Augusto Pinochet, 1915-2006
Source: CNN

Chile’s former military strongman, Augusto Pinochet, has died in Providencia, Chile at age 91. Half of Chile is rioting in joy and the other half is rioting in rage. It seems about fitting, because not only did this guy do good and bad things through his life, these acts spanned extremes.

1. Pinochet is most famous for his role in the dirty war that left 3200 people dead in Chile. People were grabbed from the streets by creepy little men in grubby leather jackets and without trial, hurled into secret prisons, where many were tortured and died. Many were idealistic leftists, many were just kids, but many also were hardcore leftists, who were already robbing Chileans of their freedoms, permanently, in the name of hammer and sickle collectivism. They had already smashed property rights, allowed Cuban agents into the country to spy on Chileans, begun Marxist indoctrination, and instituted the rationing and shortages characteristic of all communist regimes. In short, they sold their country out to the Soviet Union. Pinochet stopped them, but he was a dark, menacing figure himself, wearing a vampire cape, mirrored sunglasses and lots of scrambled eggs on his uniform. He was neither a democrat nor a sympathizer to freedom.

Not a satire: Pinochet as junta leader in 1973
Source: Chas Garretson of Gamma, via Wikipedia

2. Pinochet also was the critical agent in destroying Argentina’s far bloodier dirty warriors, who murdered as many as 30,000 people, hurling many alive out of airplanes over Bahia Blanca. Britain’s great prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, who has openly expressed her sorrow at Pinochet’s passing today, offered condolences to the Pinochet family. She stood by Pinochet to the very end, because she knew of his critical role in providing the key satellite technology that ultimately won the Falklands War, a nasty invasion from Argy tinpots who, having proven their disrespect for human rights and property rights at home, moved on to conquest of other nations. That venal Argentine junta was despicable and Pinochet was their undoing. Unlike Pinochet in Chile, nobody misses those guys in Argentina.

Pinochet and Lady Thatcher, who together destroyed the Argentine junta
Source: AP, via BBC

3. Pinochet was a moron about respecting political freedoms, but did bring into being respect and understanding for economic freedoms. In this regard, he is unlike 99% of ALL Latin American leaders – spanning from democratic to dictatorial. It was an odd little ray of sunlight about him and he probably didn’t do it intentionally. Pinochet seemed to grasp that if people could have their own savings and retirement accounts, and manage them by their own choices, they would have something of value that would not be squandered. So he broke up virtually all state enterprises (except copper) in the name of free markets. And Chile’s economy has flourished ever since. Pinochet’s institution of social security reform in Chile was the most radical experiment ever conducted in the hemisphere. It still is, even the U.S. has not tried it. With cojones of steel, Pinochet was the first to test the great Milton Friedman’s great theory that individual retirement accounts are the way out of poverty. Friedman knew it would topple him and bulled ahead, knowing full well it would lay a platform for democracy to Chile that would get Pinochet booted. Net result: Chile is the most economically advanced country in Latin America. It’s so advanced it won’t even allow itself to be called ‘Latin’ anymore. It’s the great exception to the rule that all Latin American states are messes. Chile is not, and although the left will scream, this triumph also is Pinochet’s legacy.

Pinochet had little trust in democracy
Source: MSNBC Newsweek

4. Pinochet was corrupt and like all dictators, inefficient. He stole about $18 million, chicken change compared to other dictators – particularly billionaire Fidel Castro, but nevertheless money that was not his to steal. He lied about it, too, saying it was just his sound investment practices. So in this regard he was a fraud. His regime was divisive and dark. He was spiteful and tyrannical. And with people losing their freedoms, there was no market efficiency in that.

And yet, he allowed himself to be voted out of office in 1988, without leaving Chile the smoking ruin that Castro is leaving Cuba. Somehow he left the treasury full, not emptying it in the name of populism or wholesale theft. This in fact, paved the way for Chile’s democracy to grow right alongside its economic growth, both of which are functioning magnificently.

Leftists in action, shedding light on how they triggered the rise of Pinochet
Source: Santiago Llanquin of AP, via CTV

The only thing to say about this guy is that the truth, dark and light, needs to come out. He wasn’t an unalloyed villain as the left, blind to the bounty of the free market, portrays. But he is not the saint his supporters make him out to be, either.

Chile itself, in its government, seems to understand this split legacy and they are allowing Pinochet full military honors at his funeral, but not giving him a full head of state funeral. After all, there is no reason to recognize a dictatorship in a democracy. It was a solomonic decision that will contribute to the understanding that Chile’s divided nation needs to heal.