Single mother tortured by Pinochet set for presidency

Times
From Hannah Hennessy in Santiago



A WOMAN who was tortured by Augusto Pinochet’s secret police in the 1970s is expected to become the next president of Chile.

With the elections due a week on Sunday, Michelle Bachelet is leading her two closest rivals by about 20 percentage points. Victory would confirm Señora Bachelet as the country’s first woman president and only the second in Latin America after Isabel Perón, the third wife of the former president of Argentina, Juan Perón.

A socialist, a single parent and agnostic, Señora Bachelet defies stereotypes in a country still steeped in macho traditions, where there are relatively few high-ranking businesswomen and female politicians, and where divorce was legalised only last year.

Yet the 54-year-old paediatrician has proved adept at winning over her critics. Not only did she succeed, as Defence Secretary, in gaining the trust of her commanders-in-chief, but she also won over millions of ordinary people in this Catholic, conservative nation that stretches almost 2,700 miles from the desert that borders Peru south through the Andes towards Antarctica.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1901772,00.html

will be Brazil's next president. I've been reading about her and she sounds wonderful. I wish we could come up with a wonderful candidate.

...away from the American neocons. Hooray!!!

5 in the morning! Thanks for the correction...I knew that! :)

for us all. From bush to an actual thinking, empathic human being for President.

I DO help she wins. Exactly the type needed to lead...particularly in that area of the world. Actually anywhere. More women leaders WILL change the world, I do believe.

for fraud/tax evasion/passport fraud charges to be heard in the Chilean High Court.

AND his old holocaust-denier chum David Irving is in the Viennese slammer awaiting prosecution for repeating those pesky holocaust denials in Autria....

AND Conrad Black is on $20 million bail for fraud/theft charges brought aout by Patrick Fitzgerald.

GOOD run up to Christmas so far....

The song heard round the world as Patrick Fitzgerald leads the charge against the high level coruption of major world leaders. Pray for him daily. Hope he has enough body guards.

If Fitzie ever decides to run for the WH he can have my vote.

to those charges too! Yep, it beginning to look a lot like Fitzman, everywhere I go :trala trala music notes:

by the very monster _Bush's Republican President Nixon thrust into power?

She knows how American Republican Presidents work, how much respect they have for progressive politics, and how unconcerned they are with the pain and grief they inflict trying to destroy people they believe are in their road.

American Republicans still love Pinochet, the man who had her seized and tortured. From the article:

Señora Bachelet was a politically active 21-year-old medical student when General Pinochet seized power from the left-wing president Salvador Allende in a coup on September 11, 1973. Months later her father, an air force general, was arrested and accused of working with the Allende Government. He died of a heart attack after being tortured by his colleagues.

Señora Bachelet and her mother were also abducted and taken to Villa Grimaldi, the notorious detention centre where thousands of Chileans were tortured. They survived and in 1975 were sent in exile to Australia and later East Germany.
(snip)

She is a fine, fine presence to see coming forward in Latin America. I hope the American President will develope some decency and let her go about her business without interfering, but what ARE the chances that will happen?



Michelle Bachelet

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Click on image~



Pinochet and Bush.

secrets are about to come out in the open as the Chileans prosecute him for fraud, tax fraud and passport fraud, and laundering some $18 million from the UK.

Also linked are nearly 20 years payments from a slush fund run by UK's British Aerospace - the national armsdealing company that Thatcher operated on behalf of the Saudis.

I guess the chances she will ever be formally challenged legally for her aiding and abetting this super-criminal are nil and it's a real shame she'll get by with it.

I, a "pinko-commie-socialist symp", am happy to see the new left rising from the ashes of the secret wars of the 80's.

for trial) because the moderate goverment in power in Chile at the time said that if Pinochet went to Spain there'd be a backlash that would revive Pinochet's conservative politial allies. The government argued to the British and the Americans that if he went back to Chile, Chile could take care of the situation while also allowing the society to continue its slow march to the left.

It looks like that's what is happening. Not only is Chile slowly bringing Pinochet to justice in a way that doesn't energize the far right, but they are marching to the left politically in a way that is winning broad support from the public.

Looks good, huh?

This is actually the path that Chile was on during the JFK years and during the Allende years. Kissinger took them off the trajectory. But after a chaotic and bloody thirty years, they're getting back to where they were before the US intervened with the inevitable arc of justice.

trial on him....

of the candidate the article could come up with mentions that she's a single parent? Is that at all relevant given her other qualifications?

to the fundie extremists would believe it's a legitimate part of a news story.

Sounds like a sneaky attempt to inspire right-wing nutsos to disrespect her by offering them personal gossip.

someone who has the energy and strength to raise a family on her own get points from me.

Chile is going to get a single mother for prez? WTF? Pakistan has had a female leader. Lots of 3rd world countries have. But in America we can't get a female elected to be prez even if she's married to her high school sweetheart and was a virgin when she gave birth to a perfect blond, blue-eyed boy and girl. :eyes:

edited for typo.

:woohoo:

A "Ding Dong Pinochet is dead" party at a time to be announced.

That'll be a happy day

A Chilean appeals court Friday turned down a request by lawyers for Gen. Augusto Pinochet to release him from house arrest or drop human rights charges against him, the latest in a string of defeats for the aging former dictator.

A panel of the Santiago Court of Appeals voted 3-0 to reject the requests on behalf of the 90-year-old former ruler, Court President Juan Escobar said.

Pinochet's chief lawyer, Pablo Rodriguez, had refused to argue his case before the panel, saying a last-minute replacement of one of its members was "a manipulation" intended to harm Pinochet. Rodriguez said he will now take the case before the Supreme Court.

--------------------------
The rights charges came on the heels of Pinochet's indictment for tax evasion and corruption stemming from multimillion-dollar accounts he owns in banks overseas.

The overseas accounts were first reported in a U.S. Senate investigation of Riggs Bank in Washington, where Pinochet kept $8 million. Other accounts have since been discovered in Britain and other countries. Pinochet's lawyers say the money consists of legitimate donations, savings and investments proceeds.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2005/12/02/ap2366428.html

He'll never know what being tortured to death, or tortured, then dropped from an airplane or helicopter into the ocean does both to the victem and to his/her loved ones.

Next trick is the announcement of yet another unexpected HEALTH PROBLEM.

Karma's going to get this monster some day. I hope it's soon. Nixon and Kissinger's right-wing, blood-thirsty dictator has enjoyed too much of the world's indulgence.

Chile's Bachelet's lead narrows in IPSOS poll
Thursday, December 01, 2005 2:58 p.m. ET

By Rodrigo Martinez

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Just over a week before Chile's presidential election, front-runner Michelle Bachelet's lead has narrowed and polls published on Thursday showed she faces a stronger than expected challenge from the right.

The survey by opinion poll and market study group IPSOS said Bachelet had 39 percent support ahead of the December 11 vote, almost 10 percentage points lower than in the previous IPSOS poll in September.

The result matched a poll from Chile's Political Studies Center, or CEP, published on November 15, that also gave Bachelet 39 percent support, down from 45 percent in September.
(snip)

(Important point which applies to many Latin American and Caribbean polls, from the article:)

Navia said the IPSOS poll, which is conducted by telephone, may overrepresent votes for Hirsch, who has more support among higher-income voters, and underrepresent votes for Bachelet and Lavin, who have higher support among lower-income voters who are less likely to have a phone.
(snip/)

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1124921&tw=wn_wire_story