Dutchy wrote:

and distract from the Russian angle.........

Dutchy wrote:

and distract from the Russian angle.........

pvjin wrote:

Sounds good, Venezuela could have a real potential under somebody like Pinochet, somebody with authority to root out all the corruption in the country and rationalize the economy.

Human rights violations[edit]
See also: Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–90) § Human rights violations, and Human rights violations in Pinochet's Chile
Pinochet's regime was responsible for various human rights abuses during its reign, including murder and torture of political opponents. According to a government commission report that included testimony from more than 30,000 people, Pinochet's government killed at least 3,197 people and tortured about 29,000. Two-thirds of the cases listed in the report happened in 1973.[145]

Professor Clive Foss, in The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption (Quercus Publishing 2006), estimates that 1,500–2,000 Chileans were killed or "disappeared" during the Pinochet regime. In October 1979, the New York Times reported that Amnesty International had documented the disappearance of approximately 1,500 Chileans since 1973.[146] Among the killed and disappeared during the military regime were at least 663 Marxist MIR guerrillas.[147] The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, however, has stated that only 49 FPMR guerrillas were killed but hundreds detained and tortured.[148] According to a study in Latin American Perspectives,[149] at least 200,000 Chileans (about 2% of Chile's 1973 population) were forced to go into exile. Additionally, hundreds of thousands left the country in the wake of the economic crises that followed the military coup during the 1970s and 1980s.[149] Some of the key individuals who fled because of political persecution were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the framework of Operation Condor, which linked South American military dictatorships together against political opponents.

According to Peter Kornbluh in The Pinochet File, "routine sadism was taken to extremes" in the prison camps. The rape of women was common, including sexual torture such as the insertion of rats into genitals and "unnatural acts involving dogs." Detainees were forcibly immersed in vats of urine and excrement. Beatings with gun butts, fists and chains were routine; one technique known as "the telephone" involved the torturer slamming "his open hands hard and rhythmically against the ears of the victim," leaving the person deaf. At Villa Grimaldi, prisoners were dragged into the parking lot and had the bones in their legs crushed as they were run over with trucks. Some died from torture; prisoners were beaten with chains and left to die from internal injuries.[150] Following abuse and execution, corpses were interred in secret graves, dropped into rivers or the ocean, or just dumped on urban streets in the night. The body of the renowned Chilean singer, theatre director and academic Víctor Jara was found in a dirty canal "with his hands and face extremely disfigured" and with "forty-four bullet holes."[151]

The practice of murdering political opponents via "death flights", employed by the juntas of Argentina and Chile, has been the subject of numerous alt-right internet memes, with the suggestion that progressive political enemies be given "free helicopter rides."[152]

Scandals: secret bank accounts, tax evasion, and arms deal

Documentation of some of Pinochet's many United States bank accounts.
In 2004, a United States Senate money laundering investigation led by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Norm Coleman (R-MN)—ordered in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks—uncovered a network of over 125 securities and bank accounts at Riggs Bank and other U.S. financial institutions used by Pinochet and his associates for twenty-five years to secretly move millions of dollars.[124] Though the subcommittee was charged only with investigating compliance of financial institutions under the USA PATRIOT Act, and not the Pinochet regime, Senator Coleman noted:

This is a sad, sordid tale of money laundering involving Pinochet accounts at multiple financial institutions using alias names, offshore accounts, and close associates. As a former General and President of Chile, Pinochet was a well-known human rights violator and violent dictator.

Critics argue the neoliberal economic policies of the Pinochet regime resulted in widening inequality and deepening poverty as they negatively impacted the wages, benefits and working conditions of Chile's working class.[68][69] According to Chilean economist Alejandro Foxley, by the end of Pinochet's reign around 44% of Chilean families were living below the poverty line.[70] According to The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, by the late 1980s the economy had stabilized and was growing, but around 45% of the population had fallen into poverty while the wealthiest 10% saw their incomes rise by 83%.[71]

Dutchy wrote:

Quite an achevement and certainly somthing to follow, can see this would do a world of good for Venezuela, good catch. Back to school for you......

According to Chilean economist Alejandro Foxley, by the end of Pinochet's reign around 44% of Chilean families were living below the poverty line

pvjin wrote:

Whatever, he did his fair share of nasty things but at least he got the Chilean economy to run very well, which ultimately led to much better standards of living for all Chilean people.

pvjin wrote:

What is the use of this info without knowing how many of them were living before poverty line before Pinochet took power? It's a fact Chilean economy was in ruins before he took power, just like Venezuelan economy today. Chances are many more would have been living in poverty without Pinochet.