Se murió!

For many it was justice finally being realized. General Augusto Pinochet died on Sunday at the age of 91. Some newspapers diplomatically describe him as "having ruled Chile with an iron fist between 1973 and 1989." But he was a military dictator, he was not democratically elected, and under his reign thousands of people were tortured, killed, or "disappeared".

It seemed really weird when all of a sudden, a couple of weeks ago, at 91 years of age, Pinochet publicly declared himself responsable for all the human rights abuses which took place while he was in power. I mean, he had been previously tried in international courts for similar things, but had walked for reasons of ill health or mental instability. Why would he admit responsability now? We were sure he must be about to die.

And he did. No sooner had my Chilean friend Alejandro and I logged into our accounts at the internet cafe on Sunday afternoon when his Messenger account started overflowed with messages from family and friends exclaming: "¡Se murió!" ( He's dead!) We watched images on Chilean TV of impromptu parties involing thousands and thousands of people in the streets of Santiago, of people celebrating the fact that though the courts hadn't been able to do it, some kind of justice had finally been carried out.

But we also saw images of people mourning Pinochet's death. Carrying candles and signs and pictures of "El tata", or Grandpa as he's called by his supporters, they gathered outside the Military hospital where he died. For some he's considered a great man and the father of modern Chile. They consider the internationally attested stories of human rights abuses nothing more than propaganda and that he stabilized the country's economy and saved it from ruin.

It's an issue that divides Chile to this day, though the numbers of Pinochet supporters seem to be fewer than his detractors. As exemplified in the debate over the funeral proceedings in his honour. As General and head of the military, he would receive military honours, this was for sure. But would he receive the honours usually reserved for ex-heads of state? He wasn't democratically elected, after all.

Thankfully, in my opinion, he didn't. The current President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, along with her mother, had actually been victims of torture during the dictatorship. She therefore leads a government much less friendly with the military than former presidents. How much influence she personally had in the decision to deny him military honours, I don't know. But I think major riots by anti-Pinochetistas would have broken out if the decision had gone the other way.

Though some lament the fact that someone they consider to be a murderer got to die the kind of natural death denied to so many who were killed under his regime, Pinochet's death will hopefully allow some kind of healing for a country where the repercussions of the military dictatorship are still felt to this day.

(Here's a really good article in Spanish on the whole thing.)