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More on Pinochet

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     Like Chileans themselves, WAISers are sharply divided about Chile. For some, Pinochet is a criminal who must be tried before an international court. For others, he and his fellow officers saved Chile from Allende's plan to imitate Castro´s Cuba. WAISer James Wheelan, an authority on Chile, has retreated to a mountain cave to finish his book on Pinochet.
     The Ford Foundation is very Third World conscious, and conservatives accuse it of bias. It supports Derechos Chile, a news service in Spanish and English which is administered by an organization called the Santiago Times. Its online site is www.derechoschile.com . It gives a chronology of the Pinochet dictatorship from 1973 to 1990 and testimony from some of its victims. It is doubtful that it will find much good to say about the Pinochet regime or about the reasons for the coup, but we plan to monitor the site.
     The Ford Foundation has also given $268,000 to the Universidad Alberto Hurtado for research on conflict and reconciliation in Chilean political history. This is a Jesuit university named after a father, now deceased, who is famous in Chile for his work among the poor. Although some rightists view the Jesuits with suspicion, my impression is that the research will be even handed.

Ronald Hilton - 06/28/99

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