The General's Slow Retreat: Chile after Pinochet

The General's Slow Retreat: Chile after Pinochet

Mary Helen Spooner

Language: English

Pages: 338

ISBN: 0520266803

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


In her acclaimed book Soldiers in a Narrow Land, Mary Helen Spooner took us inside the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Carrying Chile’s story up to the present, she now offers this vivid account of how Chile rebuilt its democracy after 17 years of military rule—with the former dictator watching, and waiting, from the sidelines. Spooner discusses the major players, events, and institutions in Chile’s recent political history, delving into such topics as the environmental situation, the economy, and the election of Michelle Bachelet. Throughout, she examines Pinochet’s continuing influence on public life as she tells how he grudgingly ceded power, successfully fought investigations into his human rights record and finances, kept command of the army for eight years after leaving the presidency, was detained on human rights charges, and died without being convicted of any of the many serious crimes of which he was accused. Chile has now become one of South America’s greatest economic and political successes, but as we find in The General’s Slow Retreat, it remains a country burdened with a painful past.

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Some of them shouted. As Quayle’s motorcade departed, some of the demonstrators even rushed up to the vice president’s limousine, screaming obscenities and kicking and punching the vehicle.12 In downtown Santiago the festive atmosphere gave way to disruptive clashes between the carabinero police and the drunken hooligans throwing rocks and bottles at them. The new government charged that some members of “the overexcited political left” were partly to blame for the incidents, in which over one.

Vote-getting ploy in the run-up to the 1988 presidential plebiscite.       The Conciliator 43 Getting legislative approval to increase taxes is hardly easy in the best of circumstances, but the Aylwin government faced a congress that was just beginning to function after sixteen and a half years of inactivity and had to legislate in the unfamiliar surroundings of the still-unfinished building in Valparaíso. The Chilean senate had nine members designated by the regime, and of the.

Home, wanting to speak with her. In the days that followed, her old insomnia returned and her health began to suffer. But she had already decided to tell everything she knew, and when the men returned, she made sure to open the door herself. “My heart started beating faster when I saw them. There were two people in front of me, and one of them said, ‘Mrs. Luz Arce?’ ” 1 Luz Arce had been a member of Salvador Allende’s paramilitary bodyguards, the Grupo de Amigos Personales. Six months after the.

Government functionaries presented a report on progress to date of the investigation into the disappearances. One of the officials, a representative of the coroner’s office, described the forensic work at a nearby site where bodies had been buried in makeshift graves and   8 Introduction later clandestinely removed. Investigators had found spent bullets, shell casings, bone fragments, pieces of clothing and shoes and were conducting further laboratory tests. They were considering sending the.

Development of a free society and the historic patrimony of Chile.” 43 Most of the site’s contents are a homage to Pinochet, listing his regime’s achievements: a new constitution, the construction of hydroelectric projects and other public works, 116 Building Democr acy and the creation of a private pension fund system, among others. The foundation distributed college and secondary school scholarships and occasionally held conferences on historical and political topics, such as the 1879 War.

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