Was the regime of General Pinochet backed by US Govts?

Question

Were the military dictatorships of Bolivia , Paraguay and Uruguay , backed by US govts during the decade of 1970?

Answer 1

Not so much supported by, as INSTALLED by.

The Christopher Hitchens book 'The Trial of Henry Kissinger' is a readable account of what went on. Milton Friedman, the hero of Margaret Thatcher (who also loved Pinochet), Reagan and Bush actually went to Chile from the Chicago School of Economics to advise them on his utopian economic ideal... he was given the whole country to experiment with.

At Colonia Dignidad, a place of torture controlled by ex-Nazi Paul Shafer- run as a separatist rural 'orphanage', the CIA installed a communications base to co-ordinate Latin American anti-communist activity, while dissidents were tortured and killed. Information about Colonia Dignidad is still being revealed.

The regime in Paraguay is widely accepted as having been the most vicious and oppressive in the world in the 1970s. It existed with US military, political and economic support.

Such was the rabid fear of communism that the US government were willing to support even the most brutal regimes- those that make Saddam Hussein look like an amateur. The fact that the vast majority of Americans are ignorant of these activities goes some way to explaining their bewilderment at the rest of the world's cynicism at their foreign policies. When Pinochet dies last year, right-wingers were still willing to go on CNN to argue he was a hero.

Answer 2

Pinochet's government received tacit approval and material support from the United States. The exact nature and extent of this support is disputed.

Answer 3

Yes. They backed any tyrant as long as they opposed socialism and gave the american corporations a free hand.