Sunday 8 August 2010

Repression and hypocrisy in Chile

Mote in the neighbor’s eye
Source: Granma, 6 August 2010.
by Nidia Diaz.


A well-known and old saying warns, "Don’t marry or set sail on Tuesday the 13th," but it would seem that a large group of Chilean senators do not believe in such superstitions, given that, on July 13, they passed two motions which demonstrate present-day Chile’s unusual position, and both of them directed at pontificating on issues of democracy and human rights.

The first of them calls on President Sebastián Piñeira to demand a "more vigilant attitude" from the international agencies regarding the upcoming elections in Venezuela this September 26, as well as to back what they euphemistically and cynically describe as "the process of democratic consolidation in Honduras." In two words, to recognize the regime of Porfirio Lobo, who inherited the de facto dictatorship of Roberto Micheletti and, of course, to join ranks with the regional and pro-U.S. right in their dirty campaigns against Bolivarian Venezuela.