Chile Elections Up for Grabs

Chile Elections Up for Grabs

Santiago de Chile, Dec 11 (Prensa Latina)

Eight million Chileans are expected at the polls today, Sunday, in a heated climate -both temperature and politics- in only the fourth presidential election post the Pinochet dictatorship.

No one doubts that the governing party´s Michelle Bachelet will get more than 40 percent of the votes, the problem is how much more. In Chile, as in most countries outside the US, if a candidate does not get more than 50 percent there must be a second round.

And here lies the rub in Chile. A second round would be between only two candidates and Sebastian Pinera, the millionaire RN (Renovacion Nacional) candidate would probably pull in all the rightwing and center votes while Bachelet cannot be so certain of the left.

Charismatic Tomas Hirsch, of progressive Junto Podemos, has run an excellent campaign and expects to win at least 10 percent, but no one knows if he will support Bachelet.

Meanwhile rightwing Concertacion, which candidate Joaquin Lavin´s personal star has fallen in recent years, expects to get a majority in Congress, which might put Lavin against Bachelet in the second round, a plus for her side.

PRENSA LATINA

who lost her father to a Nixon-backed Pinochet takeover in which he was simply tortured to death, a woman who lost her significant other through a Pinochet kidnapping and "disappearance," who was imprisoned, along with her mother.

Father Accused of Helping Allende

The 1973-1990 Pinochet government killed approximately 3,000 Chileans. Many of them, including Bachelet's boyfriend, simply "disappeared" and their bodies have never been located.

Bachelet's father Alberto, a general in the Chilean Air Force, was accused of working with the socialist Allende government. He was tortured by his colleagues until his heart collapsed. He died in a public prison cell.

Bachelet's mother, Angela Jeria, was kidnapped together with her daughter and locked in a cage for five days without food. Their cellmates were raped by guards.

"You can't just say that she was held for 30 days. It was 30 days of total fear," said Lira. "Rape was frequent. Plus the punches, sexual abuse, denigration.
They had very long interrogations and the use of electric current was common. You had to listen to the others being tortured."

Thanks to their family connections to top military officials, Bachelet and her mother were spared death.
Instead they were beaten, then exiled to Australia with orders not to re-enter Chile. Bachelet, ever the rebel, quickly helped organize Socialist Party resistance groups and secretly planned her return to Chile.
(snip/)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=9160



Alberto Bachelet

How would he have fared in her father's place, or her loved one's place? Maybe he could have spun himself a cloak of invisibility with his spidery hands, and sneaked out, just as did _Bush-protected bomber/mass murderer Luis Posada Carriles, wearing a priest's gown, past the CANF-bribed Venezuelan prison guards.

Salvador Allende, and bring in Pinochet, who had her dad thrown into a torture center and tortured to death.

I SEE! I would be nervous around her, too, if I had helped in this massive crime!

I don't have time to look longer now, but I started suspecting Rumsfeld could have been involved with Nixon, since I've seen photos of him in the Oval Office with Gerald Ford and Cheney.

My first look for Nixon and Rumsfeld got this:

Rumsfeld, a congressman from Ill., helps Nixon win and becomes director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, an unpopular liberal program which he ends up vigorously supporting. He is ambitious and has many enemies, but finds a mentor in Nixon.
(snip/...)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/pentagon/paths/

Also, from that site:

Audio: Rumsfeld and Nixon: caught on tape
In 1971, Rumsfeld went to his mentor, President Nixon, for advice on his political future. Their conversation was caught on Nixon's numerous secret White House audiotapes. Click here to hear, or read, the discussion between Nixon and his young assistant:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/pentagon/paths/audio.html

Resultado parcial de las elecciones
por las elecciones pasan los problemas quedan Sunday, Dec. 11, 2005 at 5:06 PM


Resultados parciales de las elecciones presidenciales escrutadas el 12,,70% de los votos validamente emitidos

Sebastian Piñera 26,73%
Michelle Bachelet 44,76%
Tomas Hirsch 4,96%
Joaquin Lavin 23,52%

http://santiago.indymedia.org/news/2005/12/41934.php

I tried earlier and got zip. It looks so good at the moment. Hope it continues.

Socialist Bachelet's lead strengthens in Chile vote
Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:42 PM ET

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Socialist Michelle Bachelet saw her lead strengthen in Chile's presidential elections on Sunday to 45.68 percent of the vote, based on a count of more than half of returns.

Bachelet, who will become Chile's first woman president if she wins, did not look likely to grab the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a run-off in January against the second place contender.

The tally by the government Electoral Service showed rightist candidate Sebastian Pinera was contesting second place with 25.83 percent of the votes counted.

Joaquin Lavin, another candidate from Chile's divided right, was close behind Pinera with 23.32 percent.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-12-11T234210Z_01_MAR185279_RTRUKOC_0_US-CHILE-ELECTION-TALLY.xml&archived=False

She's one step away from being named a bomb-tossing Bolshevik, by golly!

Say "socialist" to any American, and you will get a Pavlovian reaction.

How about saying that a victim of Nixon/Kissinger/Pinochet's coup against democratically elected Salvador Allende is poised to become the first woman President of Chile? But noooo, the corporate American media has to elicit the Pavlovian response on its readers.

to the Pavlovian right-wing too much, are they?

Socialist Mom to Face Millionaire in Chile

By EDUARDO GALLARDO
Associated Press Writer

December 12, 2005, 9:30 AM EST


SANTIAGO, Chile -- A Socialist single mother will face a conservative millionaire in a presidential runoff next month after failing to win an outright majority in her bid to become Chile's first female leader.

Michelle Bachelet easily defeated two feuding right-wing candidates with 46 percent of the vote, but fell shy of the 50 percent needed for victory. She is aligned with President Ricardo Lagos' ruling coalition that has governed Chile since the 1990 collapse of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship.

Opinion polls during the campaign have indicated Bachelet would likely triumph in any runoff scenario, making her Latin America's fourth elected female leader. But her opponents have vowed to join forces to defeat her.

Her closest rival, Sebastian Pinera, trailed with 25 percent of the vote, according to returns announced by the government. The third main candidate, economist Joaquin Lavin, got 23 percent.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-chile-election,0,1642386.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

I expect Bush's Black Mamba, Condi Rice, to start issuing threats to Chile if they elect Bachelet, and she will be followed by Rumsfeld reviewing US troops in Paraguay. Their script is so predictable!

Hope you win it