If anyone wants to more about this, definitely check out Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. And if you can get the unabridged version, definitely go for that. The abridged version is missing a lot of very interesting (and awful) stuff.
When Pinochet got into power, the first thing he and his administration did (after killing Saldavor Allende, of course) was turn the nation’s biggest soccer arena into a live torture chamber and killing field. Evidently the place was filled with massive amounts of blood even after just the first day. And that was to demonstrate the horror yet to come.
However, most people that died weren’t officially executed by the state. They were tortured, however. The main killer was hunger. People who had been able to afford food under Allende all of a sudden couldn’t. And, since this was all done with the blessings of people like Milton Friedman (whose parents owned a sweatshop), any programs to help people afford food and shelter were gone. The biggest torture of the Pinochet regime was for people to have to watch their families starve to death. Mothers started feeding their babies maté because it is an appetite suppressant, lest they never stop crying.
And of course people fought this. Many people also disappeared. A wonderful (and also horrific) piece from this time period is Sting’s They Dance Alone, about the women who would get together and dance partner dances alone with pictures of their missing fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons. Of course women disappeared as well, and of course much less is known about them.
But, yeah, talk about how wonderful it was, Andrew. Please, tell us all about it. Because anybody who actually knows the history of this and was around to remember the headlines knows different. You are a schill and your disgusting article is absolutely shameful to the memories of the departed.