Pinochet's Legacy

The Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger looked back on Pinochet's divisive reign. "For decades, Augusto Pinochet split Chilean society in two. Some of his compatriots revered him because, in their opinion, he had ended one of the bleakest periods in Chilean history with his bloody putsch against Salvador Allende, thus saving the country from Marxism. Others hated him because he and his cronies had destroyed Chilean democracy and under their brutal rule over 3,000 people had been killed for political reasons and 1,000 had disappeared without a trace. … Most of the population will be relieved by his death. Without him, they hope, it will become easier to process the dark years of Chilean military dictatorship both legally and morally, thus laying the foundation for later reconciliation."

France's left-wing Liberation newspaper had one regret about the dictator's death -- that he had never expressed any remorse. "It is not much to say that for four decades Pinochet has been perceived as the quintessential bastard," the paper claimed. "The memory of the prisoners in Santiago's stadium, of the disappeared and of the tortured during Pinochet's reign will not disappear with him. His natural death does not render us more indulgent but only causes the eternal regret that this man will not have been judged, this man who never expressed the slightest regret for the crimes committed in his name. When he went to London in 1998, he came close to justice but the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon's efforts to call him to account were in vain. … The fact that Chile is run by Michelle Bachelet, a socialist and the daughter of one of Pinochet's victims, is an optimistic symbol and an ultimate act of revenge against the dictator."

British center-right broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph, was less inclined to judge the former dictator, conceding that he had been "responsible … for the widespread torture and murder of his political enemies," but lauding the fact that he had "saved his country from communism and created the most successful economy in Latin America."


In the end, however, it was the economy that led to the ex-general's undoing. Not tried for the crimes committed under his dictatorship, he was punished for his financial transactions.

Britain's left-leaning newspaper The Guardian wrote that his supporters had continued to have faith in him despite international criticism of his brutality and lack of remorse. "Their disillusionment did not come until Pinochet's corruption came to light as a piece of collateral damage in the war on terror: scrutiny of suspected funds for terrorism uncovered secret bank accounts. The mythical upright soldier was discovered to have salted away a sum one judge estimated at $28 million (21 million euros). Like Al Capone, Pinochet was finally called to account by the tax man."

The Spanish daily El Mundo followed the same argument, writing that "Augusto Pinochet had opened the darkest chapter in Chile's history with his 1973 putsch. The president Salvador Allende might have made mistakes but there was not the slightest justification for the coup. When it was revealed one and a half years ago that Pinochet had managed to smuggle millions out of the country, the ex-general lost all credibility among the few supporters who had stuck around. Pinochet was a cruel ruler without moral scruples. … He had delusions of grandeur. Pinochet will go down in history as a nasty piece of work who badly damaged his country."

Finally, Italy's center paper Corriere della Serra argued that in a 1970s Latin America ridden with tyrants, Pinochet had topped them all, concluding that his death left it up to Chileans themselves to shape their future. Pinochet "was for most western democracies, the worst of the tyrants … the most revolting man of the southern hemisphere. And the list of accusations was long … There is a significant difference between a living and a dead tyrant. The living tyrant has to be criticized and fought. Whereas the dead one has to be put into a historical context and, as much as is possible, he needs to be explained. … Once the coffin has been shut, it will perhaps be easier. But it's the Chileans, and not us, who will write the last chapter in this Latin American story."