Augusto Pinochet

Gen. Augusto Pinochet is described as a grandfatherly visionary or a menacing thug (Nov. 27). Grandfatherly? Yes. A menacing thug? Yes. But a visionary? How can a fascist be a visionary?

In 1973, President Salvador Allende, trusting Pinochet, named him army commander. Pinochet led a coup, overthrew Allende and set up a junta, which gave way to his one-man rule. His state-sponsored repression, torture and murders claimed 3,000 lives and sent thousands of people into exile.

A team of University of Chicago economists helped Chile to achieve a growth rate of 7%. The poor and the middle class did not benefit from this free-market economy. When Pinochet ruled, he once said that Chile was an “authoritarian democracy.” Authoritarian? Yes. Democracy? Never.

DON RADEMACHER

Glendale

* Last year, a Spanish magistrate opened an investigation of Pinochet and other members of the junta that staged the 1973 coup. The charges are: crimes against humanity, international terrorism and genocide. The U.S. Justice Department has offered full cooperation in the probe, directed by Spanish Judge Garcia Castellon.

The accusation alleges that Pinochet ordered activities that fall under the Nuremburg laws, including extraterritorial assassinations of Orlando Letelier in Washington, in 1976, in which Ronni Moffitt, a U.S. citizen, also died; Gen. Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires in 1974; and the shooting of Bernardo Leighton and his wife in Rome in 1975. The complaint alleges that Pinochet had full knowledge of the mass killings and torture done by his secret police.

If Castellon finds sufficient evidence to support the charges, he will demand Pinochet appear in Spain to testify. Refusal to appear will result in an extradition order. Under Spain’s legal treaty with Chile, extradition can be refused only if Chile agrees to try the defendant on the same charges.

SAUL LANDAU

Pomona

* Chilean patriots (murdered and exiled) deserve better. What’s next? “Hitler Remembered: Nazi or Kindly Patriarch?”

MARQUE and LORNA NEAL

Los Angeles