We remember Chile’s Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006)

Augusto Pinochet was born in Valparaiso, Chile, on this day in 1915.  He died in 2006.

Many of us remember Pinochet as the man who saved Chile from misguided socialism and created the most successful economy in Latin America.

Some of us are old enough to remember what Allende did to Chile or the country that Pinochet inherited.

By the summer of 1973, Chile was a disaster. It was pure economic chaos. To be sure, Allende had gone too far and most Chileans were scared.

In other words, Allende was not the romantic figure that the anti-US left created. He was an incompetent leader who started a leftist revolution in a country that did not vote for one.

On September 11, 1973, Pinochet overthrew Allende.

Pinochet quickly moved to fix the Chilean economy. In fact, he presided over an economic miracle. Pinochet inherited triple digit inflation and left an economy that is the envy of the continent.

Later, he brought in Milton Friedman’s “The Chicago Boys.” They cut spending, privatized public enterprises, provided generous incentives for foreign investors, deregulated the banks, lowered trade barriers, and promoted exports.

It worked. Chile has been the best economy in Latin America for many! No one disputes that!

Did Pinochet make mistakes? Yes. Were human rights violated? Yes.

At the same time, he walked away in 1988 after a national referendum. He respected the people’s wishes. Did that ever happen in Cuba?

Latin America has had a lot of bad leaders. Pinochet was not one of them! In fact, I would argue that Pinochet ranks rather high compared with his contemporaries: Fidel & Raul Castro; Mexico’s disastrous Echeverria, and the corrupt Lopez-Portillo; Venezuela’s irresponsible Carlos Andres Perez and the Hugo Chavez disaster still ongoing; and some of the juntas that governed other South American countries.

In sum, Chile could have done a lot worse than Pinochet!

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