Pinochet and State Terror
The death of Chilean dictator Augosto Pinochet reminds us that most terror is not committed by Muslim malcontents or the Michigan militia or other right-wing freelancers. Rather, it is committed by states, and they almost always get away with it.
Pinochet seized power illegally with the connivance of the United States and remained in power nearly two decades, murdering more than 3,000 and terrorizing countless hundreds of thousands more. He enriched himself to the tune of $30 million. He was never punished for these crimes. He was coddled by the U.S. when we were also coddling the Argentine junta among others in Latin America, all of which committed similar brutality against their people. The likes of Jeane Kirkpatrick lionized these psychopaths and gave them legitimacy in the eyes of the powerful here, though most Europeans knew better.
Latin America was not alone in this, of course. The numbers of thugs in governing palaces comprise a long list, supported by this or that great power, stealing the nation's treasure and foreign assistance, sometimes going overboard and bullying neighbors, as Noreiga and Saddam did. But plenty more got away with it, from the Duvaliers to Mobutu to Botha to Zia to Pol Pot to many many more. Popular movements--usually opposed by Nixon or Reagan or whomever was in the White House--finally brought them down. But much bloodshed was spilled, and many millions lived in daily fear, the kind of terrorism only a state can exact.
Is it any wonder that Latin America, including Chile, has turned to the political left after so many years of right-wing brutality? What is remarkable, in fact, is that Latinos have been able to make these democratic transitions on their own, without violence. State terror breeds a culture of violence that then can often be visited upon successor states of all stripes, as we see in other parts of the world--Congo, Pakistan, Iraq.
The global war on terror, if it had any meaning, would attempt to undo--nonviolently--the pillars of state terror that threaten and imprison and torture and murder more than any non-state group has ever done or will ever do. That means, first and foremost, not supporting such criminals in the first place.
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