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11/22/2004:

"50,000 Say "No to the Dictatorship of the Market"Why They Hate Bush in Chile"

By Roger Burbach
Fifty thousand demonstrators greeted George Bush on his arrival in Santiago Chile for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting of twenty-one Pacific Rim nations. The largest and most militant demonstration since the dictatorship of General August Pinochet, the protestors called for an end to neo-liberal free trade agreements like those advanced by the APEC leaders. The demonstrators carried banners proclaiming "No to the dictatorship of the market" and asserted that trade accords drive workers and peasants into a "race to the bottom."

The ire of many protestors centered on Bush and the war in Iraq. Chants of "Terrorist Bush," and " Bush, Fascist, Thief, Murder!" rang through the air. While the demonstrations were overwhelmingly peaceful, groups of anarchists, punks and others broke away from the main march to vandalize a McDonald's restaurant and corporate stores. About 200 people were arrested and over 25 injured.

Bush, on his first trip outside the United States since the elections, found another unwanted answer to the question he posed in the aftermath of 9/11: "Why do they hate us?" It is certainly not for "our freedoms" as Bush inanely asserts. Aside from the war in Iraq, many protestors in Chile are deeply hostile because the United States backed a military coup on September 11, 1973 that took away their freedoms. It deposed the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and marked the beginning of a seventeen year dictatorship. One banner stated: "US Terrorist State: The First September 11." A common refrain of demonstrators who want no further US meddling in their affairs proclaimed: "Bush, listen, Chile is not for sale."

More than three thousand people perished in the aftermath of the coup, another 35,000 were imprisoned and tortured. With the acquiescence of the CIA and the cooperation of military regimes in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, the Pinochet dictatorship set up an international terrorist network, Operation Condor, that targeted opponents throughout the world. Prior to the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the most sensational terrorist act in Washington D.C. took place in 1976 when Orlando Letelier, a leading Chilean opponent of the Pinochet regime, died when a bomb was detonated in his car just blocks from the White House. A young assistant, Ronnie Moffit, was killed along with him.
Full Article: counterpunch.org