Chile's Military Is Back In Vogue

DICTATOR General Augusto Pinochet took power in a 1973 coup that ousted the socialist government of Salvador Allende. Illustration by The New York Times, photograph by Claudia Daut/Reuters

After the Earthquake, a Military Chile Can Love Again -- The New York Times

At Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s funeral, one of his grandsons, an Army captain also named Augusto Pinochet, gave a eulogy so defiant and aggressive that he was cashiered the next day. Earlier, as the general lay in state in his dress uniform and Chileans filed by his casket to pay their last respects, the grandson of another general, assassinated by Pinochet’s secret police, spat on the former dictator’s cadaver full in the face.

That was barely three years ago, and it suggested that the ghost of General Pinochet, who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990 and continued as army commander until 1998, would be hard to exorcise. But the scenes of Chileans’ embracing soldiers who aided in rescue and reconstruction efforts after the huge earthquake last month make all that divisiveness seem an eternity ago.

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My Comment: If history is any indication, in times of crisis the military is usually looked upon as a savior .... for Chile, this is a welcome and refreshing change.