Gonzalez, a retired army officer who leads the pro-Pinochet movement behind the film.

"We have stoically put up with the lies and the cheating and seen how the story has been manipulated."

The controversy shows how divisive Gen Pinochet remains, nearly four decades after the coup that brought him to power. Chile remains highly polarised over Pinochet and his 1973-90 rule.

His thick moustache, spotless dress uniforms and dark glasses, even the mere mention of his name, make many Chileans cringe with the memories of his shutting down Congress, outlawing political parties and sending thousands of dissidents into exile, while his police tortured and killed thousands more.

To his loyalists, though, Pinochet is the fatherly figure who oversaw Chile's growth into economic prosperity and kept it from becoming a failed socialist state.

The current governing coalition led by the conservative Independent Democratic Union and the centre-right National Renovation is the first conservative government since Chile's return to democracy in 1990. Members of both parties supported Pinochet's dictatorship and several Pinochet-era officials now serve as MPs and mayors.

Analysts say Pinochetistas such as Gonzalez are emboldened by the conservatives' winning control of the government in 2010.

Still, last year, Pinera's government officially recognised 9800 more victims of the dictatorship. That increased the total list of people killed, tortured or imprisoned for political reasons during Pinochet's regime to 40,018. The government estimates 3095 of those were killed, including about 1200 of whom no trace has ever been found.

About 700 military officials face trial for the forced disappearance of dissidents and about 70 have been jailed under crimes against humanity.

"There's obviously an effort to revive and clean up Pinochet's image," said Marta Lagos, head of the Santiago-based pollster Mori.

"They're saying: 'This is really a guy who deserves a tribute.' So I ask: What would happen in Germany if someone would try to pay tribute to Hitler?"

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Your Comments

I will always cringe at his image

Trini Roldan Rojas - from Hobart, 1 year

In my opinion; Where humanity suffered, where people were stripped of their hope, where the people lost their symbol of peaceful revolution, when a heroic man was forced to take his own life, when torture was considered necessary...the story was never manipulated. Any man that chose to be part of this in my eyes will always be a monster for the rest of history. To all those tortured including my father, to aIl those killed, I apologize. It is an embarrasment that this was allowed to happen.

The First 9/11

David - from Brisbane, 1 year

No mention of the US involvement in the CIA backed coup that lead to this murderous pig rising to power - proven in sanctioned declassified government documents by the way, not some crack pot conspiracy theory - common knowledge The over throw was 09/11/1973 - the first September 11th, find me an average American who knows this date! Thousands were "disappeared", murdered or fled taking nothing - the true figurers are expected to be many times higher than the figurers quoted in the article.

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