![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Pinochet
Ever since the news came in I've been going round singing Holly Near's "Hay una Muhjer Desaparecida" to myself.
Pinochet got away with what Saddam Hussein is going to be hanged for. He was a fascist dictator, a mass murderer, a torturer and- as is now coming to light- a thief. I guess it all depends on who your friends are.
Reagan's CIA put him in power. Mrs Thatcher feted him. The Spanish wanted to put him on trial but Jack Straw (afraid of what- Mrs T's handbag?) sent him home to the bosom of his family.
The news channels had looped film of him as a dim, smiling, balloon-man being helped in and out of wheelchairs and armchairs and taking tea (or was it whisky?) with Mrs T. Nothing about his demeanour suggests that he ever spent a sleepless night in his life. What a pity he didn't die in jail.
Pinochet got away with what Saddam Hussein is going to be hanged for. He was a fascist dictator, a mass murderer, a torturer and- as is now coming to light- a thief. I guess it all depends on who your friends are.
Reagan's CIA put him in power. Mrs Thatcher feted him. The Spanish wanted to put him on trial but Jack Straw (afraid of what- Mrs T's handbag?) sent him home to the bosom of his family.
The news channels had looped film of him as a dim, smiling, balloon-man being helped in and out of wheelchairs and armchairs and taking tea (or was it whisky?) with Mrs T. Nothing about his demeanour suggests that he ever spent a sleepless night in his life. What a pity he didn't die in jail.
no subject
Just as you began singing "Hay una mujer desaparecida" when you heard the news I began humming "Te recuerdo Amanda" by Victor Jara, whose fingers Pinochet ordered cut off so he would never play a guitar again...before silencing him forever.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject