Pinochet Is Having the Last Laugh

Sifting the results from this past Sunday’s Chilean presidential elections, it seems that former dictator Augusto Pinochet may yet get the last laugh. Yes, the aging tyrant has been under house arrest for 14 months in London battling extradition to Spain for crimes against humanity. But his former political collaborators, apologists and heirs won a stunning electoral victory when their presidential candidate forced Chile’s ruling coalition into an unprecedented runoff vote next month.

Joaquin Lavin, a longtime Pinochet advocate and advisor--and most recently the mayor of Chile’s wealthiest enclave--took an unexpected 47.5% of the vote. That’s less than a half-percentage point behind Socialist Ricardo Lagos, the candidate of the ruling center-left coalition, the Concertacion, which has governed Chile since Pinochet left power in 1990.

Many observers are scratching their heads asking how, just at the moment when the old dictator is about to be thrown into history’s dumpster, his supporters and allies can fare well enough to be an even bet to win the runoff. The answer: The Concertacion coalition that forced the dictator from office in a 1988 plebiscite has squandered a crucial decade by failing to build a clear and full democratic alternative to the previous military regime.

The two succeeding elected Concertacion governments, including the incumbent administration of President Eduardo Frei, have been more committed to consolidating the dog-eat-dog free market economic system put in place by Pinochet than in completing any credible transition to full democracy. So while paying lip service for the last 10 years to the ideals of greater social justice, Chile’s governing coalition has presided over a radical capitalist model that, while generating impressive macroeconomic growth, has created one of the most unequal and brutally competitive societies on Earth.

Bereft of any modern labor or environmental protection, tormented by privatized and wildly dysfunctional health and education systems and insulted by a Congress still clogged with unelected senators (including, no less, Senator-For-Life Augusto Pinochet), many ordinary Chileans no longer felt compelled to give the Concertacion another six-year term.

Challenger Lavin’s coalition consists of the pro-Pinochet parties that represent Chile’s wealthy elite. But he nevertheless campaigned as a populist, promising jobs, housing and health care under the slogan of “It’s Time For A Change.” Lagos meekly countered with the focus-group-driven slogan of “Growth With Equality.” But Lagos’ errors transcend clunky jingles and inept political positioning. They are the result of a decade’s worth of cowardice on the part of the Concertacion to directly confront Pinochet, his crimes and his collaborators.

Lavin, who had been a crass propagandist for Pinochet during the 1980s, would have been rendered politically radioactive if Lagos had forcefully tied the dictator’s bloody legacy to him. But given the Concertacion’s long-established record of avoiding the still-unresolved human rights questions in this country, that would have been way too much to expect.

Indeed, when Pinochet was arrested in London for the thousands of political assassinations, kidnappings and systematic torture that marked his 17-year rule, Chileans were exposed to the ghastly spectacle of their supposedly anti-Pinochet government clamoring for the liberation of the jailed dictator. Lagos cynically called for Pinochet to be returned to Chile to stand trial at home, knowing full well that the dictator is protected by an amnesty law he imposed before leaving office.

Polls at the time showed that two-thirds of Chileans agreed that Pinochet should be punished for his crimes. But Chile’s “democratic” government flatly refused to join the rest of the world in supporting the prosecution of the tyrant.

The Concertacion and Lagos’ rollover on Pinochet was a gross and perhaps fatal misstep. Not able to promise any substantial relief from the excesses of the Pinochet-designed economic system, the government and its candidate further eliminated themselves as a credible moral refuge from the stench of Pinochet.

The message to Chile was unmistakable: Vote for us or vote for the Pinochetistas and, really, it will matter very little either way. That’s exactly what the Chilean people did on Sunday, giving Lagos and Lavin an almost identical number of votes. And no doubt bringing at least a temporary smile to the wrinkled lips of the decrepit dictator in London.